What is simpleParallax?

simpleParallax is a very simple and tiny Vanilla JS library which adds parallax animations on any images.

Where it may be laborious to get results through other plugins, simpleParallax stands out for its ease and its visual rendering. The parallax effect is directly applied on image tags, there is no need to use background images. You can read one case study here.

Any image will fit. Try it out!

Installation

Simply copy/paste the below snippet just before your closing </body> tag:

<script src="simpleParallax.js"></script>

or use the below CDN link provided by jsDelivr.com:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/simple-parallax-js@5.1.0/dist/simpleParallax.min.js"></script>

or you can install it via npm/yarn:

#npm
npm install simple-parallax-js

#yarn
yarn add simple-parallax-js

You can import it as follow:

import simpleParallax from 'simple-parallax-js';

Initialization

Giving the following HTML:

 <img class="thumbnail" src="image.jpg" alt="image">

Simply add the following JavaScript code:

var image = document.getElementsByClassName('thumbnail');
new simpleParallax(image);

This also work with several images:

var images = document.querySelectorAll('img');
new simpleParallax(images);

Settings

Setting	Type	Default	Hint
orientation	string	up	up - right - down - left - up left - up right - down left - down right
scale	int	1.3	need to be above 1.0
overflow	boolean	false
delay	int	0.4	the delay is in second
transition	string	false	any CSS transition
breakpoint	int	false	the breakpoint is in pixel

You can apply these settings with the following JS code:

var images = document.querySelectorAll('.thumbnail');
new simpleParallax(images, {
    delay: 0,
    orientation: 'down',
    scale: 1.3,
    overfow: true
});

orientation - string

This is the direction of the parallax effect. Choose up and when scrolling down, the image will translate from bottom to top. When scroll up, the image will translate from top to bottom.

scale - int

The higher the scale is set, the more visible the parallax effect will be. In return, the image will lose in quality. To reduce the lossless effect, if the scale is set at 1.5 and you image is 500px width, do the simple math 500 * 1.5 = 750. So you can choose a 750px image to replace your 500px one, and don't see any quality leak.

overflow - boolean

By default, the image is scaled to apply a parallax effect without any overflow on the layout (you can check the case study to have a better understanding). when overflow is set to true, the image will translate out of its natural flow.

delay - int

When a delay is set, the translation of the image will slightly continue when the user stop scrolling. That gives a very nice effect.

transition - string

The transition works closely with the delay setting. The transition will add any CSS effect to the delay setting.

breakpoint - int

The minimum breakpoint from where simpleParallax should be initialized and to where simpleParallax should be destroyed.

Methods

Destroy a simpleParallax instance:

var images = document.querySelectorAll('img');
var instance = new simpleParallax(images);
instance.destroy();

Examples

You can find some examples here.

Compatibility

You can apply simpleParallax on picture tags/srcset images.

Author

Geoffrey Signorato

Contributing

Open an issue or a pull request to suggest changes or additions.

EdoEdoEdo / simpleParallax