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Isometric Basics

Isometric angle cheat sheet

Every angle, ratio and transform we reach for, on one page.

Responsive isometric scenes need a plan for narrow screens. Sometimes the answer is to scale everything down with clamp(), and sometimes it is to hide secondary blocks entirely. What rarely works is letting the scene overflow sideways, which makes the page scroll horizontally and feels broken on a phone.

At a glance

Isometric angles
Projection Angle Line ratio
True isometric 30° 1 : 1.732
Pixel art 26.57° 1 : 2
Dimetric 15° / 45° varies

Testing on real devices

Accessibility for decorative art is mostly about getting out of the way. If an illustration adds no information, hide it from assistive technology with aria-hidden on its wrapper. If it does carry meaning, such as a chart, give it a text alternative that says what the picture shows, not how it was built.

Download

cubefold-cube-starter.zipHTML and CSS for a shaded cube, with a hover state. 571 B
Download cubefold-cube-starter.zip

Questions

Can I use this without JavaScript?

Yes. Every scene in our tutorials is pure HTML and CSS; JavaScript only adds optional interactions.

Does it work on phones?

It does, as long as the scene is scaled with clamp() and never wider than the viewport.

Can I use the code in client work?

Yes. All tutorial code is MIT licensed, so you can use it anywhere with attribution in the source.

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Written by

Inês Duarte

Inês is Cubefold's colour and type lead. She believes every isometric scene needs exactly one warm accent, and not two.

All 16 posts by Inês Duarte

3 comments

  1. Dana Ortiz

    This finally made the order of rotations click for me. I had them the wrong way round for weeks.

    Reply to Dana Ortiz
  2. Bea Kowalski

    Bookmarked. The table alone is worth it.

    Reply to Bea Kowalski
    1. Chen Wei

      Thanks! A follow-up is already in the drafts.

      Reply to Chen Wei

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