~frontendfocus | Issue 672 - What the data tell us about the web in 2024 (17)

🗓️ The 2024 Web Almanac — This comprehensive report on the state of the web returns to wrap up 2024. This edition has 21 chapters (most of which are available now) covering UX, accessibility, publishing, content distribution, and more. All of the metrics shared are based on real world data from over 16 million websites.

Creating a Pure CSS Halftone Effect in 3 Declarations — Creating a halftone effect in pure CSS using just a single div, no pseudos and just three properties. Talk about efficient (and visually striking, too).

WorkOS: Sell to Enterprises with a Few Lines of Code — The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS, offering flexible, easy-to-use APIs to integrate SSO, SCIM, and FGA in minutes instead of months.

CSS Wrapped 2024 — A fun (pixel-art filled) exploration of the new additions to the web platform in 2024, including cross-document view-transitions, scroll-driven animations, anchor positioning, and more.

Solved By Modern CSS: Feature Image — Ahmad shares how container queries and CSS :has() can help build a neat featured image component that changes depending on viewport/container size. As ever, great illustrations and code examples to help our understanding.

▶  Custom Dropdowns Just Got a Whole Lot Easier (Finally!) — A quick look at the upcoming customizable select element that makes it easy to create totally custom dropdown selects with just HTML and CSS, no JS needed. It’s currently available behind an experimental flag in Chromium browsers, but wider support is expected in 2025.

'My Issues with Shorthand Properties' — A bold claim here, stating that the “removal of CSS shorthand properties would benefit us all”. Håvard adds that writing explicit properties over shorthand is the way to go: “Clarity trumps cleverness”.

Catch Flaky Tests Before They Break Your Build — Flaky tests waste time and erode trust. Learn to flag unreliable tests early and keep your CI/CD smooth.

What Do the State of CSS and HTML Surveys Tell Us? — Rachel (of the Chrome Web Dev relations team) takes an initial look at some of the most interesting findings from these surveys, highlighting the top browser support issues, missing features, and more.

Using Transformers.js for AI in the Browser — Transformers.js is a seriously impressive project we link from time to time that lets you run pretrained machine learning models in the browser. Here’s a practical look at actually playing with it yourself right now.

Mastering SVG Arcs — Akshay shares his love of drawing in code, in turn demystifying how to use radii, rotation and arc direction to make intricate SVG designs.

Multi-State Buttons — Typically, buttons are either pressed or they aren’t. But as long as you handle it in an accessible way, you can make a group of radio inputs look like a multi-state button with some neat CSS trickery. Preethi shows us how.

Gradienty: A Suite of CSS Tools & Generators — Currently includes 11 different tools including generators for Tailwind gradients, CSS animations, mesh gradients, text gradients, box shadows, and more.

Roquefort - WebGPU Fluid Simulator — A browser-based 3D simulator that uses WebGPU compute shaders. You can edit the scene, speed, along with various effects.

InclusiveColors: A Color Palette Creator for WCAG-Compliant Colors — Offers features like precise control of every shade/tint that’s generated, live contrast checking as you edit, and ability to export to CSS, Tailwind, Adobe products, and more.

Codate: Easily Create Custom Date Formats in Any Programming Language — A neat little resource to get a code snippet for common date formats – hyphenated, slashed, dotted, standard with commas, etc. Supports 11 languages including JS, Go, Python, Java, PHP, and more.

PicLooks: Authentic Looking AI-Generated Profile Photos — An alternative to using stock photos, these do have a more realistic look than some other AI-generated photos, and they’re free to use commercially without attribution.