79 articles by Josh W. Comeau.
An in-depth tutorial that teaches how to create one of the most adorable interactions I've ever created. We'll learn how to use React components and hooks to abstract behaviours, and see how to design the perfect API. Even if you're not into animations, I think you'll find it interesting!
Is it possible to create an implementation of a design that matches to-the-pixel? Well, not really, but that shouldn't discourage us! In this article, I'll show how I became designers' best friend by leveraging a series of tricks to get my implementation looking near-pixel-perfect.
Earlier this year, I lost the ability to use a keyboard and mouse for extended periods. Fortunately, this wasn't as catastrophic as it sounds! This article chronicles my experience using adaptive tools like dictation and eye-tracking as my primary mechanisms for writing code.
Certain layouts are surprisingly dastardly. On the modern web, one of the most common layouts is also one of the trickiest. In this tutorial, I break down how to build the "full-bleed" layout using CSS Grid.
Of all the little tips and techniques I've picked up over the years about animation, spring physics remains one of the most powerful and flexible. In this tutorial, we'll learn how to harness their power to build fluid, organic transitions.
Learn how to set up an ideal workflow for debugging your development server on your iPhone. This may not be the most exciting topic I've written about, but it's probably one of the most useful!
In this dazzling tutorial, we'll see how to build an animated component. Wrap it around text or images and watch them twinkle! This neat trick is a perfect way to emphasize positive or exciting things.
Speaking at conferences is equal parts exciting and terrifying. This article is a behind-the-scenes look at what the experience is like, and shares tips for getting started as a conference speaker.
I really love animation, but not everybody does. In fact, it can make some people literally sick! In this tutorial, we'll see how to ensure that we respect user preferences, and create animations that can be disabled.
In our community, it's so common for developer projects to be open-source. I'm breaking with this trend for my blog, but I have good reasons! In this article, I'll share my reasoning, as well as a workaround in case you _really_ want to see the source. If you're considering whether a project should be open-source or not, I hope you'll find it valuable.
Dark Mode has become common enough that it's a user expectation. And yet, creating the perfect dark mode with a statically-built site/app is deceptively tricky. In this in-depth tutorial, we'll see how to build the perfect, flicker-free, customizable theming solution for React/Next.js apps.
CSS variables are *really* cool, and they're incredibly powerful when it comes to React! This tutorial shows how we can use them with React to create dynamic themes. We'll see how to get the most out of CSS-in-JS tools like styled-components, and how our mental frame around media queries has been wrong all along.
Styling an ordered list can be surprisingly tricky; there's no way to get at that bullet! In this tutorial, we'll see a handy trick using CSS counters that lets us style ordered lists without breaking proper semantics.
By and large, using the web is a visual experience. This is in terrible contrast to mobile apps, which interact with three of our human senses (sight, sound, and touch, through haptic feedback). I just released a library to make it easy to add sound to your React app, and I make the case that you should consider using it!
A look at how hundreds of developers got their start in the industry despite not having a Computer Science or Software Engineering degree. We'll sort responses into 6 categories, and detail strategies that you can use to ensure you capture the attention of potential employers!
A surprisingly-common misconception can lead to big rendering issues that are difficult to debug. This deep-dive tutorial examines how React and Gatsby can be used to pre-render content, and how we can work around the constraints to build dynamic, personalized web apps.
A common thing in React development is that we want to store a bit of React state in localStorage, and re-initialize from that value on the next page-load. This quick tutorial shows you how we can build a custom hook that does exactly this!
How we work with design can have a tremendous impact on our overall output, and yet we don't always treat it as very important. A look at how collaborating with design can supercharge our own productivity.
If you've ever tried to animate a gradient, you've been met with a harsh reality—it isn't possible. At least, it wasn't! In this tutorial, we'll leverage bleeding-edge browser features to animate ANY CSS property, including background gradients, using CSS Houdini, CSS variables, and React.