Placeholders

About

Placeholders can be used to enhance the experience of your application. They’re built only with HTML and CSS, meaning you don’t need any JavaScript to create them. You will, however, need some custom JavaScript to toggle their visibility. Their appearance, color, and sizing can be easily customized with our utility classes.

Example

In the example below, we take a typical card component and recreate it with placeholders applied to create a “loading card”. Size and proportions are the same between the two.

<div class="card">
  <img src="..." class="card-img-top" alt="...">

  <div class="card-body">
    <h5 class="card-title">Card title</h5>
    <p class="card-text">Some quick example text to build on the card title and make up the bulk of the card's content.</p>
    <a href="#" class="btn btn-primary">Go somewhere</a>
  </div>
</div>

<div class="card" aria-hidden="true">
  <img src="..." class="card-img-top" alt="...">
  <div class="card-body">
    <h5 class="card-title placeholder-wave">
      <span class="placeholder col-6"></span>
    </h5>
    <p class="card-text placeholder-wave">
      <span class="placeholder col-7"></span>
      <span class="placeholder col-4"></span>
      <span class="placeholder col-4"></span>
      <span class="placeholder col-6"></span>
      <span class="placeholder col-8"></span>
    </p>
    <a class="btn btn-primary disabled placeholder col-6" aria-disabled="true"></a>
  </div>
</div>

How it works

Create placeholders with the .placeholder class and a grid column class (e.g., .col-6) to set the width. They can replace the text inside an element or be added as a modifier class to an existing component.

We apply additional styling to .btns via ::before to ensure the height is respected. You may extend this pattern for other situations as needed, or add a   within the element to reflect the height when actual text is rendered in its place.

<p aria-hidden="true">
  <span class="placeholder placeholder-wave col-6"></span>
</p>

<a class="btn btn-primary disabled placeholder col-4" aria-disabled="true"></a>

Width

You can change the width through grid column classes, width utilities, or inline styles.

<span class="placeholder placeholder-wave col-6"></span>
<span class="placeholder placeholder-wave w-75"></span>
<span class="placeholder placeholder-wave" style="width: 25%;"></span>

Color

By default, the placeholder uses currentColor. This can be overridden with a custom color or utility class.

<span class="placeholder col-12"></span>

<span class="placeholder col-12 bg-primary"></span>
<span class="placeholder col-12 bg-secondary"></span>
<span class="placeholder col-12 bg-tertiary"></span>
<span class="placeholder col-12 bg-success"></span>
<span class="placeholder col-12 bg-danger"></span>
<span class="placeholder col-12 bg-warning"></span>
<span class="placeholder col-12 bg-dark"></span>

Sizing

The size of .placeholders are based on the typographic style of the parent element. Customize them with sizing modifiers: .placeholder-lg, .placeholder-sm, or .placeholder-xs.

<span class="placeholder placeholder-wave col-12 placeholder-lg"></span>
<span class="placeholder placeholder-wave col-12"></span>
<span class="placeholder placeholder-wave col-12 placeholder-sm"></span>
<span class="placeholder placeholder-wave col-12 placeholder-xs"></span>

Animation

Animate placeholders with .placeholder-wave to better convey the perception of something being actively loaded.

<p class="placeholder-wave">
  <span class="placeholder py-5 col-12"></span>
</p>

CSS

Sass variables

$placeholder-opacity-max:           .5;
$placeholder-opacity-min:           .2;