The @starting-style
at rule can be used in two ways:
As a standalone block, in which case it contains one or more rulesets defining starting style declarations and selecting the elements they apply to:
@starting-style {
/* rulesets */
}
Nested within an existing ruleset, in which case it contains one or more declarations defining starting property values for the elements already selected by that ruleset:
selector {
/* existing ruleset */
/* ... */
@starting-style {
/* declarations */
}
}
To avoid unexpected behavior, CSS transitions are by default not triggered on an element's initial style update, or when its display
type changes from none
to another value. To enable first-style transitions, @starting-style
rules are needed. They provide starting styles for elements that do not have a previous state, defining the property values to transition from.
@starting-style
is especially useful when creating entry and exit transitions for elements displayed in the top layer (such as popovers and modal <dialog>
s), elements that are changing to and from display: none
, and elements when first added to or removed from the DOM.
Note: @starting-style
is only relevant to CSS transitions. When using CSS animations to implement such effects, @starting-style
is not needed. See Using CSS animations for an example.
There are two ways to use @starting-style
: as a standalone rule or nested within a ruleset.
Let's consider a scenario where we want to animate a popover when shown (that is, when added to the top layer). The "original rule" specifying the styles for the open popover could look something like this (see the popover example below):
[popover]:popover-open {
opacity: 1;
transform: scaleX(1);
}
To specify the starting values of the popover's properties that will be animated using the first method, you include a standalone @starting-style
block in your CSS:
@starting-style {
[popover]:popover-open {
opacity: 0;
transform: scaleX(0);
}
}
Note: The @starting-style
at-rule and the "original rule" have the same specificity. To ensure that starting styles get applied, include the @starting-style
at-rule after the "original rule". If you specify the @starting-style
at-rule before the "original rule", the original styles will override the starting styles.
To specify the starting style for the popover using the nested method, you can nest the @starting-style
block inside the "original rule":
[popover]:popover-open {
opacity: 1;
transform: scaleX(1);
@starting-style {
opacity: 0;
transform: scaleX(0);
}
}
When exactly are starting styles used?
It is important to understand that an element will transition from its @starting-style
styles when it is first rendered in the DOM, or when it transitions from display: none
to a visible value. When it transitions back from its initial visible state, it will no longer use the @starting-style
styles as it is now visible in the DOM. Instead, it will transition back to whatever styles exist for that element's default state.
In effect, there are three style states to manage in these situations â starting-style state, transitioned state, and default state. It is possible for the "to" and "from" transitions to be different in such cases. You can see a proof of this in our Demonstration of when starting styles are used example, below.
Formal syntax@starting-style =Examples Basic @starting-style usage
@starting-style { <rule-list> }
Transition an element's background-color
from transparent to green when it is initially rendered:
#target {
transition: background-color 1.5s;
background-color: green;
}
@starting-style {
#target {
background-color: transparent;
}
}
Transition the opacity
of an element when it changes its display
value to or from none
:
#target {
transition-property: opacity, display;
transition-duration: 0.5s;
display: block;
opacity: 1;
@starting-style {
opacity: 0;
}
}
#target.hidden {
display: none;
opacity: 0;
}
Demonstration of when starting styles are used
In this example, a button is pressed to create a <div>
element, give it a class
of showing
, and add it to the DOM.
showing
is given a @starting-style
of background-color: red
and a style of background-color: blue
to transition to. The default div
ruleset contains background-color: yellow
, and is also where the transition
is set.
When the <div>
is first added to the DOM, you'll see the background transition from red to blue. After a timeout, we remove the showing
class from the <div>
via JavaScript. At that point it transitions from blue back to yellow, not red. This proves that the starting styles are only used when the element is first rendered in the DOM. Once it has appeared, the element transitions back to the default style set on it.
After another timeout, we then remove the <div>
from the DOM altogether, resetting the initial state of the example so it can be run again.
