ViewportAnimate.js

Easy and performant API for applying CSS animations when elements are scrolled into the viewport.

• Features
• Syntax
• Installation
  • With a package manager
    • npm
    • Bun
  • UMD (browser global)
    • Unpkg
    • JSDelivr
• Example Usage (Plain HTML with Unpkg CDN)
• More Examples

Features

• Non-intrusive: Uses data attribute (data-va) by default.
• Easily integrate with Animate.css.
• Simple syntax for specifying duration, delay and number of iterations for each animation. Standard CSS animation syntax can be used to specify more animation properties.
• Only play animations when elements are scrolled into the viewport, with observer thresholds.
• If desired, replay animations when elements are scrolled out of the viewport and back in.

Syntax

The library also supports a simplified syntax for specifying duration, delay and number of iterations for each animation:

attrib="<control><threshold> <animation-name> +<duration> -<delay> <iterations>x"

Example:

<p data-va="*0.01 fadeIn +1.5s -750ms 2.5x">
  When the element intersects the viewport by 1% of its height,
  play the fadeIn animation with a delay of 750ms and a duration of 1.5s,
  and loop 2.5 times. Also, repeat animation when the element is scrolled out
  of the viewport and back in (*).
</p>

Also, Tthe complete CSS animation syntax or any shorthand that works can be used to specify animation properties:

attrib="<control><threshold> <animation-name> <duration> <timing-function> <delay> <iterations> <direction> <fill-mode> <play-state> <timeline>"

Example:

<p data-va="@0.01 fadeIn 1.5s ease 750ms 2.5 normal none running auto">
  When the element intersects the viewport by 1% of its height,
  play the fadeIn animation with a delay of 750ms and a duration of 1.5s,
  and loop 2.5 times. Do not repeat animation when the element is scrolled out
  of the viewport and back in (*).
</p>

• control is one of the following:
  • @ - Play animation once when the element is scrolled into the viewport. This is the default if you don't specify a control.
  • * - Play animation everytime the element intersects the viewport.
  • ! - Play the animation infinitely. This overrides the iterations value.
• threshold is the percentage of the element's height that must intersect the viewport before the animation is played. Default is 0.01. See IntersectionObserver.thresholds. Multiple thresholds can be specified as a comma-separated list. e.g. 0.01,0.5,0.85.

Installation

Both ESM and UMD builds are available.

With a package manager

For environments like frontend frameworks (React, Vue, Svelte, Astro, etc.), you should use your preferred package manager to install the package:

npm

npm install viewport-animate

Bun

bun install viewport-animate

After installation, ViewportAnimate can be imported:

import { ViewportAnimate } from "viewport-animate";

See the demo Vue project for a complete example.

UMD (browser global)

For direct usage in browsers (plain HTML), you can conveniently load the UMD build directly from a CDN and ViewportAnimate will be available as window.ViewportAnimate:

Unpkg

<script src="https://unpkg.com/viewport-animate/umd.js"></script>

JSDelivr

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/viewport-animate/umd.js"></script>

See the demo HTML project for a complete example.

Example Usage (Plain HTML with Unpkg CDN)

Setup the CSS first. Load the animations from Animate.css via a CDN:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://unpkg.com/animate.css/animate.min.css" />

To ensure the animations are not visible before they are played, add the following CSS:

/* style.css */

[data-va] /* or whatever selector you use */
{
  opacity: 0;
}

... which you typically import as:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css" />

To ensure the elements are visible when JavaScript is disabled, add a separate CSS file:

/* no-js-style.css */

[data-va] /* or whatever selector you use */
{
  opacity: 1 !important;
}

... which you typically import as:

<noscript>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="no-js-styles.css" />
</noscript>

Next, import the module from a CDN:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/viewport-animate/umd.js"></script>

... and then load the module:

<script>
  // Best to wait for the page to load before initializing
  window.addEventListener("load", () => {
    // Initialize with default options
    new ViewportAnimate({
      // if you change this, make sure to update the CSS selector above
      // and the data attribute below
      attribute: "data-va",

      // if threshold is unspecified in animation expression, then fallback
      // to when the element intersects the viewport by 1% of its height
      observerThreshold: 0.01,
    }).init();
  });
</script>

Finally, add the data-va attribute to the elements you want to animate:

Example:

<p data-va="*0.01 fadeIn +1.5s -750ms 2.5x">
  When the element intersects the viewport by 1% of its height,
  play the fadeIn animation with a delay of 750ms and a duration of 1.5s,
  and loop 2.5 times. Also, repeat animation when the element is scrolled out
  of the viewport and back in (*).
</p>

More Examples

• Live Astro Demo
• Astro project
• React project
• Vue project
• HTML project