Building Tooltip using CSS
Last Updated :
30 Sep, 2024
A Tooltip provides users with additional information about an element when the mouse pointer hovers over it. For example, when a user hovers over a button labeled "GeeksForGeeks," additional information such as "A Computer Science Portal" can appear as a tooltip.
Tooltip Positions
Tooltips can be positioned in various ways depending on the desired visual effect and user experience. There are four common positions for tooltips:
- Right Tooltip
- Left Tooltip
- Top Tooltip
- Bottom Tooltip
1. Right Tooltip
In the right tooltip, the tooltip appears to the right of the hovered element. The left and top properties are used to position the tooltip. For a right tooltip, set the left property to (100 + x)% and the top property to (0 + y)%.
Example: In this example, we are building the right tooltip using CSS
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>tooltip in CSS</title>
<style>
.gfg_tooltip {
position: relative;
display: inline-block;
background-color: green;
color: black;
padding: 15px;
text-align: center;
display: inline-block;
font-size: 16px;
}
.gfg_tooltip .gfg_text {
visibility: hidden;
min-width: 100px;
background-color: green;
color: black;
text-align: center;
border-radius: 6px;
padding: 5px 0;
position: absolute;
z-index: 1;
top: 25%;
left: 105%;
}
.gfg_tooltip:hover .gfg_text {
visibility: visible;
}
</style>
</head>
<body style="text-align:center;">
<button class="gfg_tooltip">
GeeksforGeeks
<span class="gfg_text">
A Computer science portal
</span>
</button>
</body>
</html>
Output:
2. Left Tooltip:
The Right and Top properties of CSS are used to place the tooltip left to the hoverable text. The value of Right should be to set (100+x)% to make it appear to the left of the container element (if x=0 then tooltip will touch the hoverable text) and the value of top should be set to (0+y)% to adjust the distance from top end of the container element.
Example: Below program illustrate the above approach
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>tooltip in CSS</title>
<style>
.gfg_tooltip {
position: relative;
display: inline-block;
background-color: green;
color: black;
padding: 15px;
text-align: center;
display: inline-block;
font-size: 16px;
}
.gfg_tooltip .gfg_text {
visibility: hidden;
width: 120px;
background-color: green;
color: black;
text-align: center;
border-radius: 6px;
padding: 5px 0;
position: absolute;
z-index: 1;
top: 25%;
right: 105%;
}
.gfg_tooltip:hover .gfg_text {
visibility: visible;
}
</style>
</head>
<body style="text-align:center;">
<button class="gfg_tooltip">
GeeksforGeeks
<span class="gfg_text">
A Computer science portal
</span>
</button>
</body>
</html>
Output:
3. Top Tooltip:
The Bottom and Left properties of CSS are used to place the tooltip top to the hoverable text. The value of Bottom should be to set (100+x)% to make it appear to the top of the container element (if x=0 then tooltip will touch the hoverable text) and the value of left should be set to (0+y)% to adjust the distance from left end of the container element.
Example: Below programs illustrate the above approach
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
.gfg_tooltip {
position: relative;
display: inline-block;
background-color: green;
color: black;
padding: 15px;
text-align: center;
display: inline-block;
font-size: 16px;
}
.gfg_tooltip .gfg_text {
visibility: hidden;
width: 120px;
background-color: green;
color: black;
text-align: center;
border-radius: 6px;
padding: 5px 0;
position: absolute;
z-index: 1;
bottom: 105%;
left: 10%;
}
.gfg_tooltip:hover .gfg_text {
visibility: visible;
}
</style>
</head>
<body style="text-align:center;">
<button class="gfg_tooltip">GeeksforGeeks
<span class="gfg_text">
A Computer science portal
</span>
</button>
</body>
</html>
Output: 
4. Bottom Tooltip:
The Top and Left properties of CSS are used to place the tooltip bottom to the hoverable text. The value of Top should be to set (100+x)% to make it appear to the bottom of the container element (if x=0 then tooltip will touch the hoverable text) and the value of left should be set to (0+y)% to adjust the distance from left end of the container element.
Example: Below program illustrate the above approach:
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
.gfg_tooltip {
position: relative;
display: inline-block;
background-color: green;
color: black;
padding: 15px;
text-align: center;
display: inline-block;
font-size: 16px;
}
.gfg_tooltip .gfg_text {
visibility: hidden;
width: 120px;
background-color: green;
color: black;
text-align: center;
border-radius: 6px;
padding: 5px 0;
position: absolute;
z-index: 1;
top: 105%;
left: 10%;
}
.gfg_tooltip:hover .gfg_text {
visibility: visible;
}
</style>
</head>
<body style="text-align:center;">
<button class="gfg_tooltip">GeeksforGeeks
<span class="gfg_text">
A Computer science portal
</span>
</button>
</body>
</html>
Output: 
Tooltip with Arrows
To make the tooltip look like a speech bubble, we can add an arrow using the ::after pseudo-element. Depending on the position of the tooltip, the arrow will appear on the corresponding side.
Example: Bottom Arrow Tooltip
Example: In a bottom arrow tooltip, the arrow appears below the tooltip text. The top and left properties are used to position the arrow.