<button>Display <code><div></code></button>
CSS
div {
width: 200px;
height: 100px;
border: 1px solid black;
margin-top: 10px;
}
div::after {
content: "class: " attr(class);
position: relative;
top: 3px;
left: 3px;
}
div {
background-color: yellow;
transition: background-color 3s;
}
div.showing {
background-color: skyblue;
}
@starting-style {
div.showing {
background-color: red;
}
}
JavaScript
const btn = document.querySelector("button");
btn.addEventListener("click", () => {
btn.disabled = true;
const divElem = document.createElement("div");
divElem.classList.add("showing");
document.body.append(divElem);
setTimeout(() => {
divElem.classList.remove("showing");
setTimeout(() => {
divElem.remove();
btn.disabled = false;
}, 3000);
}, 3000);
});
Result
The code renders as follows:
Animating a popoverIn this example, a popover is animated using CSS transitions. Basic entry and exit animations are provided using the transition
property.
The HTML contains a <div>
element declared as a popover using the popover attribute and a <button>
element designated as the popover's display control using its popovertarget attribute.
<button popovertarget="mypopover">Show the popover</button>
<div popover="auto" id="mypopover">I'm a Popover! I should animate.</div>
CSS
In this example, we want to animate two properties, opacity
and transform
(specifically, a horizontally scaling transform), to make the popover fade in and out as well as grow and shrink horizontally.
html {
font-family: "Helvetica", "Arial", sans-serif;
}
[popover]:popover-open {
opacity: 1;
transform: scaleX(1);
}
[popover] {
font-size: 1.2rem;
padding: 10px;
/* Final state of the exit animation */
opacity: 0;
transform: scaleX(0);
transition:
opacity 0.7s,
transform 0.7s,
overlay 0.7s allow-discrete,
display 0.7s allow-discrete;
/* Equivalent to
transition: all 0.7s allow-discrete; */
}
/* Include after the [popover]:popover-open rule */
@starting-style {
[popover]:popover-open {
opacity: 0;
transform: scaleX(0);
}
}
/* Transition for the popover's backdrop */
[popover]::backdrop {
background-color: transparent;
transition:
display 0.7s allow-discrete,
overlay 0.7s allow-discrete,
background-color 0.7s;
/* Equivalent to
transition: all 0.7s allow-discrete; */
}
[popover]:popover-open::backdrop {
background-color: rgb(0 0 0 / 25%);
}
/* Nesting (&) is not supported for pseudo-elements
so specify a standalone starting-style block. */
@starting-style {
[popover]:popover-open::backdrop {
background-color: transparent;
}
}
To achieve this, we have set a starting state for these properties on the default hidden state of the popover element (selected via [popover]
), and an ending state on the open state of the popover (selected via the :popover-open
pseudo-class).
We then set a transition
property to animate between the two states. A starting state for the animation is included inside a @starting-style
at-rule to enable the entry animation.
Because the animated element is being promoted to the top layer when shown and removed from the top layer when hidden (with display: none
), some extra steps are required to ensure the animation works in both directions:
display
is added to the list of transitioned elements to ensure the animated element is visible (set to display: block
or another visible display
value) throughout both the entry and exit animations. Without this, the exit animation would not be visible; in effect, the popover would just disappear. Note that the transition-behavior: allow-discrete
value is also set in the shorthand to activate the animation.overlay
is added to the list of transitioned elements to ensure that the removal of the element from the top layer is deferred until the animation ends. This doesn't make a huge difference for animations such as this one, but in more complex cases, not doing this can result in the element being removed from the overlay too quickly, meaning the animation is not smooth or effective. Again, transition-behavior: allow-discrete
is required in this case for the animation to occur.Note: We've also included a transition on the ::backdrop
that appears behind the popover when it opens, to provide a nice darkening animation. [popover]:popover-open::backdrop
is used to select the backdrop when the popover is open.
