CSS transform-style

<!doctype html>
<title>Example</title>
<style>
.container {
  position: relative;
  left:80px;
  top:60px;
  height: 200px;
  width: 200px;
  margin: 1px;
  border: 1px dotted firebrick;
  perspective: 250px; 
}
.rotate {
  padding:10px;
  width: 200px;
  height: 200px;
  text-align:center;
  background-color: gold;
  opacity: 0.8;
  transform-style: preserve-3d;
  animation: rotate 7s linear 0s infinite reverse none;
}
.container:hover .rotate {
  transform-style: flat;
}
@keyframes rotate {
  from { transform: rotateX(0); }
  to   { transform: rotateX(360deg); }
}
.rotate > div {
  position: absolute;
  top: 40px;
  left: 40px;
  width: 80px;
  height: 50px;
  padding: 10px;
  box-sizing: border-box;
}
.rotate > :first-child {
  width:80px;
  height:70px;
  background-color: chartreuse;
  transform: translateZ(-80px) rotateY(35deg);
}
.rotate > :last-child {
  width:100px;
  height:50px;
  background-color: plum;
  transform: translateZ(50px) rotateX(50deg);
  transform-origin: 50% top;
}
</style>

<p>Hover over the rotating boxes to see what happens when the <code>transform-style</code> goes from <code>preserve-3d</code> to <code>flat</code>.</p>
<div class="container">
	<div class="rotate">Rotating box...
      <div>First Child</div>
      <div>Last Child</div>	
	</div>
</div>

The CSS transform-style property is used to determine whether child elements (of a 3D element) should be 3D or flat.

If the value is preserve-3d, the children of the element will be positioned in the 3D-space (i.e. they will appear as 3D). If the value is flat, the children will appear flat (i.e. they won't appear as 3D).

Syntax

Possible Values

Explanation of these values:

preserve-3d: Specifies that the children of the element should be positioned in the 3D-space.
flat: Specifies that the children of the element are lying in the plane of the element itself.

In addition, all CSS properties also accept the following CSS-wide keyword values as the sole component of their property value:

initial: Represents the value specified as the property's initial value.
inherit: Represents the computed value of the property on the element's parent.
unset: This value acts as either inherit or initial, depending on whether the property is inherited or not. In other words, it sets all properties to their parent value if they are inheritable or to their initial value if not inheritable.

Basic Property Information

Initial Value

flat

Applies To

This property applies only to transformable elements.

In HTML, a transformable element is either:

a block-level or atomic inline-level element
or whose CSS display property computes to table-row, table-row-group, table-header-group, table-footer-group, table-cell, or table-caption

In SVG, a transformable element is an element which has the attributes transform, patternTransform or gradientTransform.

Inherited?

Media

Visual

Computed Value

Same as specified value.

Example Code

Basic CSS

Working Example within an HTML Document

<!doctype html>
<title>Example</title>
<style>
.container {
  position: relative;
  left:80px;
  top:60px;
  height: 200px;
  width: 200px;
  margin: 1px;
  border: 1px dotted firebrick;
  perspective: 250px; 
}
.rotate {
  padding:10px;
  width: 200px;
  height: 200px;
  text-align:center;
  background-color: gold;
  opacity: 0.8;
  transform-style: preserve-3d;
  animation: rotate 7s linear 0s infinite reverse none;
}
.container:hover .rotate {
  transform-style: flat;
}
@keyframes rotate {
  from { transform: rotateX(0); }
  to   { transform: rotateX(360deg); }
}
.rotate > div {
  position: absolute;
  top: 40px;
  left: 40px;
  width: 80px;
  height: 50px;
  padding: 10px;
  box-sizing: border-box;
}
.rotate > :first-child {
  width:80px;
  height:70px;
  background-color: chartreuse;
  transform: translateZ(-80px) rotateY(35deg);
}
.rotate > :last-child {
  width:100px;
  height:50px;
  background-color: plum;
  transform: translateZ(50px) rotateX(50deg);
  transform-origin: 50% top;
}
</style>

<p>Hover over the rotating boxes to see what happens when the <code>transform-style</code> goes from <code>preserve-3d</code> to <code>flat</code>.</p>
<div class="container">
	<div class="rotate">Rotating box...
      <div>First Child</div>
      <div>Last Child</div>	
	</div>
</div>

Try it

CSS Specifications

The transform-style property is defined in CSS Transforms Module Level 1 (W3C Working Draft, 26 November 2013).

Browser Support

The following table provided by Caniuse.com shows the level of browser support for this feature.

Vendor Prefixes

For maximum browser compatibility many web developers add browser-specific properties by using extensions such as -webkit- for Safari, Google Chrome, and Opera (newer versions), -ms- for Internet Explorer, -moz- for Firefox, -o- for older versions of Opera etc. As with any CSS property, if a browser doesn't support a proprietary extension, it will simply ignore it.

This practice is not recommended by the W3C, however in many cases, the only way you can test a property is to include the CSS extension that is compatible with your browser.

The major browser manufacturers generally strive to adhere to the W3C specifications, and when they support a non-prefixed property, they typically remove the prefixed version. Also, W3C advises vendors to remove their prefixes for properties that reach Candidate Recommendation status.

Many developers use Autoprefixer, which is a postprocessor for CSS. Autoprefixer automatically adds vendor prefixes to your CSS so that you don't need to. It also removes old, unnecessary prefixes from your CSS.

You can also use Autoprefixer with preprocessors such as Less and Sass.

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