liquidGL – Liquid Glass - Powered by WebGL

v2.1.1

[!NOTE] liquidGL is free to use for both non-commercial and commercial purposes.

[!WARNING] v2.0.1 changed snapshot capture. liquidGL now snapshots the page with its own built-in rasteriser, so html2canvas is no longer a dependency. Nothing needs to change in your code.

| Rasteriser | Median | Min | Max | Worst single stall | | :------------ | :------ | :------ | :------- | :----------------- | | NaughtyDOM | 55.5 ms | 54.1 ms | 57.5 ms | 37.8 ms | | html2canvas | 86.3 ms | 85.3 ms | 134.8 ms | 16.2 ms |

Measured over 7 alternating runs of the full home page at resolution: 2 (2880×10036 output), Chrome 150.

v2.0.0 changed tilt behaviour. The tilt interaction now eases symmetrically over the new tiltEase option (default 400ms) in both directions, replacing the previous hard-coded 0.12s ease-in and 0.4s ease-out. If you depended on the old timing, set tiltEase explicitly. All other defaults are unchanged and existing configurations render identically.

liquidGL turns any fixed or sticky-positioned element into a perfectly refracted, glossy "glass pane" rendered in WebGL.

DEMO 1 | DEMO 2 | DEMO 3 | DEMO 4 | DEMO 5

What's New

Features

• 2.1.0 - Helper GUI — A helper GUI is now available to adjust the liquidGL options in real-time during development, helping you to achieve the perfect aesthetic. To enable it, set helper: true in the options object when calling liquidGL().

• Sticky positioning support — position: sticky elements can now be glassified. Sticky lenses are measured every animation frame, so the glass pane tracks the element through its flowing and stuck phases, then releases with it at the end of its containing block — inside nested scroll containers as well as the main document.

• Built-in DOM snapshotter — the html2canvas dependency has been replaced with an integrated rasteriser. Capture no longer depends on a third-party library.

• Chromatic aberration — the new aberration option disperses the red and blue channels either side of the refraction vector, blue displaced further than red, matching the way real glass disperses shorter wavelengths more strongly. Dispersion scales with the refraction offset, so it concentrates at the bevelled edge and vanishes at the flat centre. Defaults to 0 (off).

• Configurable tilt easing — the new tiltEase option sets the settle duration, in milliseconds, of the tilt on both hover-in and hover-out.

Bug fixes

• Refraction drift caused by ignored elements — elements marked data-liquid-ignore were removed from the snapshot entirely, collapsing them out of layout and shifting every element below them. Ignored elements now retain their layout box, so the refraction stays aligned with the live page.

• Lens and content diverging during tilt — the pane could separate from its content mid-tilt because the element was being measured while transformed. Metrics are now taken from the untilted box.

• Tilt snapping on hover — the refraction jumped straight to its new angle on hover-in while easing on hover-out. Both directions now share a single curve and duration, and cursor movement during entry retargets the in-flight ease rather than snapping.

• Displacement while pinch-zoomed — the pane drifted diagonally away from its element when the page was pinch-zoomed, because visualViewport offsets were applied twice. Offset compensation is now correctly gated.

Performance

• Video frames are no longer re-composited or re-uploaded when neither the frame time nor the destination region has changed. Paused, ended and unmoved videos now cost nothing per frame.

• The snapshot bounding box is read once per frame and shared across every lens, instead of twice per lens per frame, removing repeated forced layout from the render loop.

Install from npm

npm install liquid-gl

import liquidGL from "liquid-gl";

const glassEffect = liquidGL({
  target: ".liquidGL",
  snapshot: "body",
});

liquidGL renders with raw WebGL and snapshots the page with its own built-in rasteriser, so it has no runtime dependencies.

Overview

liquidGL recreates Apple's "Liquid Glass" aesthetic in the browser with an ultra-light WebGL shader. It turns any DOM element into a beautiful, refracting glass pane. To overcome WebGL's security limitations on reading live screen pixels, liquidGL uses an innovative offscreen rendering technique. This allows it to refract dynamic content like videos, text animations, and more in real-time, delivering a smooth and interactive experience.

Key Features

| Feature | Supported | Feature | Supported | | :------------------------------------- | :-------: | :------------------------------- | :-------: | | Real-time Refraction (static content) | ✅ | Magnification Control | ✅ | | Real-time Refraction (video) | ✅ | Dynamic Element Support | ✅ | | Real-time Refraction (text animations) | ✅ | GSAP-Ready Animations | ✅ | | Real-time Refraction (CSS animations) | ❌ | Lightweight & Performant | ✅ | | Adjustable Bevel | ✅ | Seamless Scroll Sync | ✅ | | Frosted Glass Effect | ✅ | Auto-Resize Handling | ✅ | | Dynamic Shadows | ✅ | Auto Video Refraction | ✅ | | Specular Highlights | ✅ | Animate Lenses | ✅ | | Interactive Tilt Effect [UPDATED] | ✅ | on.init Callback | ✅ | | Chromatic Aberration [NEW] | ✅ | Configurable Tilt Easing [NEW] | ✅ |

Quick start

Set up your HTML structure first. You will have a target element that will receive the glass effect, and a child element for your content (excluded from glass effect).

