CSS Transforms

Abstract

CSS transforms allows elements styled with CSS to be transformed in two-dimensional or three-dimensional space. This specification is the convergence of the CSS 2D transforms, CSS 3D transforms and SVG transforms specifications.

Status of this document

This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at https://www.w3.org/TR/.

Publication as a Working Draft does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.

The (archived) public mailing list www-style@w3.org (see instructions) is preferred for discussion of this specification. When sending e-mail, please put the text “css3-transforms” in the subject, preferably like this: “[css3-transforms] …summary of comment…”

This document was produced by the CSS Working Group (part of the Style Activity).

This document was produced by a group operating under the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy. W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.

This specification replaces the former CSS 2D Transforms and CSS 3D Transforms specifications, as well as SVG Transforms.

The list of changes made to this specification is available.

Table of contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Module Interactions
• 3. CSS Values
• 4. Definitions
• 5. The Transform Rendering Model
  • 5.1. 3D Transform Rendering
• 6. The ‘transform’ Property
• 7. The SVG ‘transform’ Attribute
  • 7.1. SVG ‘transform’ attribute specificity
  • 7.2. Syntax of the SVG ‘transform’ attribute
    • 7.2.1. Transform List
    • 7.2.2. Functional Notation
    • 7.2.3. SVG Data Types
      • 7.2.3.1. The <translation-value> and <length> type
      • 7.2.3.2. The <angle> type
      • 7.2.3.3. The <number> type
  • 7.3. The SVG ‘gradientTransform’ and ‘patternTransform’ attributes
  • 7.4. SVG transform functions
  • 7.5. SVG and 3D transform functions
  • 7.6. Object bounding box units
  • 7.7. SVG DOM interface for the ‘transform’ attribute
  • 7.8. SVG Animation
    • 7.8.1. The SVG ‘animate’ and ‘set’ element
    • 7.8.2. The SVG ‘attributeName’ attribute
    • 7.8.3. The SVG ‘animateTransform’ element
• 8. The ‘transform-origin’ Property
• 9. The ‘transform-style’ Property
• 10. The ‘perspective’ Property
• 11. The ‘perspective-origin’ Property
• 12. The ‘backface-visibility’ Property
• 13. The Transform Functions
  • 13.1. 2D Transform Functions
  • 13.2. 3D Transform Functions
• 14. The Transform Function Lists
• 15. Transitions and Animations between Transform Values
• 16. Matrix Decomposition for Animation
  • 16.1. Unmatrix
  • 16.2. Animating the components
  • 16.3. Recomposing the matrix
• 17. Mathematical Description of Transform Functions
• 18. References
  • Normative references
  • Other references
• Property index
• Index

1. Introduction

This section is not normative.

The CSS visual formatting model describes a coordinate system within each element is positioned. Positions and sizes in this coordinate space can be thought of as being expressed in pixels, starting in the origin of point 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 or three dimensional space.

Additional properties make working with transforms easier, and allow the author to control how nested three-dimensional transforms interact.

• The ‘transform-origin’ property provides a convenient way to control the origin about which transforms on an element are applied.
• The ‘perspective’ property allows the author to make child elements with three-dimensional transforms appear as if they live in a common three-dimensional space. The ‘perspective-origin’ property provides control over the origin at which perspective is applied, effectively changing the location of the "vanishing point".
• The ‘transform-style’ property allows 3D-transformed elements and their 3D-transformed descendants to share a common three-dimensional space, allowing the construction of hierarchies of three-dimensional objects.
• The ‘backface-visibility’ property comes into play when an element is flipped around via three-dimensional transforms such that its reverse side is visible to the viewer. In some situations it is desirable to hide the element in this situation, which is possible using the value of ‘hidden’ for this property.

Note that while some values of the ‘transform’ property allow an element to be transformed in a three-dimensional coordinate system, the elements themselves are not three-dimensional objects. Instead, they exist on a two-dimensional plane (a flat surface) and have no depth.

2. Module Interactions

This module defines a set of CSS properties that affect the visual rendering of elements to which those properties are applied; these effects are applied after elements have been sized and positioned according to the Visual formatting model from [CSS21]. Some values of these properties result in the creation of a containing block, and/or the creation of a stacking context.

Three-dimensional transforms can also affect the visual layering of elements, and thus override the back-to-front painting order described in Appendix E of [CSS21].

3. CSS Values

This specification follows the CSS property definition conventions from [CSS21]. Value types not defined in this specification are defined in CSS Level 2 Revision 1 [CSS21].

In addition to the property-specific values listed in their definitions, all properties defined in this specification also accept the inherit keyword as their property value. For readability it has not been repeated explicitly.

4. Definitions

When used in this specification, terms have the meanings assigned in this section.

bounding box

A bounding box is the object bounding box for all SVG elements without an associated CSS layout box and the border box for all other elements. The bounding box of a table is the border box of its table wrapper box, not its table box.

transformable element

A transformable element is an element in the HTML namespace which is either a block-level or atomic inline-level element, or whose ‘display’ property computes to ‘table-row’, ‘table-row-group’, ‘table-header-group’, ‘table-footer-group’, ‘table-cell’, or ‘table-caption’; or an element in the SVG namespace (see [SVG11]) which has the attributes ‘transform’, ‘patternTransform’ or ‘gradientTransform’.

perspective matrix

A matrix computed from the values of the ‘perspective’ and ‘perspective-origin’ properties as described below.

transformation matrix

A matrix computed from the values of the ‘transform’ and ‘transform-origin’ properties as described below.

accumulated 3D transformation matrix

A matrix computed for elements in a 3D rendering context, as described below.

