Liquid Text
An SVG turbulence and displacement filter makes the text wobble like a liquid surface: a slow idle, a surge under the pointer.
- Category: Text
- Licence: Charcoal UI Pro
- Built with: React 19, Tailwind CSS 4, Motion
- Dependencies: motion, clsx, tailwind-merge
Examples
Liquid Text
API reference
| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
text | string | — | |
strength | number | 14 | Displacement in px at full surge. |
speed | number | 1 | |
trigger | "hover" | "always" | "hover" | "hover" idles at a third of the strength and surges under the pointer. |
className | string | — |
About Liquid Text
Liquid Text makes lettering wobble like the surface of a liquid with an SVG turbulence and displacement filter: a slow idle and a surge under the pointer.
Liquid Text is a text animation for React 19, styled with Tailwind CSS 4 and animated with Motion. It drops into Next.js, Vite, Remix or Astro through the shadcn CLI as a single file you own.
When to use Liquid Text
- Water, drinks and wellness brands.
- Music and art sites.
- Hover headlines.
- Experimental heroes.
How it works
The filter's displacement scale is animated, idling low and rising on hover. strength, speed and trigger are props.
The real text stays in the page for screen readers and search engines; the animated letters are decorative copies marked aria-hidden. With prefers-reduced-motion on, it holds still or settles instantly instead of animating.
Customizing Liquid Text
Every prop is documented in the API reference above with its type and default. The ones you will reach for first are listed here.
The Customize panel next to the preview lets you change text, strength, speed, trigger live, and the Code tab updates to match, so the snippet you copy already carries your values.
- text (string).
- strength (number, default 14): Displacement in px at full surge.
- speed (number, default 1).
- trigger ("hover" | "always", default "hover"): "hover" idles at a third of the strength and surges under the pointer.
Goes well with Liquid Text
These text pieces share its tokens and motion language, so they sit together on one page without clashing.
- Scramble Text: React scramble text: characters cycle through glyphs before locking in
- Rotating Text: React rotating text that rolls between words letter by letter and resizes smoothly
- Highlight Text: React highlight text: a marker sweep, hand-drawn underline or scribbled circle on scroll
- Text Morph: React text morph: shared letters glide to new spots while the rest blur in and out
- Split Flap: A React split-flap display: every cell flips through the drum to its letter
Install Liquid Text
npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/liquid-textLiquid Text is part of Charcoal UI Pro. One seat unlocks all 300 Pro components, 107 landing-page sections and 100 full templates, for every personal and client project, with updates included. Add the @charcoal registry once with your access token, then the command above copies liquid-text.tsx into components/ui and installs clsx, tailwind-merge.
You own the file you install: no runtime package, no lock-in, nothing to keep in sync. Change it however your product needs.
See Charcoal UI Pro pricing · Pro setup
Frequently asked questions
- Does liquid text stay readable?
- Yes. It idles at a gentle wobble and only surges under the pointer, and strength caps how far it distorts. The real text is in the DOM for screen readers and search.
- How do I install Liquid Text?
- Liquid Text is part of Charcoal UI Pro. Add the @charcoal registry to components.json with your access token, then run npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/liquid-text. It copies liquid-text.tsx into components/ui and installs motion, clsx, tailwind-merge.
- Is Liquid Text free for commercial use?
- Liquid Text needs a Charcoal UI Pro seat, monthly or a one-time lifetime price. A seat covers unlimited personal and commercial projects, including client work, and every future Pro component.
- Does Liquid Text work with Next.js?
- Yes. It is a client component for React 19 styled with Tailwind CSS 4, so it works in the Next.js App Router and Pages Router, Vite, Remix and Astro.
- Can an AI coding agent install Liquid Text?
- Yes. Connect the Charcoal UI MCP server (https://charcoalui.com/mcp) to Claude Code, Cursor or any MCP client; get_component returns Liquid Text's props and get_install_command returns the exact command.