# Liquid glass touch illumination: parameters

Source: https://meniscus.site/effects/touch-illumination · Updated 2026-10-02

**Looks like:** Pressing glass lights it from under the finger: a soft white glow starts at the touch point, spreads through the body and fades when released; glass right beside it catches a faint share of the same light on the side facing the touch.

Also called: touch light, press light, illumination, touch glow, finger light.

**Use in:** Interactive glass on touch screens: buttons, tab bars, sliders, segmented controls, cards that open on tap. One touch at a time.

**Avoid:** Coloured or neon glows; light that stays after release; lighting non-interactive glass; a glow so bright that labels on the glass lose contrast.

**Parameters:** glow white 30–40 % at the touch point, radius growing to about 1.5 × the body over 250 ms, fade 300 ms after release; neighbours within the merge spacing (24 px) get 20–30 % of it from the near side; works with the press scale (1.03–1.06) and +15 % bend.

**Design tool:** A radial gradient layer (white 35 % → 0) clipped to the body, centred on the touch point, on the pressed state's frame; a second at 25 % strength on the neighbour's facing edge.

**Web:** A .glass__light layer with a radial gradient at the pointer position, shown on pointerdown and faded on release; nearby glass gets the same at a quarter strength (web recipe section F, touchLight()).

**Shader:** `col += white * strength * smoothstep(r, 0.0, distance(px, touch)) inside the body; r grows over the press; neighbours use the same with strength × 0.25.`

## Reference renders

The tool attaches these images; each shows:

- Touch illumination: a pressed glass capsule of library, music and like icons lit from under the finger, and the search lens beside it catching a faint share of the light, over dunes. (light)
- Touch illumination: a pressed glass capsule of library, music and like icons lit from under the finger, and the search lens beside it catching a faint share of the light, over a night skyline. (dark)

## Use it with your assistant

This spec is what the Meniscus MCP server's `get_spec` tool returns for `touch-illumination`. Materials, colours, light and composition rules that apply to every effect are in the [liquid glass guide](https://meniscus.site/liquid-glass). Connect: `claude mcp add --transport http meniscus https://meniscus.site/mcp` — setup for every client: https://meniscus.site/docs