3D rendering context

A containing block hierarchy of one or more levels, instantiated by elements with a computed value for the ‘transform-style’ property of ‘preserve-3d’, whose elements share a common three-dimensional coordinate system.

5. The Transform Rendering Model

Specifying a value other than ‘none’ for the ‘transform’ property establishes a new local coordinate system at the element that it is applied to. The mapping from where the element would have rendered into that local coordinate system is given by the element's transformation matrix. 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 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. Three-dimensional transform functions extent this coordinate space into three dimensions, adding a Z axis perpendicular to the plane of the screen, that increases towards the viewer.

The transformation matrix is computed from the ‘transform’ and ‘transform-origin’ properties as follows:

1. Start with the identity matrix.
2. Translate by the computed X, Y and Z values of ‘transform-origin’
3. Multiply by each of the transform functions in ‘transform’ property in turn
4. Translate by the negated computed X, Y and Z values of ‘transform-origin’

Transforms apply to transformable elements.

div {
    transform: translate(100px, 100px);
}

This transform moves 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);
}

This transform moves the element by 80 pixels in both the X and Y directions, then scales the element by 150%, then rotates it 45° clockwise about the Z axis. Note that the scale and rotation operate about the center of the element, since the element has the default transform-origin of ‘50% 50%’.

Note that an identical rendering can be obtained by nesting elements with the equivalent transforms:

<div style="transform: translate(80px, 80px)">
    <div style="transform: scale(1.5, 1.5)">
        <div style="transform: rotate(45deg)"></div>
    </div>
</div>

In the HTML namespace, the transform property does not affect the flow of the content surrounding the transformed element. However, the extent of the overflow area takes into account transformed elements. This behavior is similar to what happens when elements are offset 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.

In the HTML namespace, 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.

Is this effect on position:fixed necessary? If so, need to go into more detail here about why fixed positioned objects should do this, i.e., that it's much harder to implement otherwise.

Fixed backgrounds are affected by any transform specified for the root element, and not by any other transforms.

Thus an element with a fixed background still acts like a "porthole" into an image that's fixed to the viewport, and transforms on the element affect the porthole, not the background behind it. On the other hand, transforming the root element will still transform everything on the page, rather than everything except for fixed backgrounds.

If the root element is transformed, the transformation applies to the entire canvas, including any background specified for the root element. Since the background painting area for the root element is the entire canvas, which is infinite, the transformation might cause parts of the background that were originally off-screen to appear. For example, if the root element's background were repeating dots, and a transformation of ‘scale(0.5)’ were specified on the root element, the dots would shrink to half their size, but there will be twice as many, so they still cover the whole viewport.

5.1. 3D Transform Rendering

Normally, elements render as flat planes, and are rendered into the same plane as their containing block. Often this is the plane shared by the rest of the page. Two-dimensional transform functions can alter the appearance of an element, but that element is still rendered into the same plane as its containing block.

Three-dimensional transforms can result in transformation matrices with a non-zero Z component, potentially lifting them off the plane of their containing block. Because of this, elements with three-dimensional transformations could potentially render in an front-to-back order that different from the normal CSS rendering order, and intersect with each other. Whether they do so depends on whether the element is a member of a 3D rendering context, as described below.

This example shows the effect of three-dimensional transform applied to an element.

<style>
div {
    height: 150px;
    width: 150px;
}
.container {
    border: 1px solid black;
}
.transformed {
    transform: rotateY(50deg);
}
</style>
<div class="container">
    <div class="transformed"></div>
</div>

The transform is a 50° rotation about the vertical, Y axis. Note how this makes the blue box appear narrower, but not three-dimensional.

The ‘perspective’ and ‘perspective-origin’ properties can be used to add a feeling of depth to a scene by making elements higher on the Z axis (closer to the viewer) appear larger, and those further away to appear smaller. The scaling is proportional to d/(d − Z) where d, the value of ‘perspective’, is the distance from the drawing plane to the the assumed position of the viewer's eye.

Diagrams showing how scaling depends on the ‘perspective’ property and Z position. In the top diagram, Z is half of d. In order to make it appear that the original circle (solid outline) appears at Z (dashed circle), the circle is scaled up by a factor of two, resulting in the light blue circle. In the bottom diagram, the circle is scaled down by a factor of one-third to make it appear behind the original position.

Normally the assumed position of the viewer's eye is centered on a drawing. This position can be moved if desired – for example, if a web page contains multiple drawings that should share a common perspective – by setting ‘perspective-origin’.

Diagram showing the effect of moving the perspective origin upward.

The perspective matrix is computed as follows:

1. Start with the identity matrix.
2. Translate by the computed X and Y values of ‘perspective-origin’
3. Multiply by the matrix that would be obtained from the ‘perspective(<length>)’ transform function, where the length is provided by the value of the ‘perspective’ property
4. Translate by the negated computed X and Y values of ‘perspective-origin’

This example shows how perspective can be used to cause three-dimensional transforms to appear more realistic.

<style>
div {
    height: 150px;
    width: 150px;
}
.container {
    perspective: 500px;
    border: 1px solid black;
}
.transformed {
    transform: rotateY(50deg);
}
</style>
<div class="container">
    <div class="transformed"></div>
</div>

The inner element has the same transform as in the previous example, but its rendering is now influenced by the perspective property on its parent element. Perspective causes vertices that have positive Z coordinates (closer to the viewer) to be scaled up in X and Y, and those further away (negative Z coordinates) to be scaled down, giving an appearance of depth.

