---
title: React Placeholder Component
name: Placeholder
description: Use loading react placeholders for your components or pages to indicate something may still be loading.
route: /components/placeholder/
other_frameworks: placeholder
---

## About

Placeholders can be used to enhance the experience of your application. They're built only with HTML and CSS, meaning you don't need any JavaScript to create them. You will, however, need some custom JavaScript to toggle their visibility. Their appearance, color, and sizing can be easily customized with our utility classes.

## Example

In the example below, we take a typical card component and recreate it with placeholders applied to create a "loading card". Size and proportions are the same between the two.

<ExampleSnippet
  className="d-flex justify-content-around"
  component="PlaceholderExample"
  componentName="React Placeholder"
/>

## How it works

Create placeholders with the `<CPlaceholder>` component and a grid column propx (e.g., `xs={6}`) to set the `width`. They can replace the text inside an element or be added as a modifier class to an existing component.

We apply additional styling to `CButton`s via `::before` to ensure the `height` is respected. You may extend this pattern for other situations as needed, or add a `&nbsp;` within the element to reflect the height when actual text is rendered in its place.

<ExampleSnippet component="Placeholder2Example" componentName="React Placeholder" />

<Callout className="mb-4" color="info">
  The use of <code>aria-hidden="true"</code> only indicates that the element should be hidden to
  screen readers. The <strong>loading</strong> behavior of the placeholder depends on how authors
  will actually use the placeholder styles, how they plan to update things, etc. Some JavaScript
  code may be needed to *swap* the state of the placeholder and inform AT users of the update.
</Callout>

### Width

You can change the `width` through grid column classes, width utilities, or inline styles.

<ExampleSnippet component="PlaceholderWidthExample" componentName="React Placeholder" />

### Color

By default, the `<CPlaceholder>` uses `currentColor`. This can be overridden with a custom color or utility class.

<ExampleSnippet component="PlaceholderColorExample" componentName="React Placeholder" />

### Sizing

The size of `<CPlaceholder>`s are based on the typographic style of the parent element. Customize them with `size` prop: `lg`, `sm`, or `xs`.

<ExampleSnippet component="PlaceholderSizingExample" componentName="React Placeholder" />

### Animation

Animate placeholders with `animation="glow"` or `animation="wave"` to better convey the perception of something being _actively_ loaded.

<ExampleSnippet component="PlaceholderAnimationExample" componentName="React Placeholder" />

## API

Check out the documentation below for a comprehensive guide to all the props you can use with the components mentioned here.

- [&lt;CPlaceholder /&gt;](./api/#cplaceholder)
