CSS rotation

The CSS rotation property is used to rotate an HTML element around a rotation-point.

Dropped

The rotation property was proposed in CSS Basic Box Model Level 3, which is now outdated.

To perform rotations in CSS, use the transform property instead (and its associated properties). Although this property is still in working draft status (at the time of writing), it appears to be the way forward when dealing with rotating HTML elements with CSS.

Syntax

Possible Values

<angle>
Specifies the angle that the element should rotate counterclockwise around the point given by rotation-point.

In addition, all CSS properties also accept the following CSS-wide keyword values as the sole component of their property value:

initial
Represents the value specified as the property's initial value.
inherit
Represents the computed value of the property on the element's parent.
unset
This value acts as either inherit or initial, depending on whether the property is inherited or not. In other words, it sets all properties to their parent value if they are inheritable or to their initial value if not inheritable.

Basic Property Information

Initial Value
0
Applies To
This property applies only to block-level elements, inline-table and inline-block
Inherited?
No
Media
Visual
Computed Value
For the <length> the absolute value, otherwise a percentage.

Example Code

Vendor Prefixes

For maximum browser compatibility many web developers add browser-specific properties by using extensions such as -webkit- for Safari, Google Chrome, and Opera (newer versions), -ms- for Internet Explorer, -moz- for Firefox, -o- for older versions of Opera etc. As with any CSS property, if a browser doesn't support a proprietary extension, it will simply ignore it.

This practice is not recommended by the W3C, however in many cases, the only way you can test a property is to include the CSS extension that is compatible with your browser.

The major browser manufacturers generally strive to adhere to the W3C specifications, and when they support a non-prefixed property, they typically remove the prefixed version. Also, W3C advises vendors to remove their prefixes for properties that reach Candidate Recommendation status.

Many developers use Autoprefixer, which is a postprocessor for CSS. Autoprefixer automatically adds vendor prefixes to your CSS so that you don't need to. It also removes old, unnecessary prefixes from your CSS.

You can also use Autoprefixer with preprocessors such as Less and Sass.