Question

I haven’t really been able to find any good simple tutorials an animating a glow effect. How do I animate glowing on text?

Answer 1

If you want to just use CSS3, you don’t even have to use any jQuery/JavaScript. Just do this in your CSS:

.confirm_selection {
    -webkit-transition: text-shadow 0.2s linear;
    -moz-transition: text-shadow 0.2s linear;
    -ms-transition: text-shadow 0.2s linear;
    -o-transition: text-shadow 0.2s linear;
    transition: text-shadow 0.2s linear;
}
.confirm_selection:hover {
    text-shadow: 0 0 10px red; /* replace with whatever color you want */
}

Here’s the fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/zenjJ/

If you want the element to run on its own (without hovering), do this:

CSS:

.confirm_selection {
    -webkit-transition: text-shadow 1s linear;
    -moz-transition: text-shadow 1s linear;
    -ms-transition: text-shadow 1s linear;
    -o-transition: text-shadow 1s linear;
    transition: text-shadow 1s linear;
}
.confirm_selection:hover,
.confirm_selection.glow {
    text-shadow: 0 0 10px red;
}

JavaScript:

var glow = $('.confirm_selection');
setInterval(function(){
    glow.toggleClass('glow');
}, 1000);

You can play around with the timing in the CSS/JavaScript to get the exact effect you’re looking for.

And finally, here’s the fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/dH6LS/

---

Update Oct. 2013: being that all major browsers now support CSS animations, all you need is this:

.confirm_selection {
    animation: glow .5s infinite alternate;
}

@keyframes glow {
    to {
        text-shadow: 0 0 10px red;
    }
}

.confirm_selection {
    font-family: sans-serif;
    font-size: 36px;
    font-weight: bold;
}

<span class="confirm_selection">
[ Confirm Selection ]
</span>

Here’s the fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/dH6LS/689/

Don’t forget to include all the different vendor prefixes in production.