Best way to replicate the 8 little square of Photoshop transform tool with CSS

Question

I\'d like some containers on my page to have a 1px stroke with eight little squares just like the Photoshop selection tool below (but without the cross at the center). I wan

Answer 1

If you don't want a lot of elements or a compicate way with mulitple gradient here is another idea using special character:

.box {
  width: 200px;
  height: 200px;
  margin: 20px;
  background: linear-gradient(lightblue, lightblue) 5px 0/calc(100% - 10px) 100% no-repeat;
  position: relative;
  line-height: 180px;
  letter-spacing: 180px;
}

.box:before {
  content: "\25A1\25A1\25A1";
  letter-spacing: 85px;
  display: block;
  line-height: 0px;
}

.box:after {
  content: "\25A1\25A1\25A1";
  position: absolute;
  bottom: 2px;
  letter-spacing: 85px;
  display: block;
  line-height: 0px;
}

<div class="box">
  □□
</div>

Here is anoher more generic solution using multiple background, SVG and CSS variable to make the code light:

.overlay {
  position: relative;
  pointer-events: none;
  --square: url('data:image/svg+xml;charset=UTF-8,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="10" height="10" viewBox="0 0 20 20"><rect width="20" height="20" fill="transparent" stroke="%23000" stroke-width="3"/></svg>');
}

.overlay:before {
  content: "";
  position: absolute;
  top: -5px;
  bottom: -5px;
  left: -5px;
  right: -5px;
  background-image: 
    var(--square), var(--square), var(--square), 
    var(--square),                var(--square), 
    var(--square), var(--square), var(--square);
  background-size: 10px 10px;
  background-position: 
    top    left, top center   , top    right,
    center left,                center right,
    bottom left, bottom center, bottom right;
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
}

.box {
  height: 200px;
  width: 200px;
  background: lightblue;
  display: inline-block;
  vertical-align: top;
  margin: 10px;
}

p {
  border: 1px solid;
  padding: 50px;
}

<div class="box overlay"></div>

<div class="box overlay" style="width:100px;"></div>
<div class="box overlay" style="height:100px;"></div>

<p class="overlay"> some text</p>