Marching Ants Text
Letter outlines crawl like a photo editor's selection, dark dashes marching over a pale track. Two SVG text copies: a solid faint stroke, and a dashed one whose offset moves one dash per loop.
Also known as: dashed outline text animation, animated dashed stroke, selection outline text.
HTML
<svg class="txt-marching-ants-text" viewBox="0 0 400 110" role="img" aria-label="Select"> <text x="200" y="84" text-anchor="middle" font-size="92">Select</text> <text x="200" y="84" text-anchor="middle" font-size="92">Select</text> </svg>
CSS
.txt-marching-ants-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;
width: 9em;
height: auto;
overflow: visible;}
.txt-marching-ants-text text {
font-family: "Arial Black", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif;
font-weight: 900;
fill: color-mix(in srgb, var(--c) 10%, transparent);
stroke: color-mix(in srgb, var(--c) 35%, transparent);
stroke-width: 2.6;
}
.txt-marching-ants-text text:nth-child(2) {
fill: none;
stroke: var(--c);
stroke-dasharray: 7 6;
animation: txt-marching-ants-text-march 0.55s linear infinite;
}
/* 13 = one dash plus one gap */
@keyframes txt-marching-ants-text-march {
to { stroke-dashoffset: -13; }
}
@media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) {
.txt-marching-ants-text, .txt-marching-ants-text *, .txt-marching-ants-text::before, .txt-marching-ants-text::after, .txt-marching-ants-text *::before, .txt-marching-ants-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.