Introduction to the @starting-style feature in CSS

In the world of web design, CSS is one of the fundamental tools for creating styles and layouts for web pages. One of the lesser-known features in CSS is the @starting-style feature. This feature allows designers to define initial styles for specific elements, displayed beautifully when the page is loaded.

This feature gives you the ability to define different types of styles for initial loading of the page. In many cases, this feature is used to improve website performance and to avoid issues related to the appearance of elements during initial loading.

Utilizing this feature can be very useful in designing websites that require rapid and efficient loading, and it can greatly assist in creating aesthetically pleasing displays. For example, on pages that include large images or heavy resources, using @starting-style can lead to a smoother and better initial layout for the page.

This feature, combined with other CSS capabilities such as animations and transitions, is also very effective. For instance, you can define an initial layout with @starting-style and then enhance it with animations to display special effects as they are revealed.

Now, to better explain this topic, let’s take a look at a sample code using @starting-style:

<style>
  @starting-style {
      body {
          background-color: #f3f3f3;
          margin: 0;
      }
      img {
          opacity: 0;
      }
  }
</style>

Code Explanation

@starting-style: Defines a lightweight block for selected elements.
body: Targets the body element for applying initial styles.
background-color: Sets the background color of the body to a light grey (#f3f3f3).
margin: Removes margins around the body for a better visual fit.
img: Targets all image elements on the page.
opacity: Sets the transparency of images to zero, for display prior to complete loading.