How to Make a “Star Wars” Text Crawl

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You will build the classic “Star Wars” opening text crawl with pure HTML and CSS: the blue intro line, the yellow tilted crawl that tapers into the distance, a subtle starfield, and a soft fade at the top. By the end, you will have a reusable component that works without JavaScript and is easy to theme, slow down, or speed up.

Why a Star Wars Text Crawl Matters

This pattern teaches several valuable CSS techniques in one focused project. You will set up a 3D perspective, tilt a plane with rotateX, translate it over time with keyframes, and layer a gentle top fade. You will learn to organize CSS with custom properties so color palettes and timing can change in one place. You will also see how to create a starfield without images, and how to respect prefers-reduced-motion so the effect remains usable.

Prerequisites

You only need foundational CSS and a willingness to experiment with transforms and animations. If you understand the pieces below, you will be right at home.

  • Basic HTML
  • CSS custom properties
  • CSS pseudo-elements (::before / ::after)

Step 1: The HTML Structure

The markup separates the starfield, an intro line, and the crawl. The crawl has a perspective wrapper, a mask for the top fade, and a text block that holds the title, episode, headline, and body paragraphs. A small checkbox-label pair gives you a “Replay” toggle without JavaScript.

<!-- HTML -->

<div class="space-crawl">

  <!-- Starfield layers (decorative) -->

  <div class="space-crawl__stars" aria-hidden="true"></div>

  <div class="space-crawl__stars space-crawl__stars--layer2" aria-hidden="true"></div>


  <!-- Intro line -->

  <p class="intro-line" aria-hidden="true">A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...</p>


  <!-- Replay control (pure CSS) -->

  <input type="checkbox" id="replay" class="replay-toggle" hidden>

  <label for="replay" class="replay-btn" aria-label="Replay the crawl">Replay</label>


  <!-- The crawl -->

  <section class="crawl" aria-label="Star Wars style opening crawl">

    <div class="crawl__mask" aria-hidden="true"></div>

    <div class="crawl__perspective">

      <div class="crawl__text">

        <p class="crawl__title">STAR WARS</p>

        <p class="crawl__episode">Episode IV</p>

        <p class="crawl__headline">A NEW HOPE</p>


        <p>It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.</p>

        <p>During the battle

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