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World Congress 2023 • Aug 11, 2023

Is CSS Houdini finally usable in 2023?

Tanja Ulianova

CSS Houdini didn't fail; it pivoted. Leverage its three production-ready APIs to unlock type-safe properties, multithreaded painting, and up to a 30% performance boost in JavaScript style calculations.

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#1 about 2 min

Initial breakdown of the CSS Houdini ecosystem

Why CSS Houdini was introduced and how it relates to modern web development paradigms.

#2 about 4 min

Understanding the purpose behind CSS Houdini APIs

How CSS Houdini provides low-level APIs that expose parts of the browser rendering engine to developers.

#3 about 4 min

Internals of the browser rendering pipeline processing

The sequential steps browsers take to process external files and stylesheets into composite pixels on the screen.

#4 about 5 min

Upgrading variables with the CSS properties and values API

Enabling custom CSS properties with strict type safety, predictable inheritance, and robust fallback values.

#5 about 4 min

Manipulating styles with the typed CSS object model

Improving parsing performance and precision by interacting with CSS in JavaScript using typed values instead of basic strings.

#6 about 6 min

Generating off-thread graphics using the paint worklet API

How the paint worklet allows developers to produce custom lightweight bitmaps without blocking the main JavaScript thread.

#7 about 3 min

Evaluating the future utility of CSS Houdini web standards

Why modern browser vendors are prioritizing native CSS features over the complex custom layout engines originally proposed by Houdini.

#8 about 5 min

Audience Q&A on browser support and custom API capabilities

Addressing practical technical limitations including font metric tracking, data piping inside worklets, and maintaining animation loop cycles.

Matching moments

1:58 min

Generating custom backgrounds and layouts with CSS Houdini

Onur Gumus · LIVE

7:10 min

Testing CSS property knowledge and layout engine quirks

Chris Heilmann +2 · LIVE

2:04 min

Introduction to modern CSS capabilities for designers

Onur Gumus · LIVE

5:39 min

Anticipating missing CSS features and upcoming standardizations

Onur Gumus · LIVE

8:07 min

Modern JavaScript loop optimization and CSS innovations

Chris Heilmann +2 · LIVE

6:48 min

Understanding Interop 2025 and new CSS capabilities

Chris Heilmann +2 · LIVE

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