How to draw a checkmark / tick using CSS?

You can draw two rectangles and place them next to each other. And then rotate by 45 degrees. Modify the width/height/top/left parameters for any variation.

DEMO 1

DEMO 2 (With circle)

HTML

<span class="checkmark">
    <div class="checkmark_stem"></div>
    <div class="checkmark_kick"></div>
</span>

CSS

.checkmark {
    display:inline-block;
    width: 22px;
    height:22px;
    -ms-transform: rotate(45deg); /* IE 9 */
    -webkit-transform: rotate(45deg); /* Chrome, Safari, Opera */
    transform: rotate(45deg);
}

.checkmark_stem {
    position: absolute;
    width:3px;
    height:9px;
    background-color:#ccc;
    left:11px;
    top:6px;
}

.checkmark_kick {
    position: absolute;
    width:3px;
    height:3px;
    background-color:#ccc;
    left:8px;
    top:12px;
}

Here is another CSS solution. its take less line of code.

ul li:before
{
    content: '\2713';
    display: inline-block;
    color: red;
    padding: 0 6px 0 0;
}

ul li
{
    list-style-type: none;
    font-size: 1em;
}

<ul>
    <li>test1</li>
    <li>test</li>
</ul>

Here is the Demo link http://jsbin.com/keliguqi/1/

Do some transforms with the letter L

.checkmark {
  font-family: arial;
  -ms-transform: scaleX(-1) rotate(-35deg); /* IE 9 */
  -webkit-transform: scaleX(-1) rotate(-35deg); /* Chrome, Safari, Opera */
  transform: scaleX(-1) rotate(-35deg);
}

<div class="checkmark">L</div>