description: Use loading placeholders for your components or pages to indicate something may still be loading.
group: components
toc: true
---
## About
Placeholders can be used to enhance the experience of your application. They're built only with HTML and CSS, meaning you don't need any JavaScript to create them. You will, however, need some custom JavaScript to toggle their visibility. Their appearance, color, and sizing can be easily customized with our utility classes.
## Example
In the example below, we take a typical card component and recreate it with placeholders applied to create a "loading card". Size and proportions are the same between the two.
Create placeholders with the `.placeholder` class and a grid column class (e.g., `.col-6`) to set the `width`. They can replace the text inside an element or be added as a modifier class to an existing component.
We apply additional styling to `.btn`s via `::before` to ensure the `height` is respected. You may extend this pattern for other situations as needed, or add a ` ` within the element to reflect the height when actual text is rendered in its place.
The use of `aria-hidden="true"` only indicates that the element should be hidden to screen readers. The *loading* behaviour of the placeholder depends on how authors will actually use the placeholder styles, how they plan to update things, etc. Some JavasSript code may be needed to *swap* the state of the placeholder and inform AT users of the update.
{{</callout>}}
### Width
You can change the `width` through grid column classes, width utilities, or inline styles.
The size of `.placeholder`s are based on the typographic style of the parent element. Customize them with sizing modifiers: `.placeholder-lg`, `.placeholder-sm`, or `.placeholder-xs`.