An element with a three-dimensional transform that is not contained in a 3D rendering context renders with the appropriate transform applied, but does not intersect with any other elements. The three-dimensional transform in this case can be considered just as a painting effect, like two-dimensional transforms. Similarly, the transform does not affect painting order. For example, a transform with a positive Z translation may make an element look larger, but does not cause that element to render in front of elements with no translation in Z.

An element with a three-dimensional transform that is contained in a 3D rendering context can visibly interact with other elements in that same 3D rendering context; the set of elements participating in the same 3D rendering context may obscure each other or intersect, based on their computed transforms. They are rendered as if they are all siblings, positioned in a common 3D coordinate space. The position of each element in that three-dimensional space is determined by accumulating the transformation matrices up from the element that establishes the 3D rendering context through each element that is a containing block for the given element, as described below.

<style>
div {
    height: 150px;
    width: 150px;
}
.container {
    perspective: 500px;
    border: 1px solid black;
}
.transformed {
    transform: rotateY(50deg);
    background-color: blue;
}
.child {
    transform-origin: top left;
    transform: rotateX(40deg);
    background-color: lime;
}
</style>
<div class="container">
    <div class="transformed">
        <div class="child"></div>
    </div>
</div>

This example shows how nested 3D transforms are rendered in the absence of ‘transform-style: preserve-3d’. The blue div is transformed as in the previous example, with its rendering influenced by the perspective on its parent element. The lime element also has a 3D transform, which is a rotation about the X axis (anchored at the top, by virtue of the transform-origin). However, the lime element is being rendered into the plane of its parent because it is not a member of a 3D rendering context; the parent is "flattening".

Elements establish and participate in 3D rendering contexts as follows:

• A 3D rendering context is established by a a transformable element whose computed value for ‘transform-style’ is ‘preserve-3d’, and which itself is not part of a 3D rendering context. Note that such an element is always a containing block. An element that establishes a 3D rendering context also participates in that context.
• An element whose computed value for ‘transform-style’ is ‘preserve-3d’, and which itself participates in a 3D rendering context, extends that 3D rendering context rather than establishing a new one.
• An element participates in a 3D rendering context if its containing block establishes or extends a 3D rendering context.

The final value of the transform used to render an element in a 3D rendering context is computed by accumulating an accumulated 3D transformation matrix as follows:

1. Start with the identity matrix.
2. For each containing block between the root of the 3D rendering context and the element in question:
   1. multiply the accumulated matrix with the perspective matrix on the element's containing block (if any). That containing block is not necessarily a member of the 3D rendering context.
   2. apply to the accumulated matrix a translation equivalent to the horizontal and vertical offset of the element relative to its containing block as specified by the CSS visual formatting model.
   3. multiply the accumulated matrix with the transformation matrix.

<style>
div {
    height: 150px;
    width: 150px;
}
.container {
    perspective: 500px;
    border: 1px solid black;
}
.transformed {
    transform-style: preserve-3d;
    transform: rotateY(50deg);
    background-color: blue;
}
.child {
    transform-origin: top left;
    transform: rotateX(40deg);
    background-color: lime;
}
</style>

This example is identical to the previous example, with the addition of ‘transform-style: preserve-3d’ on the blue element. The blue element now establishes a 3D rendering context, of which the lime element is a member. Now both blue and lime elements share a common three-dimensional space, so the lime element renders as tilting out from its parent, influenced by the perspective on the container.

Elements in the same 3D rendering context may intersect with each other. User agents must render intersection by subdividing the planes of intersecting elements as described by Newell's algorithm.

Untransformed elements in a 3D rendering context render on the Z=0 plane, yet may still intersect with transformed elements.

Within a 3D rendering context, the rendering order of non-intersecting elements is based on their position on the Z axis after the application of the accumulated transform. Elements at the same Z position render in stacking context order.

<style>
.container {
    background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
    transform-style: preserve-3d;
    perspective: 500px;
}
.container > div {
    position: absolute;
    left: 0;
}
.container > :first-child {
    transform: rotateY(45deg);
    background-color: orange;
    top: 10px;
    height: 135px;
}
.container > :last-child {
    transform: translateZ(40px);
    background-color: rgba(0, 0, 255, 0.75);
    top: 50px;
    height: 100px;
}
</style>
<div class="container">
    <div></div>
    <div></div>
</div>

This example shows show elements in a 3D rendering context can intersect. The container element establishes a 3D rendering context for itself and its two children. The children intersect with eachother, and the orange element also intersects with the container.

Using three-dimensional transforms, it's possible to transform an element such that its reverse side is towards the viewer. 3D-tranformed elements show the same content on both sides, so the reverse side looks like a mirror-image of the front side (as if the element were projected onto a sheet of glass). Normally, elements whose reverse side is towards the viewer remain visible. However, the ‘backface-visibility’ property allows the author to make an element invisible when its reverse side is towards the viewer. This behavior is "live"; if an element with ‘backface-visibility: hidden’ were animating, such that its front and reverse sides were alternately visible, then it would only be visible when the front side were towards the viewer.

6. The ‘transform’ Property

A 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 like defined in Mathematical Description of Transform Functions, then multiplying the matrices.

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.

