# thomasxiii/photon

CSS 3D Lighting Engine

Repository: https://github.com/thomasxiii/photon
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/thomasxiii-photon
Language: JavaScript
License Family: other
Last push: 2012-06-25T12:09:10+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5190, "days_push": 5182, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1445, forks 104 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:45.218388+00:00)

## What it is
Photon is a JavaScript library that simulates 3D lighting effects on DOM elements using CSS3 transforms and gradients. It lets developers add realistic light-source-driven shading to HTML elements.

## Use cases
- add 3d lighting effects to html elements
- simulate light sources on css elements
- create shaded 3d-looking ui with css
- render dynamic lighting in the browser without webgl

## When to choose
- you want css-only 3d shading effects on dom elements
- you need lightweight lighting simulation without canvas or webgl

## When to avoid
- you need modern webgl or gpu-accelerated 3d rendering
- you need an actively maintained library with a license

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: abandoned
- function: animation, ui-components, graphics
- domain: frontend, web-development, graphics
- platform: browser
- tags: css3d, lighting, shading, javascript-library, visual-effects, javascript

## Member repositories
- thomasxiii/photon (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:45.218388+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:36:15.205435+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/thomasxiii/photon (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:45.218388+00:00, sha 052139d80752)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.