Pure CSS Cross-fading Image Carousel Slider

A pure CSS background image carousel slider with a crossfade transition effect built using Html, CSS , and CSS3 transitions & transforms.

How to use it:

Build the markup structure for the image carousel slider.

<div class="carousel-wrapper">
 
  <span id="target-item-1"></span>
  <span id="target-item-2"></span>
  <span id="target-item-3"></span>
  <span id="target-item-4"></span>
  <span id="target-item-5"></span>
  
  <!-- Start carousel items-->
  <div class="carousel-item item-1">
    <h2>Item 2</h2>
    <p>Content goes here.</p>
    <a class="arrow arrow-prev" href="#target-item-3"></a>
    <a class="arrow arrow-next" href="#target-item-2"></a>
  </div>
  <div class="carousel-item item-2">
    <h2>Item 2</h2>
    <p>Content goes here.</p>
    <a class="arrow arrow-prev" href="#target-item-1"></a>
    <a class="arrow arrow-next" href="#target-item-3"></a>
  </div>
  <div class="carousel-item item-3">
    <h2>Item 3</h2>
    <p>Content goes here.</p>
    <a class="arrow arrow-prev" href="#target-item-2"></a>
    <a class="arrow arrow-next" href="#target-item-4"></a>
  </div>
  <div class="carousel-item item-4">
    <h2>Item 4</h2>
    <p>Content goes here.</p>
    <a class="arrow arrow-prev" href="#target-item-3"></a>
    <a class="arrow arrow-next" href="#target-item-5"></a>
  </div>
  <div class="carousel-item item-5">
    <h2>Item 5</h2>
    <p>Content goes here.</p>
    <a class="arrow arrow-prev" href="#target-item-4"></a>
    <a class="arrow arrow-next" href="#target-item-1"></a>
  </div>
  
</div>

The core CSS / CSS3 style rules.

.carousel-wrapper {
  position: relative;
  height: 307px;
  width: 760px;
  margin: auto;
}
.carousel-wrapper .carousel-item {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  left: 0;
  right: 0;
  padding: 25px 50px;
  opacity: 0;
  transition: all 0.5s ease-in-out;
  border-radius: 10px;
}
.carousel-wrapper [id^="target-item"] {
  display: none;
}
.carousel-wrapper *:target ~ .item-1 {
  opacity: 0;
}
.carousel-wrapper #target-item-1:target ~ .item-1 {
  opacity: 1;
}
.carousel-wrapper #target-item-2:target ~ .item-2, .carousel-wrapper #target-item-3:target ~ .item-3, .carousel-wrapper #target-item-4:target ~ .item-4, .carousel-wrapper #target-item-5:target ~ .item-5 {
  z-index: 3;
  opacity: 1;
}
.carousel-wrapper img {
  max-width: 100%;
}

Style & position the navigation arrows.

.carousel-wrapper .carousel-item .arrow {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  display: block;
  width: 50px;
  height: 100%;
  -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;
  background: url("../images/left-arrow.png") 50% 50%/50px no-repeat;
}
.carousel-wrapper .carousel-item .arrow.arrow-prev {
  left: 10px;
}
.carousel-wrapper .carousel-item .arrow.arrow-next {
  right: 10px;
  -webkit-transform: rotate(180deg);
  transform: rotate(180deg);
}

Make it responsive using CSS3 media queries.

@media (max-width: 480px) {
  .carousel-wrapper .carousel-item .arrow, .carousel-wrapper .carousel-item.light .arrow {
    background-size: 75%;
    background-position: 10px 50%;
  }
}
@media only screen and (max-width: 760px) {
  .carousel-wrapper {
    width: 100%;
  }
}

Add background images into the slides.

.carousel-wrapper .item-1 {
  z-index: 2;
  opacity: 1;
  background: url("1.jpg") no-repeat scroll 100%;
}
.carousel-wrapper .item-2 {
  background: url("2.jpg") no-repeat scroll 100%;
}
.carousel-wrapper .item-3 {
  background: url("3.jpg") no-repeat scroll 100%;
}
.carousel-wrapper .item-4 {
  background: url("4.jpg") no-repeat scroll 100%;
}
.carousel-wrapper .item-5 {
  background: url("5.jpg") no-repeat scroll 100%;
}