React parallax (on scroll effects) component. Lightweight, yet powerful.
npm install react-plx

React component, for creating on scroll effects aka. parallax.
Lightweight, yet powerful.
Version 2 brings even more performance improvements and TypeScript support.
- v2.0.0 breaking changes
- px units are not assumed and need to be provided manually
- ~tagName prop was removed~ it was returned in v2.1.0
Check the live demo. You can find source for the demo here.

I would really like to see what you people have built using Plx and create a showcase section. So please open an issue titled Showcase: so it can be featured. Cheers!
Get it from npm
```
$ npm install --save react-plx
Import and use it in your React app.
`javascript
import React, { Component } from "react";
import Plx from "react-plx";
// An array of parallax effects to be applied - see below for detail
const parallaxData = [
{
start: 0,
end: 500,
properties: [
{
startValue: 1,
endValue: 2,
property: "scale",
},
],
},
];
class Example extends Component {
render() {
return (
/ Your content /
);
}
}
`
- Plx - React Parallax component
- Demo
- Quick start
- Table of contents
- What is this?
- Props
- parallaxData
- properties
- Example of props
- Animation state CSS classes
- Browser support
- License
This is React component which makes creating on scroll effects (aka parallax) easy. If you are not sure what it does, demo should help.
It is lightweight, and beside react, react-dom and prop-types ~~has no dependencies~~, now it has small bezier-easing package. As listening to scroll event is not performant, this component uses different approach. Interval is set (every 16ms to get 60fps) to check if scroll position is changed, and if it is, it broadcasts custom event. All of the Plx components are sharing the scroll manager singleton. Interval is set when the first component is created, and cleared when last one is unmounted. Interval time can be changed through the props, but it is shared across the components.
Elements outside of viewport are not animated. This is done by using getBoundingClientRect, but there is a known bug in iOS with getBoundingClientRect and position fixed. If you get into the same problems, you can force rendering by passing animateWhenNotInViewport={ true }.
Still you need to avoid common "don't dos" when making a parallax page:
- Avoid background-size: cover
- Don’t animate massive images or dramatically resize them
- Avoid animating 100 things at once
- Only use properties that are cheap for browsers to animate - opacity and transform (translate, rotate, skew, scale)
Read this great article to find out more (that is where I got my initial inspiration).
Of course, you can break any of these rules, but test for performance to see if it works for you.
Component is written as ES module, so it will work with webpack and other module bundlers (which is standard for React apps anyway). Tested with react-create-app and my boilerplate, Marvin.
Read more about how it works in this blog post.
- className string
CSS class name (it will be applied along with Plx class name).
- style object
CSS style object, please note that properties used in parallax will be overridden by component.
- animateWhenNotInViewport bool, default false
If set to true element will be animated even when it is not in the viewport.
This is helpful with fixed elements in iOS due to know bug with getBoundingClientRect in iOS.
- disabled boolean
When true disabled animation completely.
- freeze bool, default false
When true animation will be stopped at current state when condition is met.
- parallaxData array of items (item structure described beneath), _required_
Main data, describes parallax segments.
- onPlxStart function
If set, the Plx component will call this function each time the animation state changes to active. (refer to animation state CSS classes)
- onPlxEnd function
If set, the Plx component will call this function each time the animation state changes from active to another state. (refer to animation state CSS classes)
- tagName string, default "div"
HTML or SVG element tag name to be used.
Any other props will be passed to the component (for example this is useful for aria-* props).
- start number, string, HTMLElement, _required_
Scroll position where parallax effect should start.
Can one of the following:
- Number - value in pixels
- String
- Value in px, vh or % (50px, 50%, 25vh). Percentage is calculated out of max page scroll..my-element
- CSS Selector (, #some-id) to be used with document.querySelector."self"
- component's element will be usedHTMLElement
- , given element will be used.
For element, selector and "self" animation will start when that element _enters_ the viewport. You can use startOffset prop to offset start position.
Example:
`js`
start: 100; // starts when scroll hits 100px
start: "self"; // starts when plx's element enters the viewport
start: ".start-element"; // starts when .start-element enters the viewport
PLEASE NOTE that parallaxData should be sorted by start value!
- end number, string, HTMLElement
Scroll position where parallax effect should end.
It has higher priority than duration.
Can one of the following:
- Number - value in pixels
- String
- Value in px, vh or % (50px, 50%, 25vh). Percentage is calculated out of max page scroll..my-element
- CSS Selector (, #some-id) to be used with document.querySelector."self"
- component's element will be usedHTMLElement
- , given element will be used.
For element, selector and "self" animation will end when that element _enters_ the viewport. You can use endOffset prop to offset end position.
Example:
`js`
end: 300; // ends when scroll hits 300px
end: "self"; // ends when plx's element enters the viewport
end: ".end-element"; // ends when .end-element enters the viewport
- duration number, string, HTMLElement
How long should effect last (it will finish
when scroll position equals start + duration).end
It will be used if is not defined.
Can one of the following:
- Number - value in pixels
- String
- Value in px, vh or % (50px, 50%, 25vh). Percentage is calculated out of max page scroll..my-element
- CSS Selector (, #some-id) to be used with document.querySelector.HTMLElement
- , given element will be used.
For element and selector, element's height will be used as duration.
Any other string will be considered CSS selector and it will be used with document.querySelector.
