Is there anyway to animate an ellipsis with CSS animations?

Question

I\'m trying to have an ellipsis animate, and was wondering if it was possible with CSS animations...

So it might be like

Loading...
Loading..
Loading.
Lo         


        

Answer 1

You could try to use the animation-delay property and time each ellipsis character. In this case I've put each ellipsis character in a <span class> so I can animate them separately.

I made a demo, which isn't perfect, but it shows at least what I mean :)

The code from my example:

HTML

Loading<span class="one">.</span><span class="two">.</span><span class="three">.</span>​

CSS

.one {
    opacity: 0;
    -webkit-animation: dot 1.3s infinite;
    -webkit-animation-delay: 0.0s;
    animation: dot 1.3s infinite;
    animation-delay: 0.0s;
}

.two {
    opacity: 0;
    -webkit-animation: dot 1.3s infinite;
    -webkit-animation-delay: 0.2s;
    animation: dot 1.3s infinite;
    animation-delay: 0.2s;
}

.three {
    opacity: 0;
    -webkit-animation: dot 1.3s infinite;
    -webkit-animation-delay: 0.3s;
    animation: dot 1.3s infinite;
    animation-delay: 0.3s;
}

@-webkit-keyframes dot {
    0% {
        opacity: 0;
    }
    50% {
        opacity: 0;
    }
    100% {
        opacity: 1;
    }
}

@keyframes dot {
    0% {
        opacity: 0;
    }
    50% {
        opacity: 0;
    }
    100% {
        opacity: 1;
    }
}

Answer 2

Well Actually there is a pure CSS way of doing this.

I got the example from CSS Tricks, but made it also to be supported in Internet Explorer (I have tested it in 10+).

Check the Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/Roobyx/AT6v6/2/

HTML:

<h4 id="searching-ellipsis"> Searching
    <span>.</span>
    <span>.</span>
    <span>.</span>
</h4>

CSS:

@-webkit-keyframes opacity {
  0% {
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity=100);
    opacity: 1;
  }
  100% {
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity=0);
    opacity: 0;
  }
}

@-moz-keyframes opacity {
  0% {
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity=100);
    opacity: 1;
  }

  100% {
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity=0);
    opacity: 0;
  }
}

@-webkit-keyframes opacity {
  0% {
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity=100);
    opacity: 1;
  }
  100% {
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity=0);
    opacity: 0;
  }
}

@-moz-keyframes opacity {
  0% {
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity=100);
    opacity: 1;
  }
  100% {
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity=0);
    opacity: 0;
  }
}

@-o-keyframes opacity {
  0% {
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity=100);
    opacity: 1;
  }
  100% {
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity=0);
    opacity: 0;
  }
}

@keyframes opacity {
  0% {
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity=100);
    opacity: 1;
  }
  100% {
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity=0);
    opacity: 0;
  }
}
#searching-ellipsis span {
  -webkit-animation-name: opacity;
  -webkit-animation-duration: 1s;
  -webkit-animation-iteration-count: infinite;
  -moz-animation-name: opacity;
  -moz-animation-duration: 1s;
  -moz-animation-iteration-count: infinite;
  -ms-animation-name: opacity;
  -ms-animation-duration: 1s;
  -ms-animation-iteration-count: infinite;
}
#searching-ellipsis span:nth-child(2) {
  -webkit-animation-delay: 100ms;
  -moz-animation-delay: 100ms;
  -ms-animation-delay: 100ms;
  -o-animation-delay: 100ms;
  animation-delay: 100ms;
}
#searching-ellipsis span:nth-child(3) {
  -webkit-animation-delay: 300ms;
  -moz-animation-delay: 300ms;
  -ms-animation-delay: 300ms;
  -o-animation-delay: 300ms;
  animation-delay: 300ms;
}

Answer 3

Even a more simple solution, works pretty well!

<style>
    .loading:after {
      display: inline-block;
      animation: dotty steps(1,end) 1s infinite;
      content: '';
    }

    @keyframes dotty {
        0%   { content: ''; }
        25%  { content: '.'; }
        50%  { content: '..'; }
        75%  { content: '...'; }
        100% { content: ''; }
    }
</style>
<div class="loading">Loading</div>

Just edited the content with animation instead of hiding some dots...

Demo here: https://jsfiddle.net/f6vhway2/1/

---

Edit: Thanks to @BradCollins for pointing out that content is not an animatable property.

https://www.w3.org/TR/css3-transitions/#animatable-css

So this is a WebKit/Blink/Electron only solution. (But it works in current FF versions as well)

Answer 4

A late addition but I found a way to do this which supports centered text.

<element>:after {
    content: '\00a0\00a0\00a0';
    animation: progress-ellipsis 5s infinite;
}

@keyframes progress-ellipsis {
    0% {
        content: '\00a0\00a0\00a0';
    }
    30% {
        content: '.\00a0\00a0';
    }
    60% {
        content: '..\00a0';
    }
    90% {
        content: '...';
    }
}

Answer 5

Short answer is "not really". However, you can play around with animating width and overflow hidden, and maybe get an effect that is "close enough". (code below tailored for firefox only, add vendor prefixes as needed).

html

<div class="loading">Loading</div>

css

.loading:after {
    overflow: hidden;
    display: inline-block;
    vertical-align: bottom;
    -moz-animation: ellipsis 2s infinite;
    content: "\2026"; /* ascii code for the ellipsis character */
}
@-moz-keyframes ellipsis {
    from {
        width: 2px;
    }
    to {
        width: 15px;
    }
}

demo: http://jsfiddle.net/MDzsR/1/

edit

It appears chrome has issues with animating the pseudo-element. An easy fix is to wrap the ellipsis in its own element. Check out http://jsfiddle.net/MDzsR/4/

Answer 6

You can animate clip (or better clip-path if you don't need IE support)

div {
  position: relative;
  display: inline-block;
  font-size: 1.4rem;
}

div:after {
  position: absolute;
  margin-left: .1rem;
  content: ' ...';
  display: inline-block;
  animation: loading steps(4) 2s infinite;
  clip: rect(auto, 0px, auto, auto);
}

@keyframes loading {
  to {
    clip: rect(auto, 20px, auto, auto);
  }
}

<div>Loading</div>