<body>
  <div class="liquidGL">
    <div class="content">
      <img src="example.svg" alt="Alt Text" />
      <p>This example text content will appear on top of the glass.</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</body>

Make sure that your target element has a high z-index so that it sits over your page content. Any content with a higher z-index than the target will be excluded from the lens, i.e a modal video player that you don't want to stain the lens.

Next, initialise the library with the selector for your target element.

import liquidGL from "liquid-gl";

const glassEffect = liquidGL({
  snapshot: "body",
  target: ".liquidGL",
  resolution: 2.0,
  refraction: 0.01,
  aberration: 0,
  bevelDepth: 0.08,
  bevelWidth: 0.15,
  frost: 0,
  shadow: true,
  specular: true,
  reveal: "fade",
  tilt: false,
  tiltFactor: 5,
  tiltEase: 400,
  magnify: 1,
  on: {
    init(instance) {
      console.log("liquidGL ready!", instance);
    },
  },
});

Dynamic Rendering

liquidGL can refract dynamic content like animations in real-time. To make this work, you must "register" any dynamic elements that will intersect with your glass pane. This tells liquidGL to monitor them and update the texture when they change.

Note: Videos are automatically detected and do not need to be registered.

Register dynamic elements after initialising liquidGL() but before calling liquidGL.syncWith() (if used). You can register elements using a CSS selector string or by passing an array of DOM elements.

const glassEffect = liquidGL({
  target: ".liquidGL",
});

liquidGL.registerDynamic(".my-animated-element");

const mySplitText = SplitText.create(".my-text", { type: "lines" });
liquidGL.registerDynamic(mySplitText.lines);

Optionally sync with Smooth Scrolling Libraries

liquidGL includes a syncWith() helper to automatically integrate with popular smooth-scrolling libraries like Lenis and Locomotive Scroll. It handles the render loop synchronization for you.

Simply call liquidGL.syncWith() after initialising liquidGL.

When installed from npm, pass your libraries in directly. Imported modules are not attached to window, so the helper cannot auto-detect them the way it does with browser script tags.

import liquidGL from "liquid-gl";
import Lenis from "lenis";
import gsap from "gsap";
import ScrollTrigger from "gsap/ScrollTrigger";

gsap.registerPlugin(ScrollTrigger);

const glassEffect = liquidGL({
  target: ".liquidGL",
});

const lenis = new Lenis();

liquidGL.syncWith({ gsap, lenis });

Passing gsap lets liquidGL drive its render loop from the GSAP ticker and keep ScrollTrigger updating on scroll. ScrollTrigger is read from the gsap object once registered, or you can pass it explicitly as ScrollTrigger.

| Option | Type | Description | | ------------------ | ------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | gsap | object | The gsap module. Enables ticker-driven rendering and ScrollTrigger sync. | | ScrollTrigger | object | Optional. Only needed if ScrollTrigger has not been registered on the gsap object. | | lenis | object | An existing Lenis instance. | | locomotiveScroll | object | An existing LocomotiveScroll instance. |

syncWith() must be called after liquidGL(). Passing gsap: false opts out of the GSAP ticker and uses a requestAnimationFrame loop instead.

Parameters

| Option | Type | Default | Description | | ------------ | -------- | ------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | target | string | '.liquidGL' | Required. CSS selector for the element(s) to glassify. | | snapshot | string | 'body' | CSS selector for the element to snapshot. | | resolution | number | 2.0 | Resolution of the background snapshot (clamped 0.1–3.0). Higher is sharper but uses more memory. | | refraction | number | 0.01 | Base refraction offset applied across the pane (0–1). | | aberration | number | 0 | Chromatic aberration strength (0–1). Scales with the refraction offset, so dispersion is strongest at the bevel. 0 disables it and skips the extra texture samples. | | bevelDepth | number | 0.08 | Additional refraction on the edge to simulate depth (0–1). | | bevelWidth | number | 0.15 | Width of the bevel zone as a fraction of the shortest side (0–1). | | frost | number | 0 | Blur radius in pixels for a frosted look. 0 is clear. | | shadow | boolean | true | Toggles a subtle drop-shadow under the pane. | | specular | boolean | true | Enables animated specular highlights that move with time. | | reveal | string | 'fade' | Reveal animation.- 'none': Renders immediately.- 'fade': Smoothly fades in. | | tilt | boolean | false | Enables 3D tilt interaction on cursor movement. | | tiltFactor | number | 5 | Depth of the tilt in degrees (0–25 recommended). | | tiltEase | number | 400 | Duration in ms for the tilt to settle, applied symmetrically on hover-in and hover-out. 0 applies the tilt instantly. | | magnify | number | 1 | Magnification factor of the lens (clamped 0.001–3.0). 1 is no magnification. | | helper | boolean | false | Loads the helper GUI for live tweaking of the liquidGL options. | | on.init | function | — | Callback that runs once the first render completes. Receives the lens instance. |

The target parameter is required; all others are optional.

