June 28, 2026
Now CSS is causing random chaos
Experimenting with Random() in CSS
CSS gets a random button, but commenters are already fighting about the missing pictures
TLDR: Web designers can now test a new way to make pages generate random visual effects, but support is still patchy and experimental. Commenters were more entertained by the drama: some wanted actual pictures, some said this isn’t really new, and one jumped in to correct the science of bokeh.
A quirky new web design trick has arrived: CSS, the styling language that helps make websites look pretty, is getting a built-in random() feature so creators can scatter shapes, colors, and effects around a page without hacks. The article shows off dreamy experiments like bokeh-style glowing circles and other playful visuals, but the real action is in the peanut gallery. And wow, the crowd came in hot.
The loudest complaint? "Where are the screenshots?" One frustrated reader basically said they kept scrolling through walls of code and never got the payoff. That landed hard because the article itself warns that many browsers still don’t support the feature and some demos may break as the feature changes. So for some readers, this became less “look at this cool future” and more “trust me, it looked amazing on my machine.” That’s classic comment-section fuel.
Then came the old-school tech veterans, instantly asking whether this is really new at all. One commenter brought up the ancient dark arts of faking randomness before this existed, joking about twisted workarounds that poked the page and read values back like web sorcery. And of course, no internet discussion is complete without a precision strike from the nitpick brigade: one person flatly corrected the article’s description of bokeh, insisting the blur shape doesn’t vary the way it was described. So yes, the new feature is fun, experimental, and potentially a big deal for designers — but the community response was part hype, part side-eye, and part “actually…”
Key Points
- •The article covers the new CSS `random()` function for generating randomized property values in design experiments.
- •According to the article, the feature is testable in Polypane 29+, Chromium 148+ with experimental features enabled, and Safari 26.2+, while Firefox has no support.
- •The author created multiple demos over several weeks to explore uses of `random()` in designs, patterns, and backgrounds.
- •The article warns that browser implementations are still evolving, some Safari behavior is incomplete, and Chromium support changed across versions 148 to 150.
- •A featured demo uses `random()` to build a bokeh-style effect by randomizing circle positions and attempting to reuse random sizes through CSS custom properties.