7. The SVG ‘transform’ Attribute

The SVG 1.1 specification did not specify the attributes ‘transform’, ‘gradientTransform’ or ‘patternTransform’ as presentation attributes. In order to improve the integration of SVG and HTML, this specification makes these SVG attributes ‘presentation attributes’ and makes the ‘transform’ property one that applies to transformable elements in the SVG namespace.

This specification will also introduce the new presentation attributes ‘transform-origin’, ‘perspective’, ‘perspective-origin’, ‘transform-style’ and ‘backface-visibility’. All new introduced presentation attributes are animatable.

7.1. SVG ‘transform’ attribute specificity

Since the previously named SVG attributes become presentation attributes, their participation in the CSS cascade is determined by the specificity of presentation attributes, as explained in the SVG specification.

This example shows the combination of the ‘transform’ style property and the ‘transform’ presentation attribute.

<svg xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
    <style>
    .container {
        transform: translate(100px, 100px);
    }
    </style>
    <g class="container" transform="translate(200 200)">
        <rect width="100" height="100" fill="blue" />
    </g>
</svg>

Because of the participation to the CSS cascade, the ‘transform’ style property overrides the ‘transform’ presentation attribute. Therefore the container gets translated by ‘100px’ in both the horizontal and the vertical directions, instead of ‘200px’.

7.2. Syntax of the SVG ‘transform’ attribute

To provide backwards compatibility, the syntax of the ‘transform’ presentation attribute differs from the syntax of the ‘transform’ style property as shown in the example above. However, the syntax used for the ‘transform’ style property can be used for a ‘transform’ presentation attribute value. Authors are advised to follow the rules of CSS Values and Units Module. Therefore an author should write ‘transform="translate(200px, 200px)"’ instead of ‘transform="translate (200 200)"’ because the second example with the spaces before the ‘(’, the missing comma between the arguments and the values without the explicit unit notation would be valid for the attribute only.

7.2.1. Transform List

The value for the ‘transform’ attribute consists of a transform list with zero or more transform functions using functional notation. If the transform list consists of more than one transform function, these functions are separated by optional whitespace, an optional comma (‘,’) and optional whitespace. The transform list can have optional whitespace characters before and after the list.

7.2.2. Functional Notation

The syntax starts with the name of the function followed by optional whitespace characters followed by a left parenthesis followed by optional whitespace followed by the argument(s) to the notation followed by optional whitespace followed by a right parenthesis. If a function takes more than one argument, the arguments are either separated by a comma (‘,’) with optional whitespace characters before and after the comma, or by one or more whitespace characters.

7.2.3. SVG Data Types

Arguments of transform functions consist of data types in the sense of CSS Values and Units Module. The definitions of data types in CSS Values and Units Module are enhanced as follows:

7.2.3.1. The <translation-value> and <length> type

A translation-value or length can be a <number> without an unit identifier. In this case the number gets interpreted as "user unit". A user unit in the the initial coordinate system is equivalent to the parent environment's notion of a pixel unit.

7.2.3.2. The <angle> type

An angle can be a <number> without an unit identifier. In this case the number gets interpreted as a value in degrees.

7.2.3.3. The <number> type

SVG supports scientific notations for numbers. Therefore a number gets parsed like described in SVG Basic data types for SVG attributes.

7.3. The SVG ‘gradientTransform’ and ‘patternTransform’ attributes

SVG specifies the attributes ‘gradientTransform’ and ‘patternTransform’. This specification makes both attributes presentation attributes. Both attributes use the same syntax as the SVG ‘transform’ attribute. This specification does not introduce corresponding CSS style properties. Both, the ‘gradientTransform’ and the ‘patternTransform’ attribute, are presentation attributes for the ‘transform’ property.

7.4. SVG transform functions

For backwards compatibility with existing SVG content, this specification supports all transform functions defined by The ‘transform’ attribute in SVG 1.1. Therefore the two-dimensional transform function ‘rotate(<angle>)’ is extended as follows:

rotate(<angle>[, <translation-value>, <translation-value>])

specifies a 2D rotation by the angle specified in the parameter about the origin of the element, as defined by the ‘transform-origin’ property. If the optional translation values are specified, the transform origin is translated by that amount (using the current transformation matrix) for the duration of the rotate operation. For example ‘rotate(90deg, 100px, 100px)’ would elements cause to appear rotated one-quarter of a turn in the clockwise direction after a translation of 100 pixel in the vertical and horizontal direction.

User agents are just required to support the two optional arguments for translation on elements in the SVG namespace.

7.5. SVG and 3D transform functions

This specification explicitly requires three-dimensional transform functions to apply to the container elements: ‘a’, ‘g’, ‘svg’, all graphics elements, all graphics referencing elements and the SVG ‘foreignObject’ element.

Three-dimensional transform functions and the properties ‘perspective’, ‘perspective-origin’, ‘transform-style’ and ‘backface-visibility’ can not be used for the elements: ‘clipPath’, ‘mask’, ‘linearGradient’, ‘radialGradient’ and ‘pattern’. If a transform list includes a three-dimensional transform function, the complete transform list must be ignored. The values of every previously named property must be ignored. Transformable elements that are contained by one of these elements can have three-dimensional transform functions. Before a ‘clipPath’, ‘mask’ or ‘pattern’ element can get applied to a target element, user agents must take the drawn results as static images in analogue of "flattening" the elements and taking the rendered content as a two-dimensional canvas.

