Why dotLottie Web
April 30, 2026 ยท View on GitHub
dotLottie Web
The official LottieFiles player for Lottie (.json) and
dotLottie (.lottie) animations on the web โ a Rust + WASM core
powered by ThorVG, with Software,
WebGL2, and WebGPU rendering backends and full
dotLottie v2 support (theming, state machines,
and audio).
๐ Live Viewer ยท ๐ Perf Playground ยท ๐ Docs ยท ๐ฆ dotLottie-rs
Why dotLottie Web
- ๐ฆ Lottie + dotLottie, one player โ point
srcat a classic Lottie.jsonor a.lottiearchive. The.lottieformat bundles multiple animations, themes, state machines, and embedded assets into a single compressed file. - ๐ฆ Rust + WASM core โ powered by
dotlottie-rs, the same engine that ships in iOS, Android, and native dotLottie players. One battle-tested implementation across every platform. - ๐จ ThorVG renderer โ an industrial-grade vector graphics engine with the broadest Lottie feature coverage of any web renderer. See the ThorVG Lottie support matrix.
- โก Three rendering backends โ Software (Canvas2D), WebGL2, and WebGPU (experimental). Switch with a one-line import change โ same
DotLottieclass everywhere. - ๐ dotLottie v2 ready โ first-class theming, interactive state machines, and audio in a single
.lottiefile. No userland wiring required. - ๐งต Off-main-thread โ
DotLottieWorkerrenders on a Web Worker withOffscreenCanvas, keeping your UI buttery-smooth even with dozens of animations. - โ๏ธ 6 first-party SDKs โ Vanilla JS, React, Vue, Svelte, Solid, and a Web Component. Plus SSR-safe (Next.js example included) and Node.js 18+ support.
- ๐๏ธ Rich runtime control โ themes, slots (color/scalar/vector/gradient/text/image), markers, segments, layouts (
fit+align), playback modes (forward/reverse/bounce), frame interpolation, 25+ typed events.
Quick Start
Install the package for your framework, then drop in a few lines. The same player loads both Lottie .json and dotLottie .lottie files โ just point src at either:
Vanilla JS
npm install @lottiefiles/dotlottie-web
<canvas id="canvas" style="width: 300px; height: 300px"></canvas>
import { DotLottie } from '@lottiefiles/dotlottie-web';
const dotLottie = new DotLottie({
canvas: document.getElementById('canvas'),
src: 'https://your-animation-url.lottie',
autoplay: true,
loop: true,
});
โ๏ธ React
npm install @lottiefiles/dotlottie-react
import { DotLottieReact } from '@lottiefiles/dotlottie-react';
const App = () => (
<DotLottieReact
src="path/to/animation.lottie"
loop
autoplay
/>
);
๐ Vue
npm install @lottiefiles/dotlottie-vue
<script setup>
import { DotLottieVue } from '@lottiefiles/dotlottie-vue';
</script>
<template>
<DotLottieVue
style="height: 500px; width: 500px"
autoplay
loop
src="https://path-to-lottie.lottie"
/>
</template>
๐งก Svelte
npm install @lottiefiles/dotlottie-svelte
<script lang="ts">
import { DotLottieSvelte } from '@lottiefiles/dotlottie-svelte';
</script>
<DotLottieSvelte src="path/to/animation.lottie" loop autoplay />
๐ต Solid
npm install @lottiefiles/dotlottie-solid
import { DotLottieSolid } from '@lottiefiles/dotlottie-solid';
const App = () => (
<DotLottieSolid
src="path/to/animation.lottie"
loop
autoplay
/>
);
๐ Web Component (drop-in, no build step)
<dotlottie-wc
src="https://lottie.host/4db68bbd-31f6-4cd8-84eb-189de081159a/IGmMCqhzpt.lottie"
autoplay
loop
></dotlottie-wc>
<script
type="module"
src="https://unpkg.com/@lottiefiles/dotlottie-wc@latest/dist/dotlottie-wc.js"
></script>
Or via npm:
npm install @lottiefiles/dotlottie-wc
import '@lottiefiles/dotlottie-wc';
Features
๐ค Interactive State Machines
dotLottie v2 ships state machines built into the file format โ no JS glue required. Define states, transitions, and inputs in a single .lottie and drive them at runtime through pointer events, custom events, or input values.
