CSS Clip-Path Generator: Build Visual Shapes Online

By FreeToolBox Team · ·
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Rectangular layouts work, but they get boring fast. CSS clip-path lets you cut any element into circles, ellipses, polygons, or completely custom shapes — using nothing but a single CSS property. This guide covers the syntax, practical use cases, and a free visual tool that eliminates the guesswork.

What Is CSS clip-path?

The clip-path property defines a clipping region that determines which parts of an element are visible. Anything outside the clipping region is hidden — not just invisible but completely removed from the visual rendering. The element still occupies its original space in the layout, but only the clipped area is painted.

Think of it as a cookie cutter for HTML elements. You define the shape, and the browser cuts your element to fit.

Browser support is excellent. All modern browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) fully support clip-path with basic shapes and polygons. The path() function (SVG-style paths) has more recent but now widespread support.

The Basic Shapes

CSS clip-path accepts several shape functions out of the box:

circle() — Clips to a circle. You specify the radius and optional center position.

clip-path: circle(50% at 50% 50%);

This creates a perfect circle centred on the element. Change the radius to control size, and the at position to shift the centre.

ellipse() — Like circle(), but with separate horizontal and vertical radii for oval shapes.

clip-path: ellipse(40% 60% at 50% 50%);

inset() — Clips to a rectangle inset from the element’s edges, with optional border-radius rounding.

clip-path: inset(10% 20% 10% 20% round 8px);

This is useful for creating rounded-rectangle masks that differ from the element’s actual border-radius.

polygon() — The most versatile shape function. You define a series of x/y coordinate pairs, and the browser connects them to form a closed shape.

clip-path: polygon(50% 0%, 100% 100%, 0% 100%);

This draws a triangle. You can add as many points as you need for complex shapes — pentagons, hexagons, arrows, chevrons, stars, and any custom outline.

Polygon Coordinates Explained

The polygon() function is where most of the creative power lives. Each point is defined as a percentage (or length value) pair: x% y%, where 0% 0% is the top-left corner and 100% 100% is the bottom-right corner.

For a simple arrow shape pointing right:

clip-path: polygon(0% 20%, 60% 20%, 60% 0%, 100% 50%, 60% 100%, 60% 80%, 0% 80%);

Each pair represents a vertex. The browser draws straight lines between consecutive vertices and closes the shape by connecting the last point back to the first.

The challenge with polygon() is that writing coordinates by hand is tedious and error-prone. Even a hexagon requires six precisely calculated points. That is exactly why visual generators exist.

Practical Use Cases

CSS clip-path is not just a visual gimmick — it solves real design problems:

Hero section dividers. Instead of a flat edge between sections, clip the bottom of a hero into an angled line, curve, or wave. This adds visual interest without SVG backgrounds or extra markup.

Image shapes. Clip product photos, avatars, or portfolio images into circles, hexagons, or custom silhouettes — all with a single CSS property, no image editing required.

Animated transitions. clip-path is animatable. You can transition between two polygons with the same number of vertices for smooth morphing effects — circle expanding to full rectangle on hover, for instance.

Card reveals and overlays. Animate a clip-path from circle(0%) to circle(100%) for a radial reveal effect on click or scroll.

Non-rectangular buttons and badges. Create ticket-shaped, ribbon, or tag-shaped elements without pseudo-elements or SVG.

Performance Notes

Clipping is handled by the compositor in modern browsers, making it GPU-friendly and generally safe to animate. A few things to keep in mind:

Keep polygon vertex counts reasonable. A 50-point polygon is fine; a 500-point polygon is not. Complex shapes are better served by path() or an inline SVG clipPath.

Animate between shapes with the same vertex count. CSS transitions between two polygon() values only work smoothly when both polygons have the same number of points. If they differ, the browser cannot interpolate and the transition will snap.

Clipped areas are not interactive. Click events do not fire on the invisible (clipped) portion of an element. This is usually desirable but can surprise you if the clipped area is larger than expected.

clip-path vs. Alternatives

How does clip-path compare to other CSS masking options?

overflow: hidden with border-radius handles simple rounded shapes but cannot produce arbitrary polygons or non-convex outlines. clip-path handles any shape.

mask-image uses a gradient or image as an alpha mask — powerful for soft-edge fading and texture masks, but more complex to set up and less performant for simple geometric shapes.

SVG <clipPath> referenced via url(#id) gives you full SVG path power inside CSS, but requires inline SVG markup. The CSS path() function brings some of this capability without extra HTML.

For geometric shapes — triangles, hexagons, arrows, custom polygons — clip-path with polygon() is the simplest and most performant option.

How to Use a Clip-Path Generator Online

Building a polygon by typing coordinate pairs is slow and frustrating. A visual generator lets you place, drag, and adjust vertices on a live preview — and the CSS updates automatically.

The CSS Clip-Path Generator on FreeToolBox runs entirely in your browser. No sign-up, no data sent anywhere. Here is how to use it:

  1. Open the tool at freetoolbox.org/tools/css-clip-path-generator.
  2. Pick a shape type — circle, ellipse, inset, or polygon — or start from a preset like triangle, hexagon, arrow, or star.
  3. Drag the control points directly on the preview area to adjust the shape visually. For polygons, add or remove vertices as needed.
  4. Fine-tune values with the numeric inputs if you need precise percentages.
  5. Copy the generated CSS with one click and paste it into your stylesheet.

The generator handles all the coordinate math for you. What might take 10 minutes of manual calculation takes 10 seconds of dragging.

Try It Now

Cut your elements into any shape — no installs, no account, nothing stored.

Open the free CSS Clip-Path Generator and start building in seconds.