Text Spotlight
Dim text lit by a soft circle that follows the pointer: two copies of the text, the bright one clipped by a radial mask.
- Category: Text
- Licence: Charcoal UI Pro
- Built with: React 19, Tailwind CSS 4, Motion
- Dependencies: motion, clsx, tailwind-merge
Examples
Text Spotlight
API reference
| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
text | string | — | |
radius | number | 120 | Radius of the lit circle in px. |
dim | number | 0.18 | Opacity of the text outside the light. |
color | string | "var(--foreground)" | Colour of the lit text. |
className | string | — |
About Text Spotlight
Text Spotlight lights dim text with a soft circle that follows the pointer. Two copies of the text sit on top of each other, and the bright one is clipped by a radial mask.
Text Spotlight 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 Text Spotlight
- Mysterious hero statements.
- Product teasers.
- Interactive manifestos.
- Dark-themed landing pages.
How it works
The pointer position is written to CSS variables for the mask. radius, dim and colour 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 Text Spotlight
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 radius, dim, color live, and the Code tab updates to match, so the snippet you copy already carries your values.
- text (string).
- radius (number, default 120): Radius of the lit circle in px.
- dim (number, default 0.18): Opacity of the text outside the light.
- color (string, default "var(--foreground)"): Colour of the lit text.
Goes well with Text Spotlight
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 Text Spotlight
npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/text-spotlightText Spotlight 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 text-spotlight.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 big is the spotlight?
- radius sets it in pixels and dim sets how faint the unlit text is, so it can be a subtle hint or a dramatic reveal.
- How do I install Text Spotlight?
- Text Spotlight is part of Charcoal UI Pro. Add the @charcoal registry to components.json with your access token, then run npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/text-spotlight. It copies text-spotlight.tsx into components/ui and installs motion, clsx, tailwind-merge.
- Is Text Spotlight free for commercial use?
- Text Spotlight 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 Text Spotlight 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 Text Spotlight?
- Yes. Connect the Charcoal UI MCP server (https://charcoalui.com/mcp) to Claude Code, Cursor or any MCP client; get_component returns Text Spotlight's props and get_install_command returns the exact command.