const dotLottie = new DotLottie({
canvas: document.getElementById('canvas'),
src: 'interactive-button.lottie',
stateMachineId: 'main',
autoplay: true,
});
The player exposes typed events for stateMachineStart, stateMachineTransition, stateMachineStateEntered, custom events, and input changes โ perfect for wiring animations into your UI logic.
๐จ Runtime Theming
Switch palettes, animate gradients, swap text, or replace images at runtime โ without re-exporting from After Effects. Themes can be embedded in the .lottie manifest or supplied programmatically.
// Use a theme defined in the .lottie manifest
dotLottie.setTheme('dark');
// Or supply a theme object at runtime
dotLottie.setThemeData({
rules: [
{ id: 'primary', type: 'Color', value: [0.9, 0.2, 0.4, 1.0] },
],
});
The full Theme type covers color, scalar, position, vector, gradient, image, and text rules โ all keyframe-aware.
๐ Audio Support
dotLottie files can carry embedded audio tracks alongside the animation timeline โ handy for UI sound effects, onboarding flows, or interactive characters. Audio is decoded and played in lockstep with the animation timeline.
Audio is an experimental feature in
dotlottie-rs. Browser autoplay policies still apply โ initiate playback from a user gesture.
๐งต Off-Main-Thread Rendering
For pages with many animations, swap DotLottie for DotLottieWorker. Identical API, but rendering happens on a Web Worker with an OffscreenCanvas, freeing the main thread for layout, scrolling, and your app code.
import { DotLottieWorker } from '@lottiefiles/dotlottie-web';
const player = new DotLottieWorker({
canvas: document.getElementById('canvas'),
src: 'animation.lottie',
autoplay: true,
loop: true,
workerId: 'shared-pool', // optional: share one worker across many instances
});
All DotLottieWorker methods are async (Promise-returning) since they cross a worker boundary.
โก Hardware-Accelerated Rendering
The default Software backend works everywhere. For demanding workloads โ many concurrent animations, large canvases, complex masks โ opt in to GPU rendering via subpath imports:
// WebGL2 โ broadly supported
import { DotLottie } from '@lottiefiles/dotlottie-web/webgl';
// WebGPU โ experimental, modern Chromium / Safari TP
import { DotLottie } from '@lottiefiles/dotlottie-web/webgpu';
The class name (DotLottie) and API surface are identical across all three backends, so swapping renderers is a one-line change. Each backend ships its own optimized WASM build via package.json conditional exports.
Want to see the difference on your own hardware? The hosted perf-test page compares Software vs WebGL vs WebGPU vs Skottie/CanvasKit head-to-head.
๐ผ๏ธ More built-in capabilities
- Multi-animation
.lottiefiles โanimationIdconfig +loadAnimation(id)to switch between bundled animations - Named markers โ
setMarker(name)andmarkers()to play AE-defined segments - Frame segments โ
setSegment(start, end)for arbitrary frame ranges - Layout โ
fit(contain/cover/fill/fit-width/fit-height/none) + normalizedalign: [x, y] - Slots โ bind dynamic data to color, scalar, vector, gradient, text, and image slots at runtime
- Playback modes โ
forward/reverse/bounce/reverse-bouncewith configurable loop counts - Frame interpolation โ smooth subframe playback (default on) or pinned to the original AE frame rate
- Freeze on offscreen โ automatically pause rendering when the canvas leaves the viewport
- 25+ typed events โ
play,pause,frame,complete,loop,load,loadError,freeze, plus the full state-machine event suite
Packages
All packages render both Lottie (.json) and dotLottie (.lottie) animations.
