Shadow Creeping

About Shadow Creeping

Shadow Creeping is a toggle switch built with gradient fills, transforms and layered shadows. Its stylesheet runs to 60 lines across 9 rules, declaring 22 distinct properties. It styles checked state explicitly, so the component responds to interaction rather than sitting still. Every format shown on this page is the same component, so you can take CSS and Tailwind depending on how your project is set up. Nothing is minified and nothing depends on a framework.

When to use

• Preference screens, where the control is switched more often than it is read, where a horror and dark toggle switch fits the surrounding design
• Repeated use across a page, since there is no animation to become tiring when several appear together
• Palettes built around black, gray and purple, where this toggle switch can be dropped in without retheming
• Places where one control is meant to be memorable, since 60 lines of CSS is a real investment for a single element

How it works

The base rule sets the shape with border-radius, display, height and position. The fill is a gradient rather than a flat colour, so it is a single background declaration with no image to load. Movement is done with transforms rather than by changing position or size, which is what keeps it smooth: transforms are composited and do not force the browser to lay the page out again. State changes are eased with a transition, so hovering does not snap.

Accessibility

No focus style is defined. Add one before shipping, or keyboard users lose track of position. That is one thing to fix before this ships in front of users.

Browser support

Everything this component uses has been supported across browsers for years, so no fallback is needed.

Related components

Frequently asked questions