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gorobey/a-css-only-carousel-slider.markdown

Created September 29, 2025 09:49
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  1. gorobey created this gist Sep 29, 2025.
    21 changes: 21 additions & 0 deletions a-css-only-carousel-slider.markdown
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    A CSS-only Carousel Slider
    --------------------------
    I've recently read about and discussed CSS Scroll Snapping so often that I felt like I should build a CSS-only carousel based on it.

    Here are a few things to note:

    Accessibility is in line with all other CSS-only experiments: it can only be considered mediocre in term of semantics and visual indicators. Don't do this in production.

    The going forward and back is done via a combination of [CSS Scroll Snap](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/CSS_Scroll_Snap) together with [`scroll-behavior: smooth`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/scroll-behavior) and moving the focus through the slides via anchor links.

    The nicest trick I pull off is the one for the auto-forward:

    1. first I slowly offset the scroll snap points to the right, making the scroll area follow along due to being snapped to them.
    2. after having scrolled the width of a whole slide, I deactivate the snapping. The scroll area is now untied from the scroll snap points.
    3. Now I let the scroll snap points jump back to their initial positions without them "snap-dragging" the scroll area back with them
    4. Then I re-engage the snapping which now lets the scroll area snap to a different snap point 🤯 Whatever... look at the code 🙃


    A [Pen](https://codepen.io/Schepp/pen/WNbQByE) by [Christian "Schepp" Schaefer](https://codepen.io/Schepp) on [CodePen](https://codepen.io).

    [License](https://codepen.io/license/pen/WNbQByE).
    65 changes: 65 additions & 0 deletions index.html
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    <h1>CSS-only Carousel</h1>

    <p>This carousel is created with HTML and CSS only.</p>

    <section class="carousel" aria-label="Gallery">
    <ol class="carousel__viewport">
    <li id="carousel__slide1"
    tabindex="0"
    class="carousel__slide">
    <div class="carousel__snapper">
    <a href="#carousel__slide4"
    class="carousel__prev">Go to last slide</a>
    <a href="#carousel__slide2"
    class="carousel__next">Go to next slide</a>
    </div>
    </li>
    <li id="carousel__slide2"
    tabindex="0"
    class="carousel__slide">
    <div class="carousel__snapper"></div>
    <a href="#carousel__slide1"
    class="carousel__prev">Go to previous slide</a>
    <a href="#carousel__slide3"
    class="carousel__next">Go to next slide</a>
    </li>
    <li id="carousel__slide3"
    tabindex="0"
    class="carousel__slide">
    <div class="carousel__snapper"></div>
    <a href="#carousel__slide2"
    class="carousel__prev">Go to previous slide</a>
    <a href="#carousel__slide4"
    class="carousel__next">Go to next slide</a>
    </li>
    <li id="carousel__slide4"
    tabindex="0"
    class="carousel__slide">
    <div class="carousel__snapper"></div>
    <a href="#carousel__slide3"
    class="carousel__prev">Go to previous slide</a>
    <a href="#carousel__slide1"
    class="carousel__next">Go to first slide</a>
    </li>
    </ol>
    <aside class="carousel__navigation">
    <ol class="carousel__navigation-list">
    <li class="carousel__navigation-item">
    <a href="#carousel__slide1"
    class="carousel__navigation-button">Go to slide 1</a>
    </li>
    <li class="carousel__navigation-item">
    <a href="#carousel__slide2"
    class="carousel__navigation-button">Go to slide 2</a>
    </li>
    <li class="carousel__navigation-item">
    <a href="#carousel__slide3"
    class="carousel__navigation-button">Go to slide 3</a>
    </li>
    <li class="carousel__navigation-item">
    <a href="#carousel__slide4"
    class="carousel__navigation-button">Go to slide 4</a>
    </li>
    </ol>
    </aside>
    </section>
    228 changes: 228 additions & 0 deletions style.css
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    @keyframes tonext {
    75% {
    left: 0;
    }
    95% {
    left: 100%;
    }
    98% {
    left: 100%;
    }
    99% {
    left: 0;
    }
    }