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
.gfg_tooltip {
position: relative;
display: inline-block;
border-bottom: 1px dotted black;
background-color: green;
color: black;
padding: 15px;
text-align: center;
display: inline-block;
font-size: 16px;
}
.gfg_tooltip .gfg_text {
visibility: hidden;
width: 120px;
background-color: green;
color: black;
text-align: center;
border-radius: 6px;
padding: 5px 0;
position: absolute;
z-index: 1;
bottom: 115%;
left: 50%;
margin-left: -60px;
}
.gfg_tooltip .gfg_text::after {
content: "";
position: absolute;
top: 100%;
left: 50%;
margin-left: -5px;
border-width: 5px;
border-style: solid;
border-color: black transparent transparent transparent;
}
.gfg_tooltip:hover .gfg_text {
visibility: visible;
}
</style>
</head>
<body style="text-align:center;">
<br><br>
<button class="gfg_tooltip">GeeksforGeeks
<span class="gfg_text">
A Computer science portal
</span>
</button>
</body>
</html>
Output: 
2. Top Arrow:
Bottom and Left are used to place the arrow at the top of the tooltip. The value of Bottom should be to set (100+x)% to make it appear to the top of the tooltip (if x=0 then the arrow will touch the tooltip) and the value of left should be set to (0+y)% to adjust the distance from left end of the tooltip (if y=50 then arrow will be in the middle of tooltip).
Example: Top Arrow Tooltip
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
.gfg_tooltip {
position: relative;
display: inline-block;
border-bottom: 1px dotted black;
background-color: green;
color: black;
padding: 15px;
text-align: center;
display: inline-block;
font-size: 16px;
}
.gfg_tooltip .gfg_text {
visibility: hidden;
width: 120px;
background-color: green;
color: black;
text-align: center;
border-radius: 6px;
padding: 5px 0;
position: absolute;
z-index: 1;
top: 115%;
left: 50%;
margin-left: -60px;
}
.gfg_tooltip .gfg_text::after {
content: "";
position: absolute;
bottom: 100%;
left: 50%;
margin-left: -5px;
border-width: 5px;
border-style: solid;
border-color: transparent transparent black transparent;
}
.gfg_tooltip:hover .gfg_text {
visibility: visible;
}
</style>
</head>
<body style="text-align:center;">
<br><br>
<button class="gfg_tooltip">GeeksforGeeks
<span class="gfg_text">
A Computer science portal
</span>
</button>
</body>
</html>
Output:
3. Left Arrow:
Top and Right are used to place the arrow at the left of the tooltip. The value of Right should be to set (100+x)% to make it appear to the left of the tooltip (if x=0 then the arrow will touch the tooltip) and the value of top should be set to (0+y)% to adjust the distance from top end of the tooltip (if =50 then arrow will be in the middle of tooltip).
Example: Left Arrow Tooltip
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
.gfg_tooltip {
position: relative;
display: inline-block;
border-bottom: 1px dotted black;
background-color: green;
color: black;
padding: 15px;
text-align: center;
display: inline-block;
font-size: 16px;
}
.gfg_tooltip .gfg_text {
visibility: hidden;
width: 120px;
background-color: green;
color: black;
text-align: center;
border-radius: 6px;
padding: 5px 0;
position: absolute;
z-index: 1;
top: 5%;
left: 115%;
}
.gfg_tooltip .gfg_text::after {
content: "";
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
right: 100%;
margin-top: -5px;
border-width: 5px;
border-style: solid;
border-color: transparent black transparent transparent;
}
.gfg_tooltip:hover .gfg_text {
visibility: visible;
}
</style>
</head>
<body style="text-align:center;">
<br><br>
<button class="gfg_tooltip">GeeksforGeeks
<span class="gfg_text">
A Computer science portal
</span>
</button>
</body>
</html>
Output:
4. Right Arrow:
Top and Left are used to place the arrow at the right of the tooltip. The value of Left should be to set (100+x)% to make it appear to the right of the tooltip (if x=0 then the arrow will touch the tooltip) and the value of top should be set to (0+y)% to adjust the distance from top end of the tooltip (if y=50 then arrow will be in the middle of tooltip).
Example: Right Arrow Tooltip
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
.gfg_tooltip {
position: relative;
display: inline-block;
border-bottom: 1px dotted black;
background-color: green;
color: black;
padding: 15px;
text-align: center;
display: inline-block;
font-size: 16px;
}
.gfg_tooltip .gfg_text {
visibility: hidden;
width: 120px;
background-color: green;
color: black;
text-align: center;
border-radius: 6px;
padding: 5px 0;
position: absolute;
z-index: 1;
top: 5%;
right: 115%;
}
.gfg_tooltip .gfg_text::after {
content: "";
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 100%;
margin-top: -5px;
border-width: 5px;
border-style: solid;
border-color: transparent transparent transparent black;
}
.gfg_tooltip:hover .gfg_text {
visibility: visible;
}
</style>
</head>
<body style="text-align:center;">
<br><br>
<button class="gfg_tooltip">GeeksforGeeks
<span class="gfg_text">
A Computer science portal
</span>
</button>
</body>
</html>
Output:
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