skew()

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since ⁨July 2015⁩.

The skew() CSS function defines a transformation that skews an element on the 2D plane. Its result is a <transform-function> data type.

Try it

transform: skew(0);

transform: skew(15deg, 15deg);

transform: skew(-0.06turn, 18deg);

transform: skew(0.312rad);

<section id="default-example">   <img     class="transition-all"     id="example-element"     src="/shared-assets/images/examples/firefox-logo.svg"     width="200" /> </section>

This transformation is a shear mapping (transvection) that distorts each point within an element by a certain angle in the horizontal and vertical directions. The effect is as if you grabbed each corner of the element and pulled them along a certain angle.

The coordinates of each point are modified by a value proportionate to the specified angle and the distance to the origin. Thus, the farther from the origin a point is, the greater the value added to it.

Syntax

css

skew(ax)  skew(ax, ay)

Values

ax: Is an <angle> representing the angle to use to distort the element along the x-axis.
ay Optional: Is an <angle> representing the angle to use to distort the element along the y-axis. If not defined, its default value is 0, resulting in a purely horizontal skewing.

Cartesian coordinates on ℝ^2	Homogeneous coordinates on ℝℙ^2	Cartesian coordinates on ℝ^3	Homogeneous coordinates on ℝℙ^3
$\left( \begin{array}{cc} 1 & \tan(ax) \\ \tan(ay) & 1 \end{array} \right)$	$\left( \begin{array}{ccc} 1 & \tan(ax) & 0 \\ \tan(ay) & 1 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 1 \end{array} \right)$	$\left( \begin{array}{ccc} 1 & \tan(ax) & 0 \\ \tan(ay) & 1 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 1 \end{array} \right)$	$\left( \begin{array}{cccc} 1 & \tan(ax) & 0 & 0 \\ \tan(ay) & 1 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 1 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 \end{array} \right)$
	`[1 tan(ay) tan(ax) 1 0 0]`

Formal syntax

<skew()> = 
  skew( [ <angle> | <zero> ] , [ <angle> | <zero> ]? )

Examples

Skewing on the x-axis only

HTML

html

<div>Normal</div> <div class="skewed">Skewed</div>

CSS

css

body {   margin: 20px; }  div {   width: 80px;   height: 80px;   background-color: skyblue; }  .skewed {   transform: skew(10deg); /* Equal to skewX(10deg) */   background-color: pink; }

Result

Skewing on both axes

HTML

html

<div>Normal</div> <div class="skewed">Skewed</div>

CSS

css

body {   margin: 20px; }  div {   width: 80px;   height: 80px;   background-color: skyblue; }  .skewed {   transform: skew(10deg, 10deg);   background-color: pink; }

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Transforms Module Level 1> # funcdef-transform-skew>

Browser compatibility

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This page was last modified on ⁨Nov 6, 2025⁩ by MDN contributors.

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