25+ Interesting CSS Text Effects

In today’s post, we’re sharing some of the most interesting and unusual CSS text effects – some with the help of JavaScript – that we’ve found on CodePen for your inspiration as well as to possibly use in any of your upcoming projects. These examples range from animations, to hover interactions, to simply unique. Maybe you’ve seen some before, or maybe they are all new to you. Regardless, we hope you find them useful and inspirational.

CSS Perspective Text Hover

A nifty stair climbing animation on hover.

See the Pen CSS Perspective Text Hover by James Bosworth (@bosworthco) on CodePen.

LOVE Text Effect

Here’s an unusual typing effect.

See the Pen LOVE Text Effect by Matthew Wagerfield (@wagerfield) on CodePen.

CSS-Only Shimmering Neon Text

A very cool shimmering neon text effect made with pure CSS.

See the Pen CSS-only shimmering neon text by Giana (@giana) on CodePen.

Terminal Text Effect

Another typing effect, this time replicating a terminal with a blinking cursor.

See the Pen Terminal Text Effect by Tobias (@Tbgse) on CodePen.

Flashing Neon Text

This one has the appearance of a neon sign flashing on and off, coded in only CSS.

See the Pen CSS Text-FX by moklick (@moklick) on CodePen.

GSAP Text Animation

Here’s an interesting animated text effect that brings letters together into words.

See the Pen GSAP Text Animation by Nate Wiley (@natewiley) on CodePen.

Silent Movie Text Effect

This effect makes makes the text look like an old silent movie, all done with pure CSS.

See the Pen Silent Movie Text Effect by Dimitra Vasilopoulou (@mimikos) on CodePen.

Pure CSS Shimmer Text Effect

A smooth animated shimmering text effect, again in only pure CSS.

See the Pen CSS Shimmer Text Effect by Robert Douglas (@redouglas) on CodePen.

Fluid Text Hover

Very nice text effect that makes the background masked by the text flow fluidly with the mouse direction.

See the Pen Fluid text hover by Robin Delaporte (@robin-dela) on CodePen.

Fly In, Fly Out

Simple but effective text effect where the letters fly in from the top and out through the bottom.

See the Pen Fly in, fly out by Neil Carpenter (@neilcarpenter) on CodePen.

Repellers

An interesting text effect in which the text repels away from the mouse movement.

See the Pen Repellers by Johan Karlsson (@DonKarlssonSan) on CodePen.

3D Text Effect On Mousemove

Moving the mouse makes a cool 3D text effect in this example.

See the Pen 3d Text effect – mousemove by Dennis Garrn (@dennisgarrn) on CodePen.

Cool Pure CSS Text Effect

A nice masked background animation.

See the Pen (cool) text effect by Hakkam Abdullah (@Moslim) on CodePen.

Bubbling Text Effect

A clean bubbling animation to use in headers or however you’d like, made with CSS and jQuery.

See the Pen Bubbling Text Effect by html5andblog (@html5andblog) on CodePen.

Flickering Light Text Effect

This animation simulates a flickering light bulb within the text.

See the Pen Flickering Light Text Effect by Mandy Michael (@mandymichael) on CodePen.

Matrix Text Effect

This one needs no introduction or explanation.

See the Pen Matrix Text Effect by Collin Henderson (@syropian) on CodePen.

Opening Sequence

A smooth text effect that replicates the opening sequence of a movie or trailer.

See the Pen Opening Sequence by Sebastian Schepis (@sschepis) on CodePen.

Sliding Text Effect

A cool animation that responds to mouse movements.

See the Pen Sliding text effect by ChenXin_nth (@chenxinnn) on CodePen.

Black Mirror Cracked Text Effect

An unusual effect that makes the text crack apart, done in pure CSS.

See the Pen Black Mirror Cracked Text Effect by George W. Park (@GeorgePark) on CodePen.

Text Effect

Hover over the text to see an unusual effect.

See the Pen Text Effect by Max Nguyen (@maxnguyen) on CodePen.

In/Out of Focus Text Effect

Here’s another unusual pure CSS animated text effect.

See the Pen In/out of focus text effect by Jonny Scholes (@jonnyscholes) on CodePen.

Futuristic Resolving/Typing Text Effect

Each letter rotates into position as it is typed in this interesting effect.

See the Pen Futuristic Resolving/Typing Text Effect feat. GLaDOS by Kevin (@qkevinto) on CodePen.

Shadow and Pattern Text Effects

Here’s a few hover effects in pure CSS.

See the Pen A collection of CSS text-shadow and pattern effects by Ashley Watson-Nolan (@ashleynolan) on CodePen.

Spotlight Cursor Text Screen

Very nicely done cursor-following effect.

See the Pen Spotlight Cursor Text Screen by Caroline Artz (@carolineartz) on CodePen.

Wave Text Effect (With SVG/Blend Mode)

A relatively simple CSS only animated masked text effect using SVG with blend mode.

See the Pen Wave text effect (with SVG/blend mode) by Lucas Bebber (@lbebber) on CodePen.

Particle Text Effect

A nice animation that you can control the speed by dragging your mouse over it.

See the Pen Particle Text Effect by Tom (@tomncurry) on CodePen.

Glitch Text

A pure CSS glitchy text effect.

See the Pen Glitch Text by Fabio (@fabiowallner) on CodePen.

How will you use these CSS text effects?

We hope you’ve enjoyed the creative examples we found and shared with you, and can use any of them in your projects. Be sure to check out our collections of CSS code snippets too!