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CSS 2D Transforms allows elements rendered by CSS to be transformed in two-dimensional space.
This will be the last published Working Draft of this specification. Work will continue with a combined CSS and SVG Transforms specification operating under the FX Taskforce. The latest Editors' Draft of the new specification is available.
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This document was produced by the CSS Working Group (part of the Style Activity).
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The list of changes made to this specification is available.
transform
’ Property
transform-origin
’ Property
This section is not normative.
The CSS visual formatting model describes a coordinate system within which each element is positioned. Positions and sizes in this coordinate space can be thought of as being expressed in pixels, starting in the upper left corner of the parent with positive values proceeding to the right and down.
This coordinate space can be modified with the ‘transform
’ property. Using
transform, elements can be translated, rotated and scaled in two
dimensional space. The coordinate space behaves as described in the coordinate
system transformations section of the SVG 1.1 specification. This is a
coordinate system with two axes: the X axis increases horizontally to the
right; the Y axis increases vertically downwards.
Transforms apply to block-level and atomic inline-level elements, but do not apply to elements which may be split into multiple inline-level boxes.
Specifying a value other than ‘none
’ for the ‘transform
’
property establishes a new local coordinate system at the element
that it is applied to. Transformations are cumulative. That is, elements
establish their local coordinate system within the coordinate system of
their parent. From the perspective of the user, an element effectively
accumulates all the ‘transform
’ properties of its
ancestors as well as any local transform applied to it. The accumulation
of these transforms defines a current transformation matrix (CTM)
for the element.
The transform property does not affect the flow of the content
surrounding the transformed element. However, the value of the overflow
area takes into account transformed elements. This behavior is similar to
what happens when elements are translated via relative positioning.
Therefore, if the value of the ‘overflow
’ property is ‘scroll
’
or ‘auto
’, scrollbars will appear as needed
to see content that is transformed outside the visible area.
Any value other than ‘none
’ for
the transform results in the creation of both a stacking context and a
containing block. The object acts as a containing block for fixed
positioned descendants.
transform
’ Property A two-dimensional transformation is applied to the coordinate system an
element renders in through the ‘transform
’
property. This property contains a list of transform functions. The final
transformation value for a coordinate system is obtained by converting
each function in the list to its corresponding matrix (either defined in
this specification or by reference to the SVG specification), then
multiplying the matrices.
Name: | transform |
Value: | none | <transform-function> [ <transform-function> ]* |
Initial: | none |
Applies to: | block-level and atomic inline-level elements |
Inherited: | no |
Percentages: | refer to the size of the element's border box |
Media: | visual |
Computed value: | Same as specified value. |
transform-origin
’ Property The ‘transform-origin
’ property
establishes the origin of transformation for a coordinate system. This
property is applied by first translating the element's coordinate system
by the negated value of the property, then applying the local transform,
then translating by the property value. This effectively moves the desired
transformation origin of the element to (0,0) in the local coordinate
system, then applies the local transform, then moves the element back to
its original position.
If only one value is specified, the second value is assumed to be
‘center
’. If two values are given
and at least one value is not a keyword, then the first value represents
the horizontal position (or offset) and the second represents the vertical
position (or offset). <percentage> and
<length> values here represent an offset of the transform
origin from the top left corner of the element's border box.
If three or four values are given, then each
<percentage> or<length> represents an
offset and must be preceded by a keyword, which specifies from which edge
the offset is given. For example, ‘transform-origin:
bottom 10px right 20px
’ represents a ‘10px
’ vertical offset up from the bottom edge and a
‘20px
’ horizontal offset leftward from
the right edge. If three values are given, the missing offset is assumed
to be zero.
Positive values represent an offset inward from the edge of the border box. Negative values represent an offset outward from the edge of the border box.
Name: | transform-origin |
Value: | [ top | bottom ] | [ <percentage> | <length> | left | center | right ] [ <percentage> | <length> | top | center | bottom ]? | [ center | [ left | right ] [ <percentage> | <length> ]? ] && [ center | [ top | bottom ] [ <percentage> | <length> ]? ] |
Initial: | 50% 50% |
Applies to: | block-level and atomic inline-level elements |
Inherited: | no |
Percentages: | refer to the size of the element's border box |
Media: | visual |
Computed value: | For <length> the absolute value, otherwise a percentage |
The value of the transform property is a list of <transform-functions> applied in the order provided. The individual transform functions are separated by whitespace. The set of allowed transform functions is given below. In this list the type <translation-value> is defined as a <length> or <percentage> value, and the <angle> type is defined by CSS Values and Units.
