perspective-origin

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 perspective-origin CSS property determines the position at which the viewer is looking. It is used as the vanishing point by the perspective property.

Try it

perspective-origin: center;

perspective-origin: top;

perspective-origin: bottom right;

perspective-origin: -170%;

perspective-origin: 500% 200%;

<section class="default-example" id="default-example">
  <div class="transition-all" 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>
  </div>
</section>

#default-example {
  background: linear-gradient(skyblue, khaki);
  perspective: 550px;
}

#example-element {
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  transform-style: preserve-3d;
  perspective: 250px;
}

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

.front {
  background: rgba(90, 90, 90, 0.7);
  transform: translateZ(50px);
}

.back {
  background: rgba(0, 210, 0, 0.7);
  transform: rotateY(180deg) translateZ(50px);
}

.right {
  background: rgba(210, 0, 0, 0.7);
  transform: rotateY(90deg) translateZ(50px);
}

.left {
  background: rgba(0, 0, 210, 0.7);
  transform: rotateY(-90deg) translateZ(50px);
}

.top {
  background: rgba(210, 210, 0, 0.7);
  transform: rotateX(90deg) translateZ(50px);
}

.bottom {
  background: rgba(210, 0, 210, 0.7);
  transform: rotateX(-90deg) translateZ(50px);
}

The perspective-origin and perspective properties are attached to the parent of a child transformed in 3-dimensional space, unlike the perspective() transform function which is placed on the element being transformed.

Syntax

css
/* One-value syntax */
perspective-origin: x-position;

/* Two-value syntax */
perspective-origin: x-position y-position;

/* When both x-position and y-position are keywords,
   the following is also valid */
perspective-origin: y-position x-position;

/* Global values */
perspective-origin: inherit;
perspective-origin: initial;
perspective-origin: revert;
perspective-origin: revert-layer;
perspective-origin: unset;

Values

x-position

Indicates the position of the abscissa of the vanishing point. It can have one of the following values:

  • <length-percentage> indicating the position as an absolute length value or relative to the width of the element. The value may be negative.
  • left, a keyword being a shortcut for the 0 length value.
  • center, a keyword being a shortcut for the 50% percentage value.
  • right, a keyword being a shortcut for the 100% percentage value.
y-position

Indicates the position of the ordinate of the vanishing point. It can have one of the following values:

  • <length-percentage> indicating the position as an absolute length value or relative to the height of the element. The value may be negative.
  • top, a keyword being a shortcut for the 0 length value.
  • center, a keyword being a shortcut for the 50% percentage value.
  • bottom, a keyword being a shortcut for the 100% percentage value.

Formal definition

Initial value50% 50%
Applies totransformable elements
Inheritedno
Percentagesrefer to the size of bounding box
Computed valuefor <length> the absolute value, otherwise a percentage
Animation typesimple list of length, percentage, or calc

Formal syntax

perspective-origin = 
  <position>  

<position> = 
  [ left | center | right | top | bottom | <length-percentage> ]  |
  [ left | center | right ] && [ top | center | bottom ]  |
  [ left | center | right | <length-percentage> ] [ top | center | bottom | <length-percentage> ]  |
  [ [ left | right ] <length-percentage> ] && [ [ top | bottom ] <length-percentage> ]  

<length-percentage> = 
  <length>      |
  <percentage>

Examples

Changing the perspective origin

An example showing how to change perspective-origin is given in Using CSS transforms > Changing the perspective origin.

Specifications

Specification
CSS Transforms Module Level 2
# perspective-origin-property

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also