Presets

| Name | Settings | Purpose | | ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------- | | Default | { refraction: 0, bevelDepth: 0.052, bevelWidth: 0.211, frost: 2, shadow: true, specular: true } | Balanced default used in the demo. | | Alien | { refraction: 0.073, bevelDepth: 0.2, bevelWidth: 0.156, frost: 2, shadow: true, specular: false } | Strong refraction & deep bevel for a sci-fi look. | | Pulse | { refraction: 0.03, bevelDepth: 0, bevelWidth: 0.273, frost: 0, shadow: false, specular: false } | Flat pane with wide bevel—great for pulsing UI effects. | | Frost | { refraction: 0, bevelDepth: 0.035, bevelWidth: 0.119, frost: 0.9, shadow: true, specular: true } | Softly diffused, privacy-glass style. | | Edge | { refraction: 0.047, bevelDepth: 0.136, bevelWidth: 0.076, frost: 2, shadow: true, specular: false } | Thin bevel and bright rim highlights. |

FAQ

| Question | Answer | | :----------------------------------------------------------------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Is there a resize handler? | Yes resize is handled in the library and debounced to 250ms for performance. | | Does the effect work on mobile? | Yes the library handles all 3 versions of WebGL and provides a frosted CSS backdrop-filter as a backup for older devices. | | I have a preloader, how should I initialise liquidGL()? | Add the data-liquid-ignore attribute to your preloader's top-level container to exclude it from the snapshot. You can then call liquidGL() inside a DOMContentLoaded listener as you normally would. | | What is the correct way to use liquidGL with page animations? | Lets say you have a preloader, above the fold intro animations and scroll animations on your page. You would:1) set the data-liquid-ignore attribute on your preloader2) animate your preloader and set up your initial animation states3) then call liquidGL();4) optionally, in the on.init(); callback, you can run post snapshot scripts, such as animating the target element | | Can I use liquidGL on multiple elements? | Yes, any element which has the class declared as your target will be glassified. Note all elements must use the same z-index due to shared canvas optimisations, if you use different z-index values for multiple targets, the highest value will be used by liquidGL. | | Will the library exceed WebGL contexts or have other performance issues? | No, the library uses a shared canvas for all instances, we have tested up to 30 elements on one page and we were not able to cause performance problems or crashes. | | Are there any animation limitations? | It depends on what you're trying to do, rotation and scale are expensive CPU/GPU processes, additionally shadow specular and tilt should be used with care when you have lots of instances or complex animations as they can clog the render pipeline. |

Important Notes

• For dynamic content to be refracted in real-time, you must register the element(s) with liquidGL.registerDynamic(). It is crucial to set the initial state of your animations before calling liquidGL() to ensure they are captured correctly.
• The library ignores fixed position elements, this is to prevent a known snapshotting bug on mobile browsers from surfacing which can prevent the snapshot from running. This is a safety net that shouldn't interfere with your use of the library.
• You can have multiple instances on one page but they must share the same z-index value. If you specify different z-index values, liquidGL will use the highest z-index for all elements with the target selector. This is because the effect uses a shared canvas to prevent WebGL context issues, there is no work around to this unfortunately.
• To improve performance on complex pages, you can snapshot a smaller, specific element like a background container instead of the whole page. Use the snapshot option with a CSS selector (e.g., snapshot: '.my-background'). This reduces texture memory and improves performance.
• The initial capture is asynchronous. Call liquidGL() inside a DOMContentLoaded or load handler to ensure content is available to the snapshot.
• Extremely long documents can exceed GPU texture limits, causing memory or performance issues. Consider segmenting very long pages (see source) or reducing the resolution parameter.
• The shadow and tilt effects create new stacking layers behind the target element. The shadow is placed at z-index - 2 and the tilt helper canvas is placed at z-index - 1. Ensure your z-index values leave room for these layers to prevent clipping or overflow issues.
• As with all WebGL effects, any image content inside the target element must have permissive Access-Control-Allow-Origin headers set to prevent CORS issues.

Browser Support

The liquidGL library is compatible with all WebGL enabled browsers on desktop, tablet and mobile devices.

[!NOTE]
Performance varies between browsers, specifically Safari can be unstable when the liquid element(s) are more than 50% of the viewport width or height. Practical use issues are rare, but make sure to test on your target devices thoroughly.

| Browser | Supported | | :------------- | :-------: | | Google Chrome | Yes | | Safari | Yes | | Firefox | Yes | | Microsoft Edge | Yes |

Other

Exclude elements

You can set elements to be ignored by the refraction using data-liquid-ignore. Add this attribute on the parent container of the element you wish to exclude.

Content Visibility

It is recommended to use z-index: 3; on the content inside your target element to make it sit on top of the lens. You can also combine this with mix-blend-mode: difference; for better legibility.

Border-radius

liquidGL automatically inherits the border-radius of the target element, ensuring the refraction respects rounded corners without any extra configuration. If you animate the border-radius of your target element i.e on scroll, the bevel will animate in real time to remain in sync.

Contributors

Thank you to the following people for their contributions to liquidGL.

License

MIT © NaughtyDuk