Prism
A glass prism turning in a dark field, a white beam entering one face and a spectral streak sweeping the floor from the other. CSS 3D only.
- Category: Backgrounds
- Licence: Charcoal UI Pro
- Built with: React 19, Tailwind CSS 4, Motion
- Dependencies: motion, clsx, tailwind-merge
Examples
Prism
API reference
| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
speed | number | 14 | Seconds per rotation. |
size | number | 160 | |
spectrum | boolean | true | |
glow | number | 1 | |
className | string | — |
About Prism
Prism turns a glass prism in a dark field, with a white beam entering one face and a spectral streak sweeping the floor from the other.
Prism is an animated background 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 Prism
- Optics and camera brands.
- Creative studios.
- Album covers and music.
- Science and education.
How it works
The prism is three CSS 3D faces and the spectrum a blurred gradient. It is pure CSS, so it costs almost nothing to keep running, and it stops under reduced motion.
The whole layer is decorative and aria-hidden, sits behind your content without taking pointer events it does not need, and pauses when scrolled off screen. With prefers-reduced-motion on, it holds still or settles instantly instead of animating.
Customizing Prism
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 speed, size, spectrum, glow live, and the Code tab updates to match, so the snippet you copy already carries your values.
- speed (number, default 14): Seconds per rotation.
- size (number, default 160).
- spectrum (boolean, default true).
- glow (number, default 1).
Goes well with Prism
These backgrounds pieces share its tokens and motion language, so they sit together on one page without clashing.
- Ember Field: An animated React ember background: glowing embers drift up and flicker as they cool
- Smoke: A slow React smoke background: blurred plumes drifting over dark sections, CSS only
- Aurora: An animated React aurora background: soft light bands drifting across a section
- Grid Beams: A React grid background with beams of light running along its lines
- Meteors: A React meteor shower background: streaks falling diagonally, CSS only
Install Prism
npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/prismPrism 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 prism.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
- How do I install Prism?
- Prism is part of Charcoal UI Pro. Add the @charcoal registry to components.json with your access token, then run npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/prism. It copies prism.tsx into components/ui and installs motion, clsx, tailwind-merge.
- Is Prism free for commercial use?
- Prism 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 Prism 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 Prism?
- Yes. Connect the Charcoal UI MCP server (https://charcoalui.com/mcp) to Claude Code, Cursor or any MCP client; get_component returns Prism's props and get_install_command returns the exact command.