CSS Animation Example: Strikethrough Draw

The "Strikethrough Draw" adds an aggressive but playful visual feedback when a user finishes a to-do list item or when updating old prices.

Cross me out

This is extremely straightforward. You cannot easily animate the native CSS text-decoration: line-through. Therefore, the trick leans on an empty pseudo-element (like ::after). We use position: absolute and set its top to 50% over the parent string (adjusting slightly with transform: translateY(-50%) if the line thickness throws it off-center).

The "drawing" mechanic comes from stretching. We fix the left edge just past the string (-5%), but pin the right edge way back at 105%. When hovered (or activated via a class), we animate the right value back to -5%, causing the line to stretch over the letters.

Here is the code to create the Strikethrough Draw animation.

<!doctype html>
<title>Example</title>
<style>
body {
    display: flex;
    justify-content: center;
    align-items: center;
    height: 100vh;
    margin: 0;
    font-family: sans-serif;
    background-color: #f0f0f0;
}

.strikethrough {
    font-size: 3rem;
    font-weight: bold;
    color: #333;
    position: relative;
    display: inline-block;
}

/* The invisible strike line */
.strikethrough::after {
    content: '';
    position: absolute;
    top: 50%;
    left: -5%; /* Ensure it completely crosses the word */
    right: 105%; /* Start fully drawn back */
    height: 4px;
    background-color: #ff3b30;
    transform: translateY(-50%);
    transition: right 0.4s ease-out;
}

/* On hover, or programmatically added class, draw it */
.strikethrough:hover::after,
.strikethrough.is-crossed::after {
    right: -5%;
}

@media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) {
    .strikethrough::after {
        transition: none; /* Immediately renders the line across without drawing */
    }
}
</style>

<div class="strikethrough">Cross me out</div>

View Output

Accessibility Considerations

Because it acts as a visual change of state over a tiny area rather than a broad layout motion, it is generally benign. However, prefers-reduced-motion is a CSS media feature used to detect if a user has enabled a setting on their device to minimize the amount of non-essential animation or motion.

To respect this, disable the draw transition and simply toggle the line instantly on or off.

Here's what we used in our example:


@media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) {
    .strikethrough::after {
        /* Line instantly appears fully drawn instead of wiping smoothly */
        transition: none; 
    }
}