The <translation-value> values are defined as [<percentage> | <length>]. All other value types are described as CSS types. If a list of transforms is provided, then the net effect is as if each transform had been specified separately in the order provided. For example,
<div style="transform:translate(-10px,-20px) scale(2) rotate(45deg) translate(5px,10px)"/>
is functionally equivalent to:
<div style="transform:translate(-10px,-20px)"> <div style="transform:scale(2)"> <div style="transform:rotate(45deg)"> <div style="transform:translate(5px,10px)"> </div> </div> </div> </div>
That is, in the absence of other styling that affects position and dimensions, a nested set of transforms is equivalent to a single list of transform functions, applied from the outside in. The resulting transform is the matrix multiplication of the list of transforms.
div { transform: translate(100px, 100px); }Move the element by 100 pixels in both the X and Y directions.
div { height: 100px; width: 100px; transform: translate(80px, 80px) scale(1.5, 1.5) rotate(45deg); }Move the element by 80 pixels in both the X and Y directions, then scale the element by 150%, then rotate it 45 degrees clockwise about the Z axis. Note that the scale and rotate operate about the center of the element, since the element has the default transform-origin of 50% 50%.
When animating or transitioning the value of a transform property the
rules described below are applied. The ‘from
’ transform is the transform at the start
of the transition or current keyframe. The ‘end
’ transform is the transform at the end of
the transition or current keyframe.
See the currently open issue on what "of the same type" means.
from
’ and
‘to
’ transforms are both single
functions of the same type:
from
’ and
‘to
’ transforms are "none":
from
’ or
‘to
’ transforms is "none":
none
’ is replaced by
an equivalent identity function list for the corresponding transform
function list.
For example, if the ‘from
’
transform is "scale(2)" and the ‘to
’ transform is "none" then the value
"scale(1)" will be used as the ‘to
’ value, and animation will proceed
using the rule above. Similarly, if the ‘from
’ transform is "none" and the
‘to
’ transform is "scale(2)
rotate(50deg)" then the animation will execute as if the ‘from
’ value is "scale(1) rotate(0)".
The identity functions are translate(0), translateX(0), translateY(0), scale(1), scaleX(1), scaleY(1), rotate(0), skewX(0), skewY(0) and matrix(1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0).
from
’ and
‘to
’ transforms have the same
number of transform functions and corresponding functions in each
transform list are of the same type:
In some cases, an animation might cause a transformation matrix to be singular or non-invertible. For example, an animation in which scale moves from 1 to -1. At the time when the matrix is in such a state, the transformed element is not rendered.
When interpolating between 2 matrices, each is decomposed into the corresponding translation, rotation, scale and skew values. Not all matrices can be accurately described by these values. Those that can't are decomposed into the most accurate representation possible, using the technique below. This technique is taken from The "unmatrix" method in "Graphics Gems II, edited by Jim Arvo", simplified for the 2D case.
Input: a, b, c, d ; 2x2 matrix (rotate, scale, shear) components tx, ty ; translation components Output: translate ; a 2 component vector rotate ; an angle scale ; a 2 component vector skew ; skew factor Returns false if the matrix cannot be decomposed, true if it can Supporting functions (point is a 2 component vector): float length(point) returns the length of the passed vector point normalize(point) normalizes the length of the passed point to 1 float dot(point, point) returns the dot product of the passed points float atan2(float y, float x) returns the principal value of the arc tangent of y/x, using the signs of both arguments to determine the quadrant of the return value Decomposition also makes use of the following function: point combine(point a, point b, float ascl, float bscl) result[0] = (ascl * a[0]) + (bscl * b[0]) result[1] = (ascl * a[1]) + (bscl * b[1]) return result // Make sure the matrix is invertible if ((a * d - b * c) == 0) return false // Take care of translation translate[0] = tx translate[1] = matrix[3][1] // Put the components into a 2x2 matrix 'mat' mat[0][0] = a mat[0][1] = b mat[1][0] = c mat[1][1] = d // Compute X scale factor and normalize first row. scale[0] = length(row[0]) row[0] = normalize(row[0]) // Compute shear factor and make 2nd row orthogonal to 1st. skew = dot(row[0], row[1]) row[1] = combine(row[1], row[0], 1.0, -skew) // Now, compute Y scale and normalize 2nd row. scale[1] = length(row[1]) row[1] = normalize(row[1]) skew /= scale[1]; // Now, get the rotation out rotate = atan2(mat[0][1], mat[0][0]) return true;
Once decomposed, each component of each returned value of the source matrix is linearly interpolated with the corresponding component of the destination matrix. For instance, the translate[0] and translate[1] values are interpolated numerically, and the result is used to set the translation of the animating element.
