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What Is Scroll Snap Generator?

Scroll Snap Generator creates CSS scroll snap configurations for carousels, full-page sections, image galleries, and horizontal scrolling layouts. Scroll snap gives your scrollable content a polished, app-like feel where items lock into position after the user scrolls.

How to Use This Tool

Choose your scroll direction (horizontal or vertical), snap type (mandatory or proximity), and alignment (start, center, end). Configure the number of items, padding, and gap. Preview the scroll snap behavior directly in the tool by scrolling the preview panel. Copy the generated CSS when it feels right. Everything runs in your browser.

Why Use Scroll Snap Generator?

CSS scroll snap is well-supported but the interaction between scroll-snap-type, scroll-snap-align, and scroll-padding can be confusing without visual feedback. This tool lets you experiment with every combination and see the result instantly — no JavaScript carousel libraries needed. It’s free and outputs clean, native CSS. For a detailed walkthrough, see our step-by-step guide.

Common Use Cases

Horizontal card carousels on a homepage where each card needs to settle into a clean position instead of trailing off mid-card. Image-first landing sections where the user expects a deliberate "next slide" feel without pulling in a carousel library. Vertical full-screen storytelling pages where each section is its own viewport and scrolling stops at each one. Onboarding flows built as horizontal scroll lanes on mobile, where snap behavior replaces a dedicated step indicator.

Anywhere a tap-and-drag interaction needs to feel like a native iOS or Android paginated view but you don't want to ship JavaScript for the gesture handling. The generator lets you preview the snap behavior live, so you can feel the difference between mandatory and proximity before committing to either in your stylesheet. Long-form scrollytelling sites where the snap points anchor each chapter of an article and let the reader scrub backwards through prior sections cleanly.

How We Compare

Swiper.js, Splide, and Embla Carousel are the established JavaScript carousel libraries and remain the right choice when you need pagination dots, keyboard navigation, autoplay, or accessibility wiring out of the box. They add 10-40 KB of JavaScript to your bundle for behavior that CSS can now handle natively in modern browsers.

Scroll-snap is the no-JavaScript route: a handful of CSS properties on the scroll container and its children, and the browser does the work. This tool emits that CSS directly, with the right combination of scroll-snap-type, scroll-padding, and scroll-snap-align for your chosen direction and strictness. For the responsive-breakpoint layer that often sits underneath, see responsive breakpoint previewer.

One usability note: scroll-snap on long vertical sections can frustrate users who want to stop mid-section to read. proximity is the friendlier default for long-form content; mandatory is the right choice when each snap target is discrete and short (carousel cards, fullscreen slides, paginated images).

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CSS Scroll Snap?+
CSS Scroll Snap lets you define snap points within a scrollable container. When a user scrolls, the viewport locks to these points for a precise, controlled scrolling experience — commonly used for carousels, galleries, and full-page sections.
What is the difference between mandatory and proximity snap?+
Mandatory forces the scroll to always land on a snap point. Proximity only snaps when the scroll position is near a snap point, allowing free scrolling between points. Mandatory is best for carousels; proximity for content-heavy pages.
Does scroll snap work on mobile?+
Yes. CSS Scroll Snap has excellent browser support across all modern browsers including mobile Safari and Chrome on Android. It provides native-feeling scroll behavior without JavaScript.
What is scroll-padding?+
Scroll-padding creates an offset from the container edges where snap points align. This is useful when you have a fixed header — setting scroll-padding-top ensures snapped content doesn't hide behind the header.
What’s the difference between mandatory and proximity snap?+
Mandatory always snaps to the nearest snap point after scrolling stops; proximity only snaps when the scroll position is close to one. Proximity feels softer for content where users might want to scroll between snap points.
Can I use scroll-snap on horizontal carousels?+
Yes — set scroll-snap-type to "x mandatory" on the container and "scroll-snap-align: start" on each child. The generator outputs this configuration when you pick the horizontal carousel preset.
Does scroll-snap work on iOS Safari?+
Yes, with full support since iOS 11. The implementation is consistent with the spec on iOS 13+. Older iOS may need the deprecated scroll-snap-points-x syntax — the generator can emit both for backward compatibility.
How do I prevent scroll-snap from feeling janky on touch?+
Combine scroll-snap with scroll-behavior: smooth and avoid CSS transitions on the snap children themselves. The generator’s "polished mobile" preset includes these adjustments by default.

Built by Derek Giordano · Part of Ultimate Design Tools

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