transform-style

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since March 2022.

The transform-style CSS property sets whether children of an element are positioned in the 3D space or are flattened in the plane of the element.

Try it

If flattened, the element's children will not exist on their own in the 3D-space.

As this property is not inherited, it must be set for all non-leaf descendants of the element.

Syntax

css
/* Keyword values */
transform-style: flat;
transform-style: preserve-3d;

/* Global values */
transform-style: inherit;
transform-style: initial;
transform-style: revert;
transform-style: revert-layer;
transform-style: unset;

Values

flat

Indicates that the children of the element are lying in the plane of the element itself.

preserve-3d

Indicates that the children of the element should be positioned in the 3D-space.

Description

The spec lists some grouping property values, which require the user agent to create a flattened representation of the descendant elements before they can be applied, and therefore force the element to have a used value of transform-style: flat, even when preserve-3d is specified. These property values include:

  • overflow: any value other than visible or clip.
  • opacity: any value less than 1.
  • filter: any value other than none.
  • clip: any value other than auto.
  • clip-path: any value other than none.
  • isolation: used value of isolate.
  • mask-image: any value other than none.
  • mask-border-source: any value other than none.
  • mix-blend-mode: any value other than normal.
  • contain: paint and any other property/value combination that causes paint containment. This includes any property that affect the used value of the contain property, such as content-visibility: hidden.

Formal definition

Initial valueflat
Applies totransformable elements
Inheritedno
Computed valueas specified
Animation typediscrete
Creates stacking contextyes

Formal syntax

transform-style = 
  flat         |
  preserve-3d

Examples

Transform style demonstration

In this example we have a 3D cube created using transforms. The parent container of the cube faces has transform-style: preserve-3d set on it by default, so it is transformed in the 3D space and you can see it as intended.

We also provide a checkbox allowing you to toggle between this, and transform-style: flat. In this alternative state, the cube faces are all flattened onto the plane of their parent, and you might not be able to see them at all, depending on the browser you are using.

HTML

html
<section id="example-element">
  <div class="face front">1</div>
  <div class="face back">2</div>
  <div class="face right">3</div>
  <div class="face left">4</div>
  <div class="face top">5</div>
  <div class="face bottom">6</div>
</section>

<div class="checkbox">
  <label for="preserve"><code>preserve-3d</code></label>
  <input type="checkbox" id="preserve" checked />
</div>

CSS

css
#example-element {
  margin: 50px;
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  transform-style: preserve-3d;
  transform: rotate3d(1, 1, 1, 30deg);
}

.face {
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  position: absolute;
  backface-visibility: inherit;
  font-size: 60px;
  color: #fff;
}

.front {
  background: rgb(90 90 90 / 70%);
  transform: translateZ(50px);
}

.back {
  background: rgb(0 210 0 / 70%);
  transform: rotateY(180deg) translateZ(50px);
}

.right {
  background: rgb(210 0 0 / 70%);
  transform: rotateY(90deg) translateZ(50px);
}

.left {
  background: rgb(0 0 210 / 70%);
  transform: rotateY(-90deg) translateZ(50px);
}

.top {
  background: rgb(210 210 0 / 70%);
  transform: rotateX(90deg) translateZ(50px);
}

.bottom {
  background: rgb(210 0 210 / 70%);
  transform: rotateX(-90deg) translateZ(50px);
}

JavaScript

js
const cube = document.getElementById("example-element");
const checkbox = document.getElementById("preserve");

checkbox.addEventListener("change", () => {
  cube.style.transformStyle = checkbox.checked ? "preserve-3d" : "flat";
});

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Transforms Module Level 2
# transform-style-property

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also