CSS Transitions

CSS Transitions are the most simple way to create an animation in CSS.

In a transition, you change the value of a property, and you tell CSS to slowly change it according to some parameters, towards a final state.

CSS Transitions are defined by these properties:

Property	Description
transition-property	the CSS property that should transition
transition-duration	the duration of the transition
transition-timing-function	the timing function used by the animation (common values: linear, ease). Default: ease
transition-delay	optional number of seconds to wait before starting the animation

The transition property is a handy shorthand:


.container {
  transition :property duration timing-function delay;
}

Example of a CSS Transition

This code implements a CSS Transition:


.one,
.three {
  background :rgba(142, 92, 205, 0.75);
  transition :background 1s ease-in;
} 

.two,
.four {
  background :rgba(236, 252, 100, 0.75);
  transition :background 1s ease-in;
} 

.circle:hover {
  background : rgba(142, 92, 205, 0.25);/* lighter */
}

When hovering the .oneand .three elements, the purple circles, there is a transition animation that ease the change of background, while the yellow circles do not, because they do not have the transition property defined.

Transition timing function values

transition-timing-function allows to specify the acceleration curve of the transition.

There are some simple values you can use:

linear
ease
ease-in
ease-out
ease-in-out

You can create a completely custom timing function using cubic bezier curves. This is rather advanced, but basically any of those functions above is built using bezier curves. We have handy names as they are common ones.

CSS Transitions in Browser DevTools

The Browser DevTools offer a great way to visualize transitions. those browser are Chrome and Firefox.

From those panels you can live edit the transition and experiment in the page directly without reloading your code.

Which Properties you can Animate using CSS Animations

A lot! They are the same you can animate using CSS Transitions, too.

Here's the full list:

background
background-color
background-position
background-size
border
border-color
border-width
border-bottom
border-bottom-color
border-bottom-left-radius
border-bottom-right-radius
border-bottom-width
border-left
border-left-color
border-left-width
border-radius
border-right
border-right-color
border-right-width
border-spacing
border-top
border-top-color
border-top-left-radius
border-top-right-radius
border-top-width
bottom
box-shadow
caret-color
clip
color
column-count
column-gap
column-rule
column-rule-color
column-rule-width
column-width
columns
content
filter
flex
flex-basis
flex-grow
flex-shrink
font
font-size
font-size-adjust
font-stretch
font-weight
grid-area
grid-auto-columns
grid-auto-flow
grid-auto-rows
grid-column-end
grid-column-gap
grid-column-start
grid-column
grid-gap
grid-row-end
grid-row-gap
grid-row-start
grid-row
grid-template-areas
grid-template-columns
grid-template-rows
grid-template
grid
height
left
letter-spacing
line-height
margin
margin-bottom
margin-left
margin-right
margin-top
max-height
max-width
min-height
min-width
opacity
order
outline
outline-color
outline-offset
outline-width
padding
padding-bottom
padding-left
padding-right
padding-top
perspective
perspective-origin
quotes
right
tab-size
text-decoration
text-decoration-color
text-indent
text-shadow
top
transform
vertical-align
visibility
width
word-spacing
z-index

Example

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
  <head>
    <style>
    .container {
      width :300px;
      height :200px;
    } 
    
.one,
.three {
  background :rgba(142, 92, 205, 0.75);
  transition :background 1s ease-in;
} 

.two,
.four {
  background :rgba(236, 252, 100, 0.75);
  transition :background 1s ease-in;
} 

.circle {
  border-radius :50%;
} 

.circle:hover {
  background : rgba(142, 92, 205, 0.25);
} 
    </style>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/font-awesome/5.15.4/css/all.min.css">
    <title>Title of the Document</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div class="container one">One</div>
    <div class="container two">Two</div>
    <div class="container three">Three</div>
    <div class="container four">Four</div>
    <div class="container circle">Four</div>
</body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »