Imitating a blink tag with CSS3 animations

Question

The original Netscape <blink> had an 80% duty cycle. This comes pretty close, although the real <blink> only affects text:

.blink {
  animation: blink-animation 1s steps(5, start) infinite;
  -webkit-animation: blink-animation 1s steps(5, start) infinite;
}
@keyframes blink-animation {
  to {
    visibility: hidden;
  }
}
@-webkit-keyframes blink-animation {
  to {
    visibility: hidden;
  }
}

This is <span class="blink">blinking</span> text.

You can find more info about Keyframe Animations here.

Let me show you a little trick.

As Arkanciscan said, you can use CSS3 transitions. But his solution looks different from the original tag.

What you really need to do is this:

@keyframes blink {
  50% {
    opacity: 0.0;
  }
}
@-webkit-keyframes blink {
  50% {
    opacity: 0.0;
  }
}
.blink {
  animation: blink 1s step-start 0s infinite;
  -webkit-animation: blink 1s step-start 0s infinite;
}

<span class="blink">Blink</span>

JSfiddle Demo

Try this CSS

@keyframes blink {  
  0% { color: red; }
  100% { color: black; }
}
@-webkit-keyframes blink {
  0% { color: red; }
  100% { color: black; }
}
.blink {
  -webkit-animation: blink 1s linear infinite;
  -moz-animation: blink 1s linear infinite;
  animation: blink 1s linear infinite;
} 

This is <span class="blink">blink</span>

​ You need browser/vendor specific prefixes: http://jsfiddle.net/es6e6/1/.

There's actually no need for visibility or opacity - you can simply use color, which has the upside of keeping any "blinking" to the text only:

blink {
    display: inline;
    color: inherit;
    animation: blink 1s steps(1) infinite;
    -webkit-animation: blink 1s steps(1) infinite;
}
@keyframes blink { 50% { color: transparent; } }
@-webkit-keyframes blink { 50% { color: transparent; } }

Here is some text, <blink>this text will blink</blink>, this will not.

Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/2r8JL/

I'm going to hell for this :

=keyframes($name)
  @-webkit-keyframes #{$name}
    @content
  @-moz-keyframes #{$name}
    @content
  @-ms-keyframes #{$name}
    @content
  @keyframes #{$name}
    @content


+keyframes(blink)
  25%
    zoom: 1
    opacity: 1

  65%
    opacity: 1 

  66%
    opacity: 0

  100%
    opacity: 0

body
  font-family: sans-serif
  font-size: 4em
  background: #222
  text-align: center

  .blink
    color: rgba(#fff, 0.9)
    +animation(blink 1s 0s reverse infinite)
    +transform(translateZ(0))

.table
  display: table
  height: 5em
  width: 100%
  vertical-align: middle

  .cell
    display: table-cell
    width: 100%
    height: 100%
    vertical-align: middle

http://codepen.io/anon/pen/kaGxC (sass with bourbon)