7.6. Object bounding box units

Percentage or fractional values in SVG are either relative to the elements viewport units or to the element's object bounding box units as specified in SVG 1.1. To align with HTML, all percentage values for all properties defined in this specification are relative to the object bounding box units.

If an SVG element does not provide a bounding box (like for the ‘pattern’, ‘mask’ or ‘clipPath’ elements), the bounding box is treated as if the position x, y and the dimensions width and height are zero. Percentage values or keywords won't affect the rendering and are treated as if zero was specified.

<svg xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
    <style>
    pattern {
        transform: translate(50px, 50px) rotate(45deg);
        transform-origin: 50% 50%;
    }
    </style>
    <defs>
    <pattern id="pattern-1">
        <rect id="rect1" width="100" height="100" fill="blue" />
    </pattern>
    </defs>
    <rect width="100" height="100" fill="url(#pattern-1)" />
</svg>

7.7. SVG DOM interface for the ‘transform’ attribute

The SVG specification defines the ‘SVGAnimatedTransformList’ interface in the SVG DOM to provide access to the animated and the base value of the SVG ‘transform’, ‘gradientTransform’ and ‘patternTransform’ attributes. To ensure backwards compatibility, this API must still be supported by user agents.

The ‘transform’ property contributes to the CSS cascade. According to SVG 1.1 user agents conceptually insert a new author style sheet for presentation attributes, which is the first in the author style sheet collection. ‘baseVal’ gives the author the possibility to access and modify the values of the SVG ‘transform’ attribute. To provide the necessary backwards compatibility to the SVG DOM, ‘baseVal’ must reflect the values of this author style sheet. All modifications to SVG DOM objects of ‘baseVal’ must affect this author style sheet immediately.

‘animVal’ represents the computed style of the ‘transform’ property. Therefore it includes all applied CSS3 Transitions, CSS3 Animations or SVG Animations if any of those are underway. The computed style and SVG DOM objects of ‘animVal’ can not be modified.

The attribute ‘type’ of ‘SVGTransform’ must return ‘ SVG_TRANSFORM_UNKNOWN’ for Transform Functions or unit types that are not supported by this interface. If a two-dimensional transform function is not supported, the attribute ‘matrix’ must return a 3x2 ‘SVGMatrix’ with the corresponding values as described in the section Mathematical Description of Transform Functions.

7.8. SVG Animation

7.8.1. The SVG ‘animate’ and ‘set’ element

The SVG 1.1 specification did not allow animations of the ‘transform’ attribute using the SVG ‘animate’ element or the SVG ‘set’ element. This specification explicitly allows the animation of the presentation attributes ‘transform’, ‘gradientTransform’ and ‘patternTransform’ for the ‘animate’ and ‘set’ elements. SVG animation must run the same animation steps as described in section Transitions and Animations between Transform Values.

7.8.2. The SVG ‘attributeName’ attribute

SVG 1.1 Animation defines the ‘attributeName’ attribute to specify the name of the target attribute. For the presentation attributes ‘gradientTransform’ and ‘patternTransform’ it will also be possible to use the value ‘transform’. The same ‘transform’ property will get animated.

<linearGradient gradientTransform="scale(2)">
    <animate attributeName="gradientTransform" from="scale(2)" to="scale(4)"
          dur="3s" additive="sum"/>
    <animate attributeName="transform" from="translate(0, 0)" to="translate(100px, 100px)"
          dur="3s" additive="sum"/>
</linearGradient>

7.8.3. The SVG ‘animateTransform’ element

This specification introduces new transform functions that are not supported by SVG 1.1 Animation. The SVG ‘type’ attribute gets extended by all transform functions listed in 2D Transform Functions, 3D Transform Functions and SVG Transform Functions.

The attributes ‘from’, ‘by’ and ‘to’ of the ‘animateTransform’ element take the argument(s) to the functional notation and follow the syntax of the SVG ‘transform’ attribute.

The ‘values’ attribute of the ‘animateTransform’ element consists of a semicolon-separated list of values, where each individual value is expressed as described above for ‘from’, ‘by’ and ‘to’ attributes.

8. The ‘transform-origin’ Property

The values of the ‘transform’ and ‘transform-origin’ properties are used to compute the transformation matrix, as described above.

If only one value is specified, the second value is assumed to be ‘center’. If one or two values are specified, the third value is assumed to be ‘0px’.

If at least one of the first two values is not a keyword, then the first value represents the horizontal position (or offset) and the second represents the vertical position (or offset). The third value always represents the Z position (or offset).

<percentage> and <length> for the first two values represent an offset of the transform origin from the top left corner of the element's bounding box.

For SVG elements without an associated CSS layout box the <length> values represent an offset from the point of origin of the element's local coordinate space.

The resolved value of ‘transform-origin’ is the used value (i.e., percentages are resolved to absolute lengths).

9. The ‘transform-style’ Property

A value of ‘preserve-3d’ for ‘transform-style’ establishes a stacking context.

The following CSS property values require the user agent to create a flattened representation of the descendant elements before they can be applied, and therefore override the behavior of ‘transform-style’: ‘preserve-3d’:

• ‘overflow’: any value other than ‘visible’.
• ‘opacity’: any value other than 1.
• ‘filter’: any value other than ‘none’.

The values of the ‘transform’ and ‘transform-origin’ properties are used to compute the transformation matrix, as described above.

10. The ‘perspective’ Property

If the value is ‘none’, no perspective transform is applied. Lengths must be positive.

