Introduction to 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

• Introduction to CSS Transitions
• Example of a CSS Transition
• Transition timing function values
• CSS Transitions in Browser DevTools
• Which Properties you can Animate using CSS Transitions

Introduction to 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:

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);
}

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

See the example on Glitch https://glitch.com/edit/#!/flavio-css-transitions-example

When hovering the .one and .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:

This Glitch shows how those work in practice.

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.

This is Chrome:

This is 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 Transitions

A lot! But not all CSS properties.

Here’s the full list: