Using CSS border-radius to Create Rounded Corners

One of the ways to add a sleek, modern aesthetic to your website design is through the use of rounded corners on your layout. Rounded corners can be implemented fairly easily using a CSS property known as border-radius. This property allows you to add rounded borders to an HTML element, creating a more polished and softer visual appearance.

To create rounded corners in CSS, this is the syntax you would use:

element {
  border-radius: 5px;
}

In the CSS rule above, element is the selector where you want to apply the border-radius to. This could be any HTML element such as a div, button or img. The border-radius property is followed by a value which determines the curvature of the corners. The value 5px means that each corner of the element is rounded by 5 pixels.

Here is a practical example:

.button {
  border-radius: 15px;
}

In this case, any HTML element with the class .button will have its corners rounded by 15px. This creates a button with a rounded shape which can be more visually appealing in comparison to regular rectangular buttons.

What if you want different radius for each corner? The border-radius property can take up to four values, which correspond to the top-left, top-right, bottom-right, and bottom-left corners of the element respectively. For example:

.div {
  border-radius: 15px 50px 30px 5px;
}

In terms of best practices, it's important to note that the border-radius property is widely supported across modern browsers. Therefore, you don't need to consider additional styles for legacy browsers. Moreover, using relative values such as percentages instead of absolute pixel values will ensure that the radii scale well with different-sized elements, making your design more responsive.

Remember that while rounded corners can enhance a design, they shouldn't be overused. Just like any other design element, the key to an effective use of rounded corners is moderation and consistency. So, have fun experimenting with this versatile CSS property and see how it can improve your design aesthetics!