The use of this property with any value other than ‘none’ establishes a stacking context. It also establishes a containing block (somewhat similar to ‘position: relative’), just like the ‘transform’ property does.

The values of the ‘perspective’ and ‘perspective-origin’ properties are used to compute the perspective matrix, as described above.

11. The ‘perspective-origin’ Property

The ‘perspective-origin’ property establishes the origin for the perspective property. It effectively sets the X and Y position at which the viewer appears to be looking at the children of the element.

The values of the ‘perspective’ and ‘perspective-origin’ properties are used to compute the perspective matrix, as described above.

If only one value is specified, the second value is assumed to be ‘center’.

If at least one of the two values 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 represent an offset of the perspective origin from the top left corner of the element's bounding box.

The resolved value of ‘perspective-origin’ is the used value (i.e., percentages are resolved to absolute lengths).

12. The ‘backface-visibility’ Property

The ‘backface-visibility’ property determines whether or not the "back" side of a transformed element is visible when facing the viewer. With an identity transform, the front side of an element faces the viewer. Applying a rotation about Y of 180 degrees (for instance) would cause the back side of the element to face the viewer.

This property is useful when you place two elements back-to-back, as you would to create a playing card. Without this property, the front and back elements could switch places at times during an animation to flip the card. Another example is creating a box out of 6 elements, but where you want to see the inside faces of the box. This is useful when creating the backdrop for a 3 dimensional stage.

The visibility of an element with ‘backface-visibility: hidden’ is determined as follows:

1. For an element in a 3D rendering context, compute its accumulated 3D transformation matrix. For an element not in a 3D rendering context, compute its transformation matrix.
2. If the component of the matrix in row 3, column 3 is negative, then the element should be hidden. Otherwise it is visible.

The reasoning for this definition is as follows. Assume elements are rectangles in the x–y plane with infinitesimal thickness. The front of the untransformed element has coordinates like (x, y, ε), and the back is (x, y, −ε), for some very small ε. We want to know if after the transformation, the front of the element is closer to the viewer than the back (higher z-value) or further away. The z-coordinate of the front will be M₁₃x + M₂₃y + M₃₃ε + M₄₃, before accounting for perspective, and the back will be M₁₃x + M₂₃y − M₃₃ε + M₄₃. The first quantity is greater than the second if and only if M₃₃ > 0. (If it equals zero, the front and back are equally close to the viewer. This probably means something like a 90-degree rotation, which makes the element invisible anyway, so we don't really care whether it vanishes.)

13. The Transform Functions

The value of the transform property is a list of <transform-functions>. The set of allowed transform functions is given below. For <transform-functions> the type <translation-value> is defined as a <length> or <percentage> value, and the <angle> type is defined by CSS Values and Units Module. Wherever <angle> is used in this specification, a <number> that is equal to zero is also allowed, which is treated the same as an angle of zero degrees.

13.1. 2D Transform Functions

matrix(<number>, <number>, <number>, <number>, <number>, <number>)

specifies a 2D transformation in the form of a transformation matrix of the six values a-f.

translate(<translation-value>[, <translation-value>])

specifies a 2D translation by the vector [tx, ty], where tx is the first translation-value parameter and ty is the optional second translation-value parameter. If <ty> is not provided, ty has zero as a value.

translateX(<translation-value>)

specifies a translation by the given amount in the X direction.

translateY(<translation-value>)

specifies a translation by the given amount in the Y direction.

scale(<number>[, <number>])

specifies a 2D scale operation by the [sx,sy] scaling vector described by the 2 parameters. If the second parameter is not provided, it is takes a value equal to the first. For example, scale(1, 1) would leave an element unchanged, while scale(2, 2) would cause it to appear twice as long in both the X and Y axes, or four times its typical geometric size.

scaleX(<number>)

specifies a 2D scale operation using the [sx,1] scaling vector, where sx is given as the parameter.

scaleY(<number>)

specifies a 2D scale operation using the [1,sy] scaling vector, where sy is given as the parameter.

rotate(<angle>)

specifies a 2D rotation by the angle specified in the parameter about the origin of the element, as defined by the ‘transform-origin’ property. For example, ‘rotate(90deg)’ would cause elements to appear rotated one-quarter of a turn in the clockwise direction.

skewX(<angle>)

specifies a 2D skew transformation along the X axis by the given angle.

skewY(<angle>)

specifies a 2D skew transformation along the Y axis by the given angle.

13.2. 3D Transform Functions

matrix3d(<number>, <number>, <number>, <number>, <number>, <number>, <number>, <number>, <number>, <number>, <number>, <number>, <number>, <number>, <number>, <number>)

specifies a 3D transformation as a 4x4 homogeneous matrix of 16 values in column-major order.

translate3d(<translation-value>, <translation-value>, <length>)

specifies a 3D translation by the vector [tx,ty,tz], with tx, ty and tz being the first, second and third translation-value parameters respectively.

translateZ(<length>)

specifies a 3D translation by the vector [0,0,tz] with the given amount in the Z direction.

scale3d(<number>, <number>, <number>)

specifies a 3D scale operation by the [sx,sy,sz] scaling vector described by the 3 parameters.

scaleZ(<number>)

specifies a 3D scale operation using the [1,1,sz] scaling vector, where sz is given as the parameter.

rotate3d(<number>, <number>, <number>, <angle>)

specifies a 3D rotation by the angle specified in last parameter about the [x,y,z] direction vector described by the first three parameters. If the direction vector is not of unit length, it will be normalized. A direction vector that cannot be normalized, such as [0,0,0], will cause the rotation to not be applied. Note: The rotation is clockwise as one looks from the end of the vector toward the origin.

