backface-visibility

The CSS backface-visibility property determines whether or not the back face of the element is visible when facing the user. The back face of an element is always a transparent background, letting, when visible, a mirror image of the front face be displayed.

There are cases when we do not want the front face of an element to be visible through the back face, like when doing a flipping card effect (setting two elements side-to-side).

This property has no effect on 2D transforms as there is no perspective.

Initial value	visible
Applies to	transformable elements
Inherited	no
Media	visual
Computed value	as specified
Animation type	discrete
Canonical order	the unique non-ambiguous order defined by the formal grammar

Syntax

backface-visibility: visible;
backface-visibility: hidden;

Values

This property can have two different (exclusive) values:

• visible meaning that the back face is visible, allowing the front face to be displayed mirrored
• hidden meaning that the back face is not visible, hiding the front face

Formal syntax

visible | hidden

Examples

Cube with transparent faces

HTML Content

<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <th><code>backface-visibility: visible;</code></th>
      <th><code>backface-visibility: hidden;</code></th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>
        <div class="container">
          <div class="cube showbf">
            <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>
        </div>
        <p>All the faces are transparent and the three back faces are visible through the front ones.</p>
      </td>
      <td>
        <div class="container">
          <div class="cube hidebf">
            <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>
        </div>
        <p>No face is opaque, but the three back faces are always hidden now.</p>
      </td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

CSS Content

/* Shorthand classes that will show or hide the three back faces of the "cube" */
.hidebf div {
  backface-visibility: hidden;
  -webkit-backface-visibility: hidden;
}

.showbf div {
  backface-visibility: visible;
  -webkit-backface-visibility: visible;
}

/* Define the container div, the cube div, and a generic face */
.container {
  width: 150px;
  height: 150px;
  margin: 75px 0 0 75px;
  border: none;
}

.cube {
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  perspective: 550px;
  perspective-origin: 150% 150%;
  transform-style: preserve-3d;
  -webkit-perspective: 300px;
  -webkit-perspective-origin: 150% 150%;
  -webkit-transform-style: preserve-3d;
}

.face {
  display: block;
  position: absolute;
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  border: none;
  line-height: 100px;
  font-family: sans-serif;
  font-size: 60px;
  color: white;
  text-align: center;
}

/* Define each face based on direction */
.front {
  background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
  transform: translateZ(50px);
  -webkit-transform: translateZ(50px);
}

.back {
  background: rgba(0, 255, 0, 1);
  color: black;
  transform: rotateY(180deg) translateZ(50px);
  -webkit-transform: rotateY(180deg) translateZ(50px);
}

.right {
  background: rgba(196, 0, 0, 0.7);
  transform: rotateY(90deg) translateZ(50px);
  -webkit-transform: rotateY(90deg) translateZ(50px);
}

.left {
  background: rgba(0, 0, 196, 0.7);
  transform: rotateY(-90deg) translateZ(50px);
  -webkit-transform: rotateY(-90deg) translateZ(50px);
}

.top {
  background: rgba(196, 196, 0, 0.7);
  transform: rotateX(90deg) translateZ(50px);
  -webkit-transform: rotateX(90deg) translateZ(50px)
}

.bottom {
  background: rgba(196, 0, 196, 0.7);
  transform: rotateX(-90deg) translateZ(50px);
  -webkit-transform: rotateX(-90deg) translateZ(50px);
}

/* Make the table a little nicer */
th, p, td {
  background-color: #EEEEEE;
  margin: 0px;
  padding: 6px;
  font-family: sans-serif;
  text-align: left;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
CSS Transforms Level 1 The definition of 'backface-visibility' in that specification.	Working Draft	Initial definition

Browser compatibility

[1] In addition to the unprefixed support, Gecko 45.0 (Firefox 45.0 / Thunderbird 45.0 / SeaMonkey 2.42) added support for a -webkit prefixed version of the property for web compatibility reasons behind the preference layout.css.prefixes.webkit, defaulting to false. Since Gecko 49.0 (Firefox 49.0 / Thunderbird 49.0 / SeaMonkey 2.46) the preference defaults to true.

See also

• Using CSS Transforms