The code renders as follows:
Note: Because popovers change from display: none
to display: block
each time they are shown, the popover transitions from its @starting-style
styles to its [popover]:popover-open
styles every time the entry transition occurs. When the popover closes, it transitions from its [popover]:popover-open
state to the default [popover]
state.
Note: You can find an example that demonstrates transitioning a <dialog>
element and its backdrop as it is shown and hidden on the <dialog>
reference page â see Transitioning dialog elements.
This example contains a button which, when pressed, appends new elements to a <section>
container. Each element, in turn, contains a nested button, which when pressed, removes the element. This example demonstrates how to use transitions to animate elements when they are added to or removed from the DOM.
<button>Create new column</button>
<section></section>
JavaScript
JavaScript enables the addition and removal of elements:
const btn = document.querySelector("button");
const sectionElem = document.querySelector("section");
btn.addEventListener("click", createColumn);
function randomBackground() {
function randomNum() {
return Math.floor(Math.random() * 255);
}
const baseColor = `${randomNum()} ${randomNum()} ${randomNum()}`;
return `linear-gradient(to right, rgb(${baseColor} / 0), rgb(${baseColor} / 0.5))`;
}
function createColumn() {
const divElem = document.createElement("div");
divElem.style.background = randomBackground();
const closeBtn = document.createElement("button");
closeBtn.textContent = "â";
closeBtn.setAttribute("aria-label", "close");
divElem.append(closeBtn);
sectionElem.append(divElem);
closeBtn.addEventListener("click", () => {
divElem.classList.add("fade-out");
setTimeout(() => {
divElem.remove();
}, 1000);
});
}
When the "Create new column" button is clicked, the createColumn()
function is called. This creates a <div>
element with a randomly generated background color and a <button>
element to close the <div>
. It then appends the <button>
to the <div>
and the <div>
to the <section>
container.
We then add an event listener to the close button via addEventListener()
. Clicking the close button does two things:
fade-out
class to the <div>
. Adding the class triggers the exit animation set on that class.<div>
after a 1000ms delay. The setTimeout()
delays removal of the <div>
from the DOM (via Element.remove()
) until after the animation ends.We include a transition
that animates the opacity
and scale
of each column as they are added and removed:
html * {
box-sizing: border-box;
font-family: sans-serif;
}
body {
margin: 0;
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
height: 100vh;
gap: 10px;
}
body > button {
margin: 10px 10px 0 10px;
}
section {
display: flex;
flex: 1;
gap: 10px;
margin: 10px;
}
div {
flex: 1;
border: 1px solid gray;
position: relative;
opacity: 1;
scale: 1 1;
transition:
opacity 0.7s,
scale 0.7s,
display 0.7s allow-discrete,
all 0.7s allow-discrete;
/* Equivalent to
transition: all 0.7s allow-discrete; */
}
/* Include after the `div` rule */
@starting-style {
div {
opacity: 0;
scale: 1 0;
}
}
.fade-out {
opacity: 0;
display: none;
scale: 1 0;
}
div > button {
font-size: 1.6rem;
background: none;
border: 0;
text-shadow: 2px 1px 1px white;
border-radius: 15px;
position: absolute;
top: 1px;
right: 1px;
cursor: pointer;
}
To animate the opacity
and scale
of each <div>
as it is added to the DOM and then reverse the animation as it is removed from the DOM, we:
div { ... }
rule.@starting-style
block..fade-out
rule â this is the class that the JavaScript assigns to the <div>
elements when their close buttons are pressed. Besides setting the opacity
and scale
ending states, we also set display: none
on the <div>
s â we want them to become immediately unavailable when removed from the UI.transition
list inside the div { ... }
rule to animate opacity
, scale
, and display
. Note that for display
, the transition-behavior: allow-discrete
value is also set in the shorthand so that it will animate.The final result looks like this:
Specifications Browser compatibilityLoadingâ¦
See alsooverlay
transition-behavior
CSSStartingStyleRule
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