Set opacity of background image without affecting child elements

Question

Is it possible to set the opacity of a background image without affecting the opacity of child elements?

Example

All links in the footer need a custom bullet (background image) and the opacity of the custom bullet should be 50%.

HTML

<div id="footer">
    <ul>
        <li><a href="#">Link 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Link 2</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Link 3</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Link 4</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Link 5</a></li>
    </ul>
</div>

CSS

#footer ul li {
    background: url(/images/arrow.png) no-repeat 0 50%;
}

What I've Tried

I tried setting the opacity of the list items to 50%, but then the opacity of the link text is also 50% - and there doesn't seem to be a way to reset the opacity of child elements:

#footer ul li {
    background: url(/images/arrow.png) no-repeat 0 50%;
    /* will also set the opacity of the link text */        
    opacity: 0.5;
}

I also tried using rgba, but that doesn't have any effect on the background image:

#footer ul li {
    /* rgba doesn't apply to the background image */
    background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.5) url(/images/arrow.png) no-repeat 0 50%;
}

http://stackoverflow.com/a/6502295/218125 – Cypher Mar 22 '13 at 16:35 — Cypher, Mar 22 '13 at 16:35
related http://stackoverflow.com/q/806000/759452 – Adriano Feb 27 '14 at 08:23 — Adriano, Feb 27 '14 at 08:23

score 252 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 15 '17 at 16:06

252

You can use CSS linear-gradient() with rgba().

div {
  width: 300px;
  height: 200px;
  background: linear-gradient(rgba(255,255,255,.5), rgba(255,255,255,.5)), url("https://i.imgur.com/xnh5x47.jpg");
}
span {
  background: black;
  color: white;
}

<div><span>Hello world.</span></div>

answered Jan 15 '17 at 16:06

Stickers

75,527
23
147
186

7

Really nice trick and exactly what I was looking for, thanks – Mike Nov 28 '20 at 06:24
Please @jmohr mark this answer as the right one. – Despertaweb Mar 15 '21 at 15:15
This answer is so clever I overlooked it at first. I'm not all that clever though so.. Thanks for sharing. – dibs Jul 19 '21 at 06:24
@stickers may i ask if say i want to make it to a lighter opacity so which numbers or decimals should i add in the rgba? thanks – J_Y Aug 30 '21 at 09:09
@JaeYing adjust *alpha* value, and same value in both [rgba](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/color_value/rgba()), otherwise there will be gradients. – Stickers Oct 29 '21 at 18:09
Thanks. This solution works as expected when using `url()` with `.svg` image files. – OXiGEN Sep 04 '22 at 12:50
Awesome! Anyway to achieve this with 2 background images? Original Code: ► background-image: url(https://example.com/image1.png), url(https://example.com/image2.png); With your CSS: ► background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(255,255,255,0.5), rgba(255,255,255,0.5)), url(https://example.com/image1.png), linear-gradient(rgba(255,255,255,0.3), rgba(255,255,255,0.3)), url(https://example.com/image2.png); This results in both images showing, but Image1 turns white & Image2 has no change. If I remove the CSS in front of the 2nd URL, both images show, but only the Image1 is at 0.5 opacity. – nnamerz Nov 15 '22 at 23:40
Is there a way to achieve the same thing but with relative path? – holydragon Apr 25 '23 at 02:54
Absolutely wonderful, best known way to add an overlay to images directly – Sarang Kakkoth Jun 07 '23 at 15:15

score 103 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 31 '13 at 17:53

103

Take your image into an image editor, turn down the opacity, save it as a .png and use that instead.

edited Aug 31 '13 at 17:53

Ionică Bizău

109,027
88
289
474

answered Aug 02 '12 at 23:37

2ToneKenobi

1,421
1
9
2

9

Hmm... i just downvoted, but look at this accepted answer: http://stackoverflow.com/a/6502295/131809 upvoted 10 times, and pretty much identical. – Alex Nov 07 '12 at 15:56
10

This is a good option, no idea why so many downvotes. If I could upvote this twice I would. A child element of a partially opaque parent element is going to be partially opaque, and should be. All "workarounds" are bugs that should eventually be fixed. – RobW Nov 28 '12 at 21:17
It is not a "good" option as it fires +1 http request and needs to load additional data. – zrooda Dec 11 '12 at 15:44
6

@mystrdat You're already downloading the image, this isn't an extra request. – brad Feb 22 '13 at 04:47
@brad You don't need to download an image at all, that's the point. – zrooda Feb 25 '13 at 13:21
2

@mystrdat But he is already downloading the arrow image. You haven't provided a non-image solution, so that was my point. He's already downloading the arrow image, it might as well come as needed, which would not be an extra request. I'm not understanding where you're coming from. – brad Mar 02 '13 at 21:17
1

@brad I apologize, turns out I've read the question wrong now that I checked again. – zrooda Mar 05 '13 at 16:54
This will work of course, but as for opacity, I would vote for using the image inside a separate span/div inside the li tag and just applying opacity to it instead of the solution above (or pretty much all of them here) as that leaves some fine animation options opened and doesn't require any hardcode resource editing. – zrooda Mar 05 '13 at 17:00
What if you're working with dynamically updated images? Poor solution. – master_gracey Jul 11 '13 at 03:16
What about Linux users? We don't have Photoshop. I edited your answer. :-) – Ionică Bizău Aug 31 '13 at 17:53
This is not the right answer. It works in some sense, but does not allow one to play around with the opacity except for making a slew of images. This *should* be able to be done with css. – abalter Sep 20 '13 at 20:23
On the other hand this is quite usefull when you create modal windows. – cptnk Feb 11 '14 at 16:19
Well, the sad but straight truth! – Mark Lalor Aug 25 '15 at 04:53
It works, but what if he wants to use the same image with two different type of opacity depending if you click or not on it? In your solution he will be using two images slowing down the download time of the page if he has many images to do so with, wile if we used a code, he could use one and the same image except different opacity levels on it. – SeekLoad Jul 24 '20 at 20:23
What if the image licence allows reuse but only without modification? This answer doesn't help there as the image file itself has been modified. – Alex Ander Apr 27 '22 at 08:45

score 42 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 31 '12 at 05:24

42

This will work with every browser

div {
 -khtml-opacity:.50; 
 -moz-opacity:.50; 
 -ms-filter:"alpha(opacity=50)";
  filter:alpha(opacity=50);
  filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(opacity=0.5);
  opacity:.50; 
}

If you don't want transparency to affect the entire container and its children, check this workaround. You must have an absolutely positioned child with a relatively positioned parent.

Check demo at http://www.impressivewebs.com/css-opacity-that-doesnt-affect-child-elements/

edited Jul 31 '12 at 05:24

alex

479,566
201
878
984

answered Feb 14 '11 at 21:41

Hussein

42,480
25
113
143

I think you need to change the ” quotes in the above code to " in order for it to work when straight copy-pasted. – nsantorello Feb 06 '12 at 16:44
6

is this answer still the best solution people have found to the problem of: "how to make a child element not inherit the parent element's CSS opacity value"? I need the child to really be a child.. and in the document flow... and also do not want to bring in javascript/flash for this; prefer pure CSS. – govinda May 14 '12 at 19:58
I have 50% opaque parent
's containing child images which I want 100% opaque. Setting the
to `position:relative;` and the img to `position:absolute;` does NOT allow me to override the inherited opacity on the img, and I can't use absolute positioning for the
's themselves (that's a mess ;-). In Javascript I tried `imgs[i].style.opacity = '1';`, but that also does not work to override the inherited opacity. If I understand correctly, I also can't use rgba because I need to affect the imgs themselves, not just a background color. Anyone have a recommendation for me?

govinda

May 14 '12 at 21:11

28

This entire answer makes no sense. The given code, on top of being precisely what the asker **does not want to do** because **it doesn't work**, does not match the description, or the link. I'm having a very hard time understanding why so many people have upvoted it. – BoltClock Aug 31 '14 at 06:41

If the question was 'How to set 50% transparency on an element', this would be a good answer. – lharby Apr 25 '19 at 09:52

score 31 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 31 '14 at 06:43

31

If you are using the image as a bullet, you might consider the :before pseudo element.

#footer ul li {
}

#footer ul li:before {
    content: url(/images/arrow.png);
    filter:alpha(opacity=50);
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(opacity=0.5);
    opacity:.50;
}

edited Aug 31 '14 at 06:43

BoltClock

700,868
160
1,392
1,356

answered Feb 14 '11 at 21:46

Mr Griever

4,014
3
23
41

3

Filter is only an IE solution – Hussein Feb 14 '11 at 21:48
1

I think this is probably the best solution. It is a pure CSS solution. It's also possible to hack IE7 support using `*zoom: expression( … );` (see [:after and :before css pseudo elements hack for IE 7](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4181884/after-and-before-css-pseudo-elements-hack-for-ie-7)), but IE7 is finally becoming passé. – thirdender Aug 31 '13 at 18:34

score 14 · Answer 5 · answered May 17 '14 at 08:51

You can put the image in the div:after or div:before and set the opacity on that "virtual div"

div:after {
  background: url(https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/s.cdpn.io/3/owl1.jpg);
  opacity: 0.25;
}

found here http://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/transparent-background-images/

user · Answer 6 · 2014-02-03T00:33:01.810

9

#footer ul li {
  position: relative;
  opacity: 0.99;
}

#footer ul li::before {
  content: "";
  position: absolute;
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  z-index: -1;
  background: url(/images/arrow.png) no-repeat 0 50%;
  opacity: 0.5;
}

Hack with opacity .99 (less than 1) creates z-index context so you can not worry about global z-index values. (Try to remove it and see what happens in the next demo where parent wrapper has positive z-index.)
If your element already has z-index, then you don't need this hack.

Demo of this technique.

edited Feb 03 '14 at 00:33

answered Feb 02 '14 at 23:36

user

23,260
9
113
101

Do you know why we need to set a less than 1 value for opacity? Is it a cross-browser solution? – zVictor May 03 '14 at 10:18
1

@zVictor yes, this is w3c-standardized behavior. See [Understanding CSS z-index: The stacking context](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/CSS/Understanding_z_index/The_stacking_context). – user May 03 '14 at 14:55

Reyraa · Answer 7 · 2016-09-27T16:50:35.860

5

Unfortunately, at the time of writing this answer, there is no direct way to do this. You need to:

use a semi-transparent image for background (much easier).
add an extra element (like div) next to children which you want the opaque, add background to it and after making it semi-transparent, position it behind mentioned children.

edited Sep 27 '16 at 16:50

answered Jun 20 '13 at 12:31

Reyraa

4,174
2
28
54

score 5 · Answer 8 · answered Jan 10 '18 at 22:26

Another option is CSS Tricks approach of inserting a pseudo element the exact size of the original element right behind it to fake the opaque background effect that we're looking for. Sometimes you will need to set a height for the pseudo element.

div {
  width: 200px;
  height: 200px;
  display: block;
  position: relative;
}

div::after {
  content: "";
  background: url(image.jpg);
  opacity: 0.5;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  right: 0;
  position: absolute;
  z-index: -1;   
}

score 3 · Answer 9 · answered Feb 21 '13 at 09:40

The "filter" property, needs an integer for percentage of opacity instead of double, in order to work for IE7/8.

filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(opacity=50);

P.S.: I post this as an answer, since SO, needs at least 6 changed characters for an edit.

score 2 · Answer 10 · edited Jan 22 '13 at 19:12

2

To really fine-tune things, I recommend placing the appropriate selections in browser-targeting wrappers. This was the only thing that worked for me when I could not get IE7 and IE8 to "play nicely with others" (as I am currently working for a software company who continues to support them).

/* color or background image for all browsers, of course */            
#myBackground {
    background-color:#666; 
}
/* target chrome & safari without disrupting IE7-8 */
@media screen and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio:0) {
    #myBackground {
        -khtml-opacity:.50; 
        opacity:.50;
    }
}
/* target firefox without disrupting IE */
@-moz-document url-prefix() {
    #myBackground {
        -moz-opacity:.50;
        opacity:0.5;
    }
}
/* and IE last so it doesn't blow up */
#myBackground {
    opacity:.50;
    filter:alpha(opacity=50);
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(opacity=0.5);
}

I may have redundancies in the above code -- if anyone wishes to clean it up further, feel free!

edited Jan 22 '13 at 19:12

SeinopSys

8,787
10
62
110

answered Dec 12 '12 at 01:31

code-sushi

719
3
7
23

3

It's unnecessary to target each browser separately, just use the browser prefixes inside a single selector block. With the browser prefixes, the browser will only use only the appropriate CSS property. As time goes on and the syntax for that property becomes standardized, browser vendors will drop support for the prefixes and use the CSS property without any prefix (for example, Firefox dropped support for `-moz-border-radius` in Firefox 13 and just looks for the standard `border-radius` property now). IE7 and IE8 are a different story, but that's just IE :-p – thirdender Aug 31 '13 at 18:41
I'd like to know who down voted this and why, please. The vote is useless without informative feedback. I'd like to be able to improve my answers. If it was just because the info was outdated please check the date. :) Thanks. – code-sushi May 19 '14 at 22:03
@code-sushi: If the downvote occurred at around the same time as your comment, consider that it might have been from someone else who happened to agree with thirdender's comment (notice the upvotes on the comment itself). I did not vote on your answer but I have to agree - I'd like to add that 1) KHTML will never see the `-khtml-opacity` because it doesn't understand the media query, rendering it useless 2) IE is more stable than you think; it won't "blow up" just because you add non-IE prefixes to a rule that applies to IE. The problem, at the time you faced it, must have come from elsewhere. – BoltClock Aug 31 '14 at 06:47
My original answer was from nearly 2 years ago and the down vote occurred recently, like this year. I was just curious. As for the IE comments they pertained to 7 when that still needed support; I'm pretty sure it's OK now in most cases to ignore IE 7 these days. Thanks for your feedback. – code-sushi Sep 02 '14 at 19:49

score 2 · Answer 11 · answered Nov 20 '20 at 10:24

we can figure out that by not playing with opacity just by using rgba color

e.g "background-color: rgba(0,0,0, 0.5)"

Sample :

Previous Css:

 .login-card {
  // .... others CSS
  background-color: #121e1b;
  opacity: 0.5;
}

To :

 .login-card {
      // .... others CSS
      background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5);
    }

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Nov 15 '12 at 15:15

1

I found a pretty good and simple tutorial about this issue. I think it works great (and though it supports IE, I just tell my clients to use other browsers):

CSS background transparency without affecting child elements, through RGBa and filters

From there you can add gradient support, etc.

answered Nov 15 '12 at 15:15

Francisco

4,104
3
24
27

Well, it won't work directly. You would need to put a div as aparent element with background-color: (255,255,255,0.5) for instance – Francisco Jan 07 '15 at 19:57

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Feb 14 '11 at 21:39

If you have to set the opacity only to the bullet, why don't you set the alpha channel directly into the image? By the way I don't think there is a way to set the opacity to a background image via css without changing the opacity of the whole element (and its children too).

Jakir Hossain · Answer 14 · 2015-02-24T07:31:49.877

#footer ul li
     {
       position:relative;
       list-style:none;
     }
    #footer ul li:before
     {
       background-image: url(imagesFolder/bg_demo.png);
       background-repeat:no-repeat;
       content: "";
       top: 5px;
       left: -10px;
       bottom: 0;
       right: 0;
       position: absolute;
       z-index: -1;
       opacity: 0.5;
    }

You can try this code. I think it will be worked. You can visit the demo

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Feb 16 '11 at 01:07

0

Just to add to the above..you can use the alpha channel with the new color attributes eg. rgba(0,0,0,0) ok so this is black but with zero opacity so as a parent it will not affect the child. This only works on Chrome, FF, Safari and....I thin O.

convert your hex colours to RGBA

answered Feb 16 '11 at 01:07

frontsideup

2,833
1
21
23

5

This won't work with the `background-image` as requested by the OP. – Torsten Walter Aug 02 '12 at 23:41

Set opacity of background image without affecting child elements

Example

HTML

CSS

What I've Tried

15 Answers15

Linked

Related