Make rotating circular text using Tailwind or plain CSS

developedbyluke

Luke

Posted on October 22, 2023

Make rotating circular text using Tailwind or plain CSS

A preview of the end result!
End result

To get started, we're going to need to create some text with the letters following a circular path.

Photoshop makes it easy.

1. Select the ellipse tool

Ellipse tool location in Photoshop

2. Change the mode from shape to path

Ellipse tool mode switch from shape to path

3. Draw a circular path for the letters to follow
Tip: hold shift + option/alt for a perfect circle

Circle path example

4. Select the horizontal type tool

Horizontal type tool location in Photoshop

5. Type your text
Tip: hover over your circle path and click when you see the squiggly line icon showing

Image description

6. Export as PNG, place it somewhere in your project folder and import it into your project
I'm using React so I'm importing it like so:



import CircularText from "./images/circular_text.png"

export default function App() {
    return (
        <img src={CircularText} />
    )
}


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7. Apply an animation

Using tailwind:



<img
    src={CircularText}
    className="animate-spin"
/>


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Using plain CSS:



img {
    animation-name: rotate;
    animation-duration: 5s;
    animation-iteration-count: infinite;
    animation-timing-function: linear;
}

@keyframes rotate{
    from{ transform: rotate(-360deg); }
    to{ transform: rotate(360deg); }
}


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8. Adding something in the middle
I'm going to do so by grouping the images in a div and centering the middle image using absolute positioning.



<div className="relative">
    <img src={CircularText} className="animate-spin"/>
    <img src={MiddleImage}
         className="absolute left-1/2 top-1/2 w-11 -translate-x-1/2 -translate-y-1/2 transform"
    />
</div>


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9. Changing animation speed
If you're using plain CSS, you can change the animation speed by adjusting the value of the animation-duration property.

Tailwind users, you're going to have to jump into the tailwind.config.js file. Here, I'm extending the default spin animation into a new animation I've called spin-slow. Make sure to use the name of your new animation back in your <img /> e.g. <img src={CircularText} className="animate-spin-slow" />



/** @type {import('tailwindcss').Config} */
module.exports = {
    content: ["./src/**/*.{js,ts,jsx,tsx,html}"],
    theme: {
        extend: {
            animation: {
                "spin-slow": "spin 25s linear infinite",
            },
        },
    },
    plugins: [],
};


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Credit to Emanuele Papale for the inspiration

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developedbyluke
Luke

Posted on October 22, 2023

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