| Package | Description |
|---|---|
| @lottiefiles/dotlottie-web | Core Lottie & dotLottie player โ Rust/WASM via dotlottie-rs, Canvas2D / WebGL / WebGPU, Node-isomorphic |
| @lottiefiles/dotlottie-react | React component for Lottie & dotLottie |
| @lottiefiles/dotlottie-vue | Vue 3 component for Lottie & dotLottie |
| @lottiefiles/dotlottie-svelte | Svelte component for Lottie & dotLottie |
| @lottiefiles/dotlottie-solid | Solid component for Lottie & dotLottie |
| @lottiefiles/dotlottie-wc | Framework-agnostic Web Component for Lottie & dotLottie |
Each package README contains its full API reference, prop tables, and event documentation.
dotLottie Viewer
A hosted companion app at lottiefiles.github.io/dotlottie-web for inspecting, debugging, and benchmarking animations:
| Page | What it does |
|---|---|
| Home | Drop a .lottie or .json file to preview rendering and inspect manifest details |
| Playground | Interactive editor for player config, themes, markers, and animation switching |
| Performance | Stress test across 40+ animations โ compare Software / WebGL / WebGPU / Skottie head-to-head on your own hardware, with seedable runs for reproducibility |
| List | Gallery of curated animations |
| Embed | Embedding patterns and demos |
Source: apps/viewer/.
Live Examples (CodePen)
@lottiefiles/dotlottie-web โ Getting Started ยท Playback Controls ยท Dynamic Loading ยท Worker ยท Multi Animations ยท Advanced Layout ยท Named Markers ยท Theming ยท Interactivity
@lottiefiles/dotlottie-react โ Getting Started ยท Custom Controls
@lottiefiles/dotlottie-vue โ Getting Started
Local Examples
Runnable example apps in examples/:
| Example | Package | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| web | @lottiefiles/dotlottie-web | State machines, themes, segments, layout |
| web-node | @lottiefiles/dotlottie-web (Node.js) | Server-side rendering to a buffer |
| react | @lottiefiles/dotlottie-react | Renderer selection (canvas/webgl/webgpu) |
| vue | @lottiefiles/dotlottie-vue | Theme toggling, ref/event patterns |
| solid | @lottiefiles/dotlottie-solid | Signal-based state, theme/animation switching |
| wc | @lottiefiles/dotlottie-wc | Web Component usage and event delegation |
| next | @lottiefiles/dotlottie-react (Next.js) | SSR-safe rendering with the App Router |
pnpm install && pnpm run build
cd examples/web
pnpm run dev
Browser & Runtime Support
Required: WebAssembly ยท Canvas 2D ยท Fetch API
Optional (enhances perf): Web Workers ยท OffscreenCanvas ยท WebGL2 (for /webgl) ยท WebGPU (for /webgpu)
| Browser | Minimum version |
|---|---|
| Chrome | 57+ (Mar 2017) |
| Firefox | 52+ (Mar 2017) |
| Safari | 11+ (Sep 2017) |
| Edge | 16+ (Oct 2017) |
| iOS Safari | 11+ (Sep 2017) |
Node.js: 18+ โ @lottiefiles/dotlottie-web is isomorphic and runs server-side for thumbnail generation, frame extraction, or static rendering.
Development
Prerequisites: Node.js 22+, pnpm 10+
git clone https://github.com/LottieFiles/dotlottie-web.git
cd dotlottie-web
pnpm install
pnpm run build # Build all packages
pnpm run dev # Watch mode
pnpm run test # Run tests
pnpm run lint # Lint
pnpm run format # Format
Contributing
Contributions are welcome! Read the Contributing Guidelines and Code of Conduct before opening an issue or PR.
License
MIT ยฉ LottieFiles