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No.17 · Buttons

Chromatic Button

A terminal-style button that glitches on purpose: the label splits into red and cyan, slices jump sideways, a scanline sweeps down — then it settles.

The prompt

The design brief behind this component — reuse it to regenerate, remix, or explain it.

Build a terminal-style button that glitches once on hover. A black face with a faint green border, mono uppercase label with wide tracking, and a permanent fine scanline texture (repeating 1px lines at 3.5%). The label has two pseudo-element copies (content: attr(data-text)) in red (#ff2a6d) and cyan (#05d9e8), screen-blended: on hover or focus they appear 1.5px either side of the label, a steady chromatic split. On entering, the label plays a 420ms stepped glitch — horizontal slices of it (clip-path inset bands) jump left and right a few pixels for a few frames — while the red copy slips further and settles, and a soft green scanline band sweeps down the face once. The border brightens and a green glow appears while you stay; the glitch replays on each entry (two identical keyframes alternate).

Notes

Interaction
Hover or focus to trigger the glitch; press to click.
Motion
Glitch 420ms stepped; split settles over 420ms; scanline sweep 700ms; border glow 200ms.
Accessibility
The button's accessible name is its label (the visual copies are aria-hidden pseudo-elements). Reduced motion keeps the colour split but removes the glitch and sweep.
Responsive
Sized by its label; works at any width.
On touch
Taps work normally; pointer-only effects are skipped on touch.

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301 components