Hand-Drawn Arrow Annotation
A curved pen arrow swoops up to a label, the head flicks on, and the words give a small nudge as it lands. Two SVG paths drawn one after the other; the nudge waits for the arrowhead.
Also known as: arrow pointing at text, curved arrow animation svg, doodle arrow css.
Start here
HTML
<div class="txt-hand-drawn-arrow-text"><svg viewBox="0 0 100 60" aria-hidden="true"><path pathLength="1" d="M6 54 C14 24, 40 10, 88 28" /><path pathLength="1" d="M80 16.4 L88 28 L74.4 31.6" /></svg><span class="txt-hand-drawn-arrow-text-label">Start here</span></div>
CSS
.txt-hand-drawn-arrow-text {
--c: var(--txt-color, #3b82f6);
font-size: var(--txt-size, 32px);
font-family: system-ui, sans-serif;
font-weight: 700;
line-height: 1.2;
display: inline-flex;
align-items: center;
gap: 0.2em;
white-space: nowrap;}
.txt-hand-drawn-arrow-text svg {
width: 2.4em;
height: 1.44em;
overflow: visible;
transform: translateY(0.25em);
fill: none;
stroke: var(--c);
stroke-width: 4;
stroke-linecap: round;
stroke-linejoin: round;
}
.txt-hand-drawn-arrow-text path {
stroke-dasharray: 1 1.1;
stroke-dashoffset: 1.05;
animation: txt-hand-drawn-arrow-text-draw 0.6s cubic-bezier(0.5, 0, 0.3, 1) 0.3s forwards;
}
.txt-hand-drawn-arrow-text path:nth-child(2) {
animation-duration: 0.22s;
animation-timing-function: ease-out;
animation-delay: 0.88s;
}
.txt-hand-drawn-arrow-text-label {
display: inline-block;
animation: txt-hand-drawn-arrow-text-nudge 0.5s ease-out 1.05s;
}
@keyframes txt-hand-drawn-arrow-text-draw {
to { stroke-dashoffset: 0; }
}
@keyframes txt-hand-drawn-arrow-text-nudge {
30% { transform: translateX(0.12em) rotate(1.5deg); }
65% { transform: translateX(-0.03em); }
}
@media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) {
.txt-hand-drawn-arrow-text, .txt-hand-drawn-arrow-text *, .txt-hand-drawn-arrow-text::before, .txt-hand-drawn-arrow-text::after, .txt-hand-drawn-arrow-text *::before, .txt-hand-drawn-arrow-text *::after {
animation-duration: 0.01ms !important;
animation-iteration-count: 1 !important;
transition-duration: 0.01ms !important;
}
}Customizing this snippet
- Color: set
--txt-coloron the element or a parent. Currently previewing#3b82f6. - Font size: set
--txt-size. Every other dimension is inem, so the whole thing scales together. Currently previewing40px. - Speed: change the duration on the
transitionoranimationshorthand. Staggered delays are relative, so they keep their rhythm. - Reduced motion: the rule at the end of the CSS turns the motion off for people who asked their OS for less of it. Keep it.