How to apply multiple transforms in CSS?

Question

Using CSS, how can I apply more than one transform?

Example: In the following, only the translation is applied, not the rotation.

li:nth-child(2) {
    transform: rotate(15deg);
    transform: translate(-20px,0px);        
}

Answer 1

You have to put them on one line like this:

li:nth-child(2) {
    transform: rotate(15deg) translate(-20px,0px);
}

When you have multiple transform directives, only the last one will be applied. It's like any other CSS rule.

---

Keep in mind multiple transform one line directives are applied from right to left.

This: transform: scale(1,1.5) rotate(90deg);
and: transform: rotate(90deg) scale(1,1.5);

will not produce the same result:

.orderOne, .orderTwo {
  font-family: sans-serif;
  font-size: 22px;
  color: #000;
  display: inline-block;
}

.orderOne {
  transform: scale(1, 1.5) rotate(90deg);
}

.orderTwo {
  transform: rotate(90deg) scale(1, 1.5);
}

<div class="orderOne">
  A
</div>

<div class="orderTwo">
  A
</div>

Answer 2

I'm adding this answer not because it's likely to be helpful but just because it's true.

In addition to using the existing answers explaining how to make more than one translation by chaining them, you can also construct the 4x4 matrix yourself

I grabbed the following image from some random site I found while googling which shows rotational matrices:

Rotation around x axis:
Rotation around y axis:
Rotation around z axis:

I couldn't find a good example of translation, so assuming I remember/understand it right, translation:

[1 0 0 0]
[0 1 0 0]
[0 0 1 0]
[x y z 1]

See more at the Wikipedia article on transformation as well as the Pragamatic CSS3 tutorial which explains it rather well. Another guide I found which explains arbitrary rotation matrices is Egon Rath's notes on matrices

Matrix multiplication works between these 4x4 matrices of course, so to perform a rotation followed by a translation, you make the appropriate rotation matrix and multiply it by the translation matrix.

This can give you a bit more freedom to get it just right, and will also make it pretty much completely impossible for anyone to understand what it's doing, including you in five minutes.

But, you know, it works.

Edit: I just realized that I missed mentioning probably the most important and practical use of this, which is to incrementally create complex 3D transformations via JavaScript, where things will make a bit more sense.

Answer 3

You can also apply multiple transforms using an extra layer of markup e.g.:

<h3 class="rotated-heading">
    <span class="scaled-up">Hey!</span>
</h3>
<style type="text/css">
.rotated-heading
{
    transform: rotate(10deg);
}

.scaled-up
{
    transform: scale(1.5);
}
</style>

This can be really useful when animating elements with transforms using Javascript.

Answer 4

You can apply more than one transform like this:

li:nth-of-type(2){
    transform : translate(-20px, 0px) rotate(15deg);
}

Answer 5

Some time in the future, (now available, see updates below) we can write it like this:

li:nth-child(2) {
    rotate: 15deg;
    translate:-20px 0px;        
}

This will become especially useful when applying individual classes on an element:

<div class="teaser important"></div>

.teaser{rotate:10deg;}
.important{scale:1.5 1.5;}

This syntax is defined in the in-progress CSS Transforms Level 2 specification, but can't find anything about current browser support other then chrome canary. Hope some day i'll come back and update browser support here ;)

Found the info in this article which you might want to check out regarding workarounds for current browsers.

UPDATE: feature has landed in firefox 72

UPDATE: now available in chrome 104, edge 104, safari 14.1, see https://web.dev/css-individual-transform-properties/#:~:text=support%20these%20properties.-,Browser%20support,-%3A

Answer 6

Lesson I`ve learnt.

If you are using style's React css, don't include semicolons, even in the end of it because it is included automatically and internally by React.

Just like:

style={                             
  transform: "rotate(90deg) scaleX(-1)",
}

Answer 7

It's an old question but turned out to be very relevant to me recently. I found 'transform: matrix(..)' more convenient to use. So for the issue in question, the below example applies ~15deg rotation and translation of 20px to the right (for convenience) on the x-axis.

.matrixTransform {
    transform-origin: top left;
    transform: matrix(0.965,0.258,-0.258,0.965,20,0);
    font-size: 30px;
}
.combinedTransform {
    transform-origin: top left;
    transform: rotate(15deg) translateX(20px);
    font-size: 30px;
}

<div class=matrixTransform>A</div>
<div class=combinedTransform>B</div>

From what I gather this particular transform uses initial 4 parameters to represent transformations e.g. scale, rotate. And seem to be in rows by columns order. The remaining two are translations in the x and y axis respectively. I found Wolfram Alpha cheat sheet (calculator) very useful.

Answer 8

Just start from there that in CSS, if you repeat 2 values or more, always last one gets applied, unless using !important tag, but at the same time avoid using !important as much as you can, so in your case that's the problem, so the second transform override the first one in this case...

So how you can do what you want then?...

Don't worry, transform accepts multiple values at the same time... So this code below will work:

li:nth-child(2) {
  transform: rotate(15deg) translate(-20px, 0px); //multiple
}

If you like to play around with transform run the iframe from MDN below:

<iframe src="https://interactive-examples.mdn.mozilla.net/pages/css/transform.html" class="interactive  " width="100%" frameborder="0" height="250"></iframe>

Look at the link below for more info:

<< CSS transform >>

Answer 9

Transform Rotate and Translate in single line css:-How?

div.className{
    transform : rotate(270deg) translate(-50%, 0);    
    -webkit-transform: rotate(270deg) translate(-50%, -50%);    
    -moz-transform: rotate(270deg) translate(-50%, -50%);    
    -ms-transform: rotate(270deg) translate(-50%, -50%);    
    -o-transform: rotate(270deg) translate(-50%, -50%); 
    float:left;
    position:absolute;
    top:50%;
    left:50%;
    }

<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<div class="className">
  <span style="font-size:50px">A</span>
</div>
</body>
</html>