Day 81: the order of individual transform properties

posted on 16.01.2023

It’s time to get me up to speed with modern CSS. There’s so much new in CSS that I know too little about. To change that I’ve started #100DaysOfMoreOrLessModernCSS. Why more or less modern CSS? Because some topics will be about cutting-edge features, while other stuff has been around for quite a while already, but I just have little to no experience with it.

On day 66, I’ve introduced you to individual transform properties. An interesting detail about these properties is the order in which transforms are applied compared to the transform property.

If you use the transform property, transformation functions are applied in the order of appearance, from left to right.

<button class="button1">Button 1</button>
<button class="button2">Button 2</button>

.button1 {
  transform: translateX(50px) scale(1.5); 
}

.button2 {
  transform: scale(1.5) translateX(50px); 
}

With individual transform properties, the order of appearance of the declarations doesn’t matter. The order is always the same: translate –> rotate –> scale.

.button3 {
  translate: 50px 0;
  scale: 1.5; 
}

.button4 {
  scale: 1.5; 
  translate: 50px 0;
}

If you mix transform and individual properties, individual transforms get applied first.

.button5 {
  transform: translateX(50px); 
  scale: 1.5;
}

.button6 {
  transform: scale(1.5); 
  translate: 50px 0;
}

See on CodePen

Further reading

• Finer grained control over CSS transforms with individual transform
• Order in CSS transformations – transform functions vs individual

Do you want to learn even more awesome CSS?

I'm running a workshop with my friends at Smashing Magazine in which I introduce you to the most useful modern features in CSS and show how you can implement them today in your code base to improve scalability, maintainability, and productivity.

Learn more about the workshop!

Overview: 100 Days Of More Or Less Modern CSS