Serving Up Cut-Out Text Like a Master Chef: A Delectable CSS & React Recipe


Greetings to all connoisseurs of the code, patrons of programming, and gastronomes of the grid! Chef Gourmet here, and today I have a special treat on the menu. We are going to learn how to cook up an exquisite web dish – Cut-Out Text with a CSS & React sauce.

Imagine you’re dining in the mystique ambiance of the *Restaurant of Mistaken Orders*, and a plate is placed before you with text that looks like it has been delicately carved out, revealing a succulent video playing right underneath. That, my dear friends, is the deliciousness we are about to create.

Ingredients:

  • Fresh React app
  • Ripe Rnd component for draggable and resizable delights
  • A pinch of CSS properties
  • A dash of creativity

Preparation:

First, let’s prepare the base. We have an application where users can overlay text boxes on videos. These text boxes are resizable and draggable, much like the flexibility of our menu where patrons never know what they’re going to get.

Our guests have made a peculiar request - they want to see through the letters as if the text itself were made of windows to the video underneath. It's called a cut-out text effect.

Method:

Step 1: The Div Layering Technique

In our kitchen, stacking is an art. It’s like the fine layering of a Ratatouille, but for this dish, we are stacking `div` elements. The `video` layer needs to be directly underneath the `div` which is responsible for the cut-out text effect. We don’t want the cheese (video) too far from the pasta (div) - they must melt together.

Step 2: Marinate with CSS

Now, let’s marinate our `div` with the right blend of CSS to achieve that melt-in-your-mouth cut-out effect. Here’s our secret sauce:

{
background-color: white; /* The color you want around your text */
-webkit-background-clip: text;
background-clip: text;
color: transparent; /* This makes the text transparent, while the background stays */
}

This is the alchemy that transforms plain text into cut-out text!

Step 3: Mix with React

In React, we have this sumptuous component that uses the `Rnd` library, allowing text boxes to be draggable and resizable like the ever-changing dishes in our restaurant.

Here’s how you mix it:


<Rnd { /* ...all your Rnd props... */ }>
<div style={{ /* ...background styles... */ }}>
<div style={{
WebkitBackgroundClip: 'text',
backgroundClip: 'text',
color: 'transparent'
}}
dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: content }}
/>
</div>
</Rnd>

This structure lets the `Rnd` component do its magic, while the inner `div` reveals the delectable video underneath.

Step 4: Serve Immediately

Now that we’ve cooked up our dish, serve it hot and fresh! Invite your guests to interact with the text boxes, dragging them across the screen to savor different parts of the video through the cut-out text.

Closing Notes:

In the *Restaurant of Mistaken Orders*, our dishes are as unpredictable as they are delicious. Today, you learned how to create a Cut-Out Text delicacy with CSS and React, and like a true master chef, you’ve seen how important it is to layer your ingredients properly. Keep your video close to your

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