rotateX(<angle>)

same as rotate3d(1, 0, 0, <angle>).

rotateY(<angle>)

same as rotate3d(0, 1, 0, <angle>).

rotateZ(<angle>)

same as rotate3d(0, 0, 1, <angle>), which is also the same as rotate(<angle>).

perspective(<length>)

specifies a perspective projection matrix. This matrix scales points in X and Y based on their Z value, scaling points with positive Z values away from the origin, and those with negative Z values towards the origin. Points on the z=0 plane are unchanged. The parameter represents the distance of the z=0 plane from the viewer. Lower values give a more flattened pyramid and therefore a more pronounced perspective effect. For example, a value of 1000px gives a moderate amount of foreshortening and a value of 200px gives an extreme amount. The value for depth must be greater than zero, otherwise the function is invalid.

14. The Transform Function Lists

If a list of <transform-functions> is provided, then the net effect is as if each transform function 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.

15. Transitions and Animations between Transform Values

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.

• If the ‘from’ and ‘to’ transforms are both single functions of the same type:
  • For translate, translate3d, translateX, translateY, translateZ, scale, scale3d, scaleX, scaleY, scaleZ, rotate, rotateX, rotateY, rotateZ, skewX and skewY functions:
    • the individual components of the function are interpolated numerically.
  • For perspective, matrix, matrix3d and rotate3d:
    • the values are first converted to a 4x4 matrix, then decomposed using the method described by unmatrix into separate translation, scale, rotation, skew and perspective matrices, then each decomposed matrix is interpolated numerically, and finally combined in order to produce a resulting 4x4 matrix.
• If both the ‘from’ and ‘to’ transforms are "none":
  • There is no interpolation necessary
• If one of the ‘from’ or ‘to’ transforms is "none":
  • The ‘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), translate3d(0, 0, 0), translateX(0), translateY(0), translateZ(0), scale(1), scale3d(1, 1, 1), scaleX(1), scaleY(1), scaleZ(1), rotate(0), rotate3d(1, 1, 1, 0), rotateX(0), rotateY(0), rotateZ(0), skewX(0), skewY(0), matrix(1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0) and matrix3d(1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1).

• If both the ‘from’ and ‘to’ transforms have the same number of transform functions and corresponding functions in each transform list are of the same type:
  • Each transform function is animated with its corresponding destination function in isolation using the rules described above. The individual values are then applied as a list to produce resulting transform value.
• Otherwise:
  • The transform function lists are each converted into the equivalent matrix3d value and animation proceeds using the rule for a single function above.

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.

16. Matrix Decomposition for Animation

When interpolating between 2 matrices, each is decomposed into the corresponding translation, rotation, scale, skew and perspective 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". The pseudocode below works on a 4x4 homogeneous matrix.