Example:
`js`
duration: 300; // animation will last for 300px
duration: ".duration-element"; // animation will last for .duration-element's height
- startOffset number, string
Start offset, can be a number or string value in px, vh or % (50px, 50%, 25vh).
- endOffset number, string
End offset, can be a number or string value in px, vh or % (50px, 50%, 25vh).
- easing string, function or array, default: 'linear'
Easing function, you can pass the name (string) to choose one of the built-in functions.
Built-in easing functions are:
- ease
- easeIn
- easeOut
- easeInOut
- easeInSine
- easeOutSine
- easeInOutSine
- easeInQuad
- easeOutQuad
- easeInOutQuad
- easeInCubic
- easeOutCubic
- easeInOutCubic
- easeInQuart
- easeOutQuart
- easeInOutQuart
- easeInQuint
- easeOutQuint
- easeInOutQuint
- easeInExpo
- easeOutExpo
- easeInOutExpo
- easeInCirc
- easeOutCirc
- easeInOutCirc
Cubic beziers are supported, pass an array to it with four points of your custom bezier (you can copy CSS beziers).
`js`
easing: [0.25, 0.1, 0.53, 3];
You can even pass custom function which accepts one argument, which will be number from 0 to 1.
`js
// Define your custom easing
const myCustomEasing = (x) => {
return x * x;
};
...
// and then pass it to Plx
easing: myCustomEasing
`
- name string (without spaces)
Name used in animation state CSS classes
- properties array of items (item structure described beneath), _required_
List of properties to be animated
- property string, _required_
CSS property to be animated, works only on properties which accept numerical values (e.g. opacity, height...). For transform use function names instead (e.g. translateX, scale, rotate...). Same goes for filters.
For properties that use pixels (height, width, margin...), please be sure to provide unit: "px" prop.
Supported transform functions are:
- translateX
- translateY
- translateZ
- skew
- skewX
- skewY
- skewZ
- rotate
- rotateX
- rotateY
- rotateZ
- scale
- scaleX
- scaleY
- scaleZ
Supported colors are:
- backgroundColor
- borderBottomColor
- borderColor
- borderLeftColor
- borderRightColor
- borderTopColor
- color
- fill
- stroke
Supported CSS filters are:
- blur
- brightness
- contrast
- grayscale
- hueRotate
- invert
- opacityFilter (as it shares the same name as CSS opacity)
- saturate
- sepia
To keep you parallax effects performant, I strongly advice not to use anything but opacity and transforms.
Some filters should be cheap as well, with blur being the most expensive out of supported filters.
- startValue number (or string for color), _required_
Start value for the effect. Property will have this value when scroll position equals parallaxData.start.#123
For colors supported formats are: , #001122, rgb(0,0,255) and rgba(0,0,255,0.5).
- endValue number (or string for color), _required_
End value for the effect. Property will have this value when scroll position equals parallaxData.end.#123
For colors supported formats are: , #001122, rgb(0,0,255) and rgba(0,0,255,0.5).
Between parallaxData.start and parallaxData.end value will transition relative to scroll position.
- unit string
CSS unit (e.g. %, rem, em...) to be applied to property value. For transforms and filters library is using pixels and degrees by default. For everything else please provide appropriate units (i.e. "px" for "height").
These are the exact props used in this example.
`js`
const exampleParallaxData = [
{
start: 0,
end: 300,
properties: [
{
startValue: 0,
endValue: 90,
property: "rotate",
},
{
startValue: 1,
endValue: 1.5,
property: "scale",
},
{
startValue: 1,
endValue: 0.75,
property: "opacity",
},
],
},
{
start: 350,
duration: 300,
properties: [
{
startValue: "#3cb99c",
endValue: "rgba(50,50,200,0.8)",
property: "backgroundColor",
},
{
startValue: 0,
endValue: 100,
property: "translateY",
},
{
startValue: 0.75,
endValue: 1,
property: "opacity",
},
],
},
{
start: 700,
duration: 1000,
properties: [
{
startValue: 100,
endValue: 0,
property: "translateY",
},
{
startValue: 1.5,
endValue: 2,
property: "scale",
},
{
startValue: 90,
endValue: 0,
property: "rotate",
},
// Blur is not performant
// Used just as an example for CSS filters
{
startValue: 0,
endValue: 20,
property: "blur",
},
],
},
];
Component will also apply CSS classes that match current animation state.
Classes are:
- Plx--above
scroll position is above first start position (animation isn't started yet)
- Plx--below
scroll position is below last end position (animation is finished)
- Plx--active
scroll position is below first start and last end position (animation is in progress, including between states)
- Plx--in Plx--in-{n}n
scroll position is in -th segment (Plx--in-0, Plx--in-1...).name
If prop is passed (see above) it will be used instead of index (Plx--in-superDuperName).
- Plx--between Plx--between-{a}-and-{b}a
scroll position is between segments and b (Plx--between-0-and-1, Plx--between-1-and-2...)name
If prop is passed (see above) it will be used instead of index (Plx--between-superDuperName-and-anotherName).
active class is applied along with both in and between classes.
All modern browsers.
Since version 2, I'm not supporting nor testing it in Internet Explorer. Library will probably work in IE10+ and even IE9 should work if you provide a polyfill for requestAnimationFrame`.
Released under MIT License.