This section is not normative.
After interpolation the resulting values are used to position the element. One way to use these values is to recompose them into a 3x2 matrix. This can be done using the Transformation Functions of the transform property. The following JavaScript example produces a string for this purpose. The values passed in are the output of the Unmatrix function above:
function compose(translate, rotate, scale, skew, elementID) { var s = " translate(" + translate[0] + ", " + translate[1] + ")"; s += " rotate(" + rotate + ")"; s += " skewX(" + skew + ")"; s += " scale(" + scale[0] + ", " + scale[1] + ")"; document.getElementById(elementID).style.transform = s; }
This section describes the interfaces and functionality added to the DOM to support runtime access to the functionality described above.
The CSSMatrix
interface represents a 3x2 homogeneous
matrix.
interface CSSMatrix { attribute float a; attribute float b; attribute float c; attribute float d; attribute float e; attribute float f; void setMatrixValue(in DOMString string) raises(DOMException); CSSMatrix multiply(in CSSMatrix secondMatrix); CSSMatrix inverse() raises(DOMException); CSSMatrix translate(in float x, in float y); CSSMatrix scale(in float scaleX, in float scaleY); CSSMatrix skewX(in float angle); CSSMatrix skewY(in float angle); CSSMatrix rotate(in float angle); };
a-f
of type float
setMatrixValue
setMatrixValue
method replaces
the existing matrix with one computed from parsing the passed string
as though it had been assigned to the transform property in a CSS
style rule.
string
of type
DOMString
DOMException SYNTAX_ERR
multiply
multiply
method returns a new
CSSMatrix which is the result of this matrix multiplied by the
passed matrix, with the passed matrix to the right. This matrix is
not modified.
secondMatrix
of type
CSSMatrix
CSSMatrix
inverse
inverse
method returns a new
matrix which is the inverse of this matrix. This matrix is not
modified.
CSSMatrix
DOMException NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR
translate
translate
method returns a new
matrix which is this matrix multiplied by a translation matrix
containing the passed values. This matrix is not modified.
x
of type
float
y
of type
float
CSSMatrix
scale
scale
method returns a new matrix
which is this matrix multiplied by a scale matrix containing the
passed values. If the y component is undefined, the x component
value is used in its place. This matrix is not modified.
scaleX
of type
float
scaleY
of type
float
CSSMatrix
rotate
rotate
method returns a new
matrix which is this matrix multiplied by a rotation
matrix. The rotation value is in degrees. This matrix is not
modified.
angle
of type
float
CSSMatrix
skewX
skewX
method returns a new matrix
which is this matrix multiplied by a matrix representing a skew along
the x-axis. The rotation value is in degrees. This matrix is not
modified.
angle
of type
float
CSSMatrix
skewY
skewX
method returns a new matrix
which is this matrix multiplied by a matrix representing a skew along
the y-axis. The rotation value is in degrees. This matrix is not
modified.
angle
of type
float
CSSMatrix
In addition to the interface listed above, the
getComputedStyle
method of the Window
object has
been updated. The transform
property
of the style object returned by getComputedStyle
contains a
DOMString of the form "matrix(a, b, c, d, e, f)" representing the 3x2
matrix that is the result of applying the individual functions listed in
the transform
property.
Property | Values | Initial | Applies to | Inh. | Percentages | Media |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
transform | none | <transform-function> [ <transform-function> ]* | none | block-level and atomic inline-level elements | no | refer to the size of the element's border box | visual |
transform-origin | [ top | bottom ] | [ <percentage> | <length> | left | center | right ] [ <percentage> | <length> | top | center | bottom ]? | [ center | [ left | right ] [ <percentage> | <length> ]? ] && [ center | [ top | bottom ] [ <percentage> | <length> ]? ] | 50% 50% | block-level and atomic inline-level elements | no | refer to the size of the element's border box | visual |