16.1. Unmatrix

          Input:  matrix      ; a 4x4 matrix
          Output: translation ; a 3 component vector
                  rotation    ; Euler angles, represented as a 3 component vector
                  scale       ; a 3 component vector
                  skew        ; skew factors XY,XZ,YZ represented as a 3 component vector
                  perspective ; a 4 component vector
          Returns false if the matrix cannot be decomposed, true if it can
          Supporting functions (point is a 3 component vector, matrix is a 4x4 matrix):
            double  determinant(matrix)         returns the 4x4 determinant of the matrix
            matrix inverse(matrix)              returns the inverse of the passed matrix
            matrix transpose(matrix)            returns the transpose of the passed matrix
            point  multVecMatrix(point, matrix) multiplies the passed point by the passed matrix
                                                and returns the transformed point
            double  length(point)               returns the length of the passed vector
            point  normalize(point)             normalizes the length of the passed point to 1
            double  dot(point, point)           returns the dot product of the passed points
            double  cos(double)                 returns the cosine of the passed angle in radians
            double  asin(double)                returns the arcsine in radians of the passed value
            double  atan2(double y, double 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, double ascl, double bscl)
                result[0] = (ascl * a[0]) + (bscl * b[0])
                result[1] = (ascl * a[1]) + (bscl * b[1])
                result[2] = (ascl * a[2]) + (bscl * b[2])
                return result
          // Normalize the matrix.
          if (matrix[3][3] == 0)
              return false
          for (i = 0; i < 4; i++)
              for (j = 0; j < 4; j++)
                  matrix[i][j] /= matrix[3][3]
          // perspectiveMatrix is used to solve for perspective, but it also provides
          // an easy way to test for singularity of the upper 3x3 component.
          perspectiveMatrix = matrix
          for (i = 0; i < 3; i++)
              perspectiveMatrix[i][3] = 0
          perspectiveMatrix[3][3] = 1
          if (determinant(perspectiveMatrix) == 0)
              return false
          // First, isolate perspective.
          if (matrix[0][3] != 0 || matrix[1][3] != 0 || matrix[2][3] != 0)
              // rightHandSide is the right hand side of the equation.
              rightHandSide[0] = matrix[0][3];
              rightHandSide[1] = matrix[1][3];
              rightHandSide[2] = matrix[2][3];
              rightHandSide[3] = matrix[3][3];
              // Solve the equation by inverting perspectiveMatrix and multiplying
              // rightHandSide by the inverse.
              inversePerspectiveMatrix = inverse(perspectiveMatrix)
              transposedInversePerspectiveMatrix = transposeMatrix4(inversePerspectiveMatrix)
              perspective = multVecMatrix(rightHandSide, transposedInversePerspectiveMatrix)
               // Clear the perspective partition
              matrix[0][3] = matrix[1][3] = matrix[2][3] = 0
              matrix[3][3] = 1
          else
              // No perspective.
              perspective[0] = perspective[1] = perspective[2] = 0
              perspective[3] = 1
          // Next take care of translation
          translate[0] = matrix[3][0]
          matrix[3][0] = 0
          translate[1] = matrix[3][1]
          matrix[3][1] = 0
          translate[2] = matrix[3][2]
          matrix[3][2] = 0
          // Now get scale and shear. 'row' is a 3 element array of 3 component vectors
          for (i = 0; i < 3; i++)
              row[i][0] = matrix[i][0]
              row[i][1] = matrix[i][1]
              row[i][2] = matrix[i][2]
          // Compute X scale factor and normalize first row.
          scale[0] = length(row[0])
          row[0] = normalize(row[0])
          // Compute XY shear factor and make 2nd row orthogonal to 1st.
          skew[0] = dot(row[0], row[1])
          row[1] = combine(row[1], row[0], 1.0, -skew[0])
          // Now, compute Y scale and normalize 2nd row.
          scale[1] = length(row[1])
          row[1] = normalize(row[1])
          skew[0] /= scale[1];
          // Compute XZ and YZ shears, orthogonalize 3rd row
          skew[1] = dot(row[0], row[2])
          row[2] = combine(row[2], row[0], 1.0, -skew[1])
          skew[2] = dot(row[1], row[2])
          row[2] = combine(row[2], row[1], 1.0, -skew[2])
          // Next, get Z scale and normalize 3rd row.
          scale[2] = length(row[2])
          row[2] = normalize(row[2])
          skew[1] /= scale[2]
          skew[2] /= scale[2]
          // At this point, the matrix (in rows) is orthonormal.
          // Check for a coordinate system flip.  If the determinant
          // is -1, then negate the matrix and the scaling factors.
          pdum3 = cross(row[1], row[2])
          if (dot(row[0], pdum3) < 0)
              for (i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
                  scale[0] *= -1;
                  row[i][0] *= -1
                  row[i][1] *= -1
                  row[i][2] *= -1
          // Now, get the rotations ou
          rotate[1] = asin(-row[0][2]);
          if (cos(rotate[1]) != 0)
             rotate[0] = atan2(row[1][2], row[2][2]);
             rotate[2] = atan2(row[0][1], row[0][0]);
          else
             rotate[0] = atan2(-row[2][0], row[1][1]);
             rotate[2] = 0;
          return true;

16.2. Animating the components

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.

16.3. Recomposing the matrix

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 4x4 matrix. This can be done using the transform functions of the ‘transform’ property. This can be done by the following pseudo code. The values passed in are the output of the Unmatrix function above:

          matrix3d(1,0,0,0, 0,1,0,0, 0,0,1,0, perspective[0], perspective[1], perspective[2], perspective[3])
          translate3d(translation[0], translation[1], translation[2])
          rotateX(rotation[0]) rotateY(rotation[1]) rotateZ(rotation[2])
          matrix3d(1,0,0,0, 0,1,0,0, 0,skew[2],1,0, 0,0,0,1)
          matrix3d(1,0,0,0, 0,1,0,0, skew[1],0,1,0, 0,0,0,1)
          matrix3d(1,0,0,0, skew[0],1,0,0, 0,0,1,0, 0,0,0,1)
          scale3d(scale[0], scale[1], scale[2])

17. Mathematical Description of Transform Functions

Mathematically, all transform functions can be represented as 4x4 transformation matrices of the following form:

• A 2D 3x2 matrix with six parameters a, b, c, d, e and f is equivalent to to the matrix:

  

• A 2D translation with the parameters tx and ty is equivalent to a 3D translation where tz has zero as a value.

• A 2D scaling with the parameters sx and sy is equivalent to a 3D scale where sz has one as a value.

• A 2D rotation with the parameter alpha is equivalent to a 3D rotation with vector [0,0,1] and parameter alpha.

• A 2D skew transformation along the X axis with the parameter alpha is equivalent to the matrix:

  

• A 2D skew transformation along the Y axis with the parameter beta is equivalent to the matrix:

  

• A 3D translation with the parameters tx, ty and tz is equivalent to the matrix:

  

• A 3D scaling with the parameters sx, sy and sz is equivalent to the matrix:

  

• A 3D rotation with the vector [x,y,z] and the parameter alpha is equivalent to the matrix:

  

  where:

  

• A perspective projection matrix with the parameter d is equivalent to the matrix:

  

18. References

Normative references

[CSS21]

Bert Bos; et al. Cascading Style Sheets Level 2 Revision 1 (CSS 2.1) Specification. 7 June 2011. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/2011/REC-CSS2-20110607

Other references

[SVG11]

Erik Dahlström; et al. Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 (Second Edition). 16 August 2011. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/2011/REC-SVG11-20110816/

Property index

Index

• 3D rendering context, 4.
• accumulated 3D transformation matrix, 4.
• backface-visibility, 12.
• bounding box, 4.
• perspective, 10.
• perspective matrix, 4.
• perspective-origin, 11.
• transform, 6.
• transformable element, 4.
• transformation matrix, 4.
• transform-origin, 8.
• transform-style, 9.