CSS backface-visibility

View Output

The CSS backface-visibility property is used to determine whether the back of the element is visible when it has been rotated and its back is facing the user.

It accepts a value of either visible or hidden, which results in the element's backface being either visible or hidden.

Syntax

Possible Values

visible: Specifies that the element's backface should be visible (if the element has been rotated to such a degree that the backface is facing the user).
hidden: Specifies that the element's backface should be hidden (if the element has been rotated to such a degree that the backface is facing the user).

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

visible

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

As specified.

Example Code

Basic CSS

Working Example within an HTML Document

View Output

CSS Specifications

The backface-visibility property is defined in CSS Transforms Module Level 1 (W3C Working Draft)

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.