    @keyframes tostart {
    75% {
    left: 0;
    }
    95% {
    left: -300%;
    }
    98% {
    left: -300%;
    }
    99% {
    left: 0;
    }
    }

    @keyframes snap {
    96% {
    scroll-snap-align: center;
    }
    97% {
    scroll-snap-align: none;
    }
    99% {
    scroll-snap-align: none;
    }
    100% {
    scroll-snap-align: center;
    }
    }

    body {
    max-width: 37.5rem;
    margin: 0 auto;
    padding: 0 1.25rem;
    font-family: 'Lato', sans-serif;
    }

    * {
    box-sizing: border-box;
    scrollbar-color: transparent transparent; /* thumb and track color */
    scrollbar-width: 0px;
    }

    *::-webkit-scrollbar {
    width: 0;
    }

    *::-webkit-scrollbar-track {
    background: transparent;
    }

    *::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb {
    background: transparent;
    border: none;
    }

    * {
    -ms-overflow-style: none;
    }

    ol, li {
    list-style: none;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
    }

    .carousel {
    position: relative;
    padding-top: 75%;
    filter: drop-shadow(0 0 10px #0003);
    perspective: 100px;
    }

    .carousel__viewport {
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    right: 0;
    bottom: 0;
    left: 0;
    display: flex;
    overflow-x: scroll;
    counter-reset: item;
    scroll-behavior: smooth;
    scroll-snap-type: x mandatory;
    }

    .carousel__slide {
    position: relative;
    flex: 0 0 100%;
    width: 100%;
    background-color: #f99;
    counter-increment: item;
    }

    .carousel__slide:nth-child(even) {
    background-color: #99f;
    }

    .carousel__slide:before {
    content: counter(item);
    position: absolute;
    top: 50%;
    left: 50%;
    transform: translate3d(-50%,-40%,70px);
    color: #fff;
    font-size: 2em;
    }

    .carousel__snapper {
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    left: 0;
    width: 100%;
    height: 100%;
    scroll-snap-align: center;
    }

    @media (hover: hover) {
    .carousel__snapper {
    animation-name: tonext, snap;
    animation-timing-function: ease;
    animation-duration: 4s;
    animation-iteration-count: infinite;
    }

    .carousel__slide:last-child .carousel__snapper {
    animation-name: tostart, snap;
    }
    }

    @media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) {
    .carousel__snapper {
    animation-name: none;
    }
    }

    .carousel:hover .carousel__snapper,
    .carousel:focus-within .carousel__snapper {
    animation-name: none;
    }

    .carousel__navigation {
    position: absolute;
    right: 0;
    bottom: 0;
    left: 0;
    text-align: center;
    }

    .carousel__navigation-list,
    .carousel__navigation-item {
    display: inline-block;
    }

    .carousel__navigation-button {
    display: inline-block;
    width: 1.5rem;
    height: 1.5rem;
    background-color: #333;
    background-clip: content-box;
    border: 0.25rem solid transparent;
    border-radius: 50%;
    font-size: 0;
    transition: transform 0.1s;
    }

    .carousel::before,
    .carousel::after,
    .carousel__prev,
    .carousel__next {
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    margin-top: 37.5%;
    width: 4rem;
    height: 4rem;
    transform: translateY(-50%);
    border-radius: 50%;
    font-size: 0;
    outline: 0;
    }

    .carousel::before,
    .carousel__prev {
    left: -1rem;
    }

    .carousel::after,
    .carousel__next {
    right: -1rem;
    }

    .carousel::before,
    .carousel::after {
    content: '';
    z-index: 1;
    background-color: #333;
    background-size: 1.5rem 1.5rem;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-position: center center;
    color: #fff;
    font-size: 2.5rem;
    line-height: 4rem;
    text-align: center;
    pointer-events: none;
    }

    .carousel::before {
    background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg viewBox='0 0 100 100' xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%3E%3Cpolygon points='0,50 80,100 80,0' fill='%23fff'/%3E%3C/svg%3E");
    }

    .carousel::after {
    background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg viewBox='0 0 100 100' xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%3E%3Cpolygon points='100,50 20,100 20,0' fill='%23fff'/%3E%3C/svg%3E");
    }