How do I give text or an image a transparent background using CSS

Question

Is it possible  using CSS only  to make the background of an element semi-transparent but have the content  text  amp  images  of the element opaque   I d like to accomplish this without having the text and the background as two separate elements   When trying    x000D   x000D  p   x000D    position  absolute  x000D    background-color  green  x000D    filter  alpha opacity 60   x000D    opacity  0 6  x000D    x000D   x000D  span   x000D    color  white  x000D    filter  alpha opacity 100   x000D    opacity  1  x000D    x000D   lt p gt  x000D     lt span gt Hello world lt  span gt  x000D   lt  p gt  x000D   x000D   x000D    It looks like child elements are subjected to the opacity of their parents  so opacity 1 is relative to the opacity 0 6 of the parent

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You can solve this for Internet nbsp Explorer nbsp 8 by  ab using the gradient syntax  The color format is ARGB  If you are using the Sass preprocessor you can convert colors using the built-in function  ie-hex-str      background  rgba 0 0 0  0 5   -ms-filter   progid DXImageTransform Microsoft gradient startColorstr   80000000   endColorstr   80000000

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As per my point of view  the best way to use a background color with opacity is as below  If we use this  then we will not lose opacity for the other elements  like test color  border  etc   background-color  rgba 71  158  0  0 8     Use background color with opacity  background-color  rgba R  G  B  Opacity

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You can do it with rgba color code using CSS like this example given below    x000D   x000D   imgbox img  x000D    height  100px  x000D    width  200px  x000D    position  relative  x000D    x000D   overlay  x000D    background  rgba 74  19  61  0 4   x000D    color   FFF  x000D    text-shadow  0px 2px 5px  000079  x000D    height  100px  x000D    width  300px  x000D    position  absolute  x000D    top  10   x000D    left  25   x000D    padding  25px  x000D    x000D   lt div class imgbox  gt  x000D   lt img src  http   www bhmpics com wallpapers little pony art-800x480 jpg  gt  x000D     lt div class  overlay  gt  x000D       lt p gt This is Simple Text  lt  p gt  x000D     lt  div gt  x000D   lt  div gt  x000D   x000D   x000D

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You can use the opacity value appended to the hexadecimal value   background-color   11ffeeaa    In this example aa is the opacity  An opacity of 00 means transparent and ff means solid color   The opacity is optional  so you can use the hexadecimal value as always   background-color   11ffee    You can also use the old way with rgba     background-color  rgba 117  190  218  0 5     And the background shorthand if you want to make sure that the background has no other styles  like images or gradients   background   11ffeeaa    From the Mozilla s specification  https   developer mozilla org en-US docs Web CSS background-color       Keyword values    background-color  red  background-color  indigo      Hexadecimal value    background-color   bbff00        Fully opaque    background-color   bf0           Fully opaque shorthand    background-color   11ffee00      Fully transparent    background-color   1fe0          Fully transparent shorthand     background-color   11ffeeff      Fully opaque    background-color   1fef          Fully opaque shorthand         RGB value    background-color  rgb 255  255  128             Fully opaque    background-color  rgba 117  190  218  0 5       50  transparent        HSL value    background-color  hsl 50  33   25               Fully opaque    background-color  hsla 50  33   25   0 75       75  transparent        Special keyword values    background-color  currentcolor  background-color  transparent      Global values    background-color  inherit  background-color  initial  background-color  unset

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In Firefox 3 and Safari 3  you can use RGBA like Georg Sch  lly mentioned   A little known trick is that you can use it in Internet nbsp Explorer as well using the gradient filter   background-color  rgba 0  255  0  0 5   filter  progid DXImageTransform Microsoft Gradient GradientType 0  StartColorStr   7F00FF00   EndColorStr   7F00FF00      The first hex number defines the alpha value of the color   Full solution all browsers    alpha60          Fallback for web browsers that doesn t support RGBa        background  rgb 0  0  0  transparent         RGBa with 0 6 opacity        background  rgba 0  0  0  0 6          For IE 5 5 - 7       filter progid DXImageTransform Microsoft gradient startColorstr  99000000  endColorstr  99000000          For IE 8       -ms-filter   progid DXImageTransform Microsoft gradient startColorstr  99000000  endColorstr  99000000        This is from CSS background transparency without affecting child elements  through RGBa and filters   Screenshots proof of results   This is when using the following code                 lt head gt        lt meta http-equiv  X-UA-Compatible  content  IE edge   gt       lt title gt An XHTML 1 0 Strict standard template lt  title gt        lt meta http-equiv  content-type  content  text html charset utf-8    gt       lt style type  text css  media  all  gt            transparent-background-with-text-and-images-on-top                background  rgb 0  0  0  transparent       Fallback for web browsers that doesn t support RGBa                background  rgba 0  0  0  0 6        RGBa with 0 6 opacity                 filter progid DXImageTransform Microsoft gradient startColorstr  99000000  endColorstr  99000000       For IE 5 5 - 7               -ms-filter   progid DXImageTransform Microsoft gradient startColorstr  99000000  endColorstr  99000000        For IE 8                    lt  style gt    lt  head gt     lt body gt        lt div class  transparent-background-with-text-and-images-on-top  gt            lt p gt Here some content  text AND images   on top of the transparent background  lt  p gt           lt img src  http   i imgur com LnnghmF gif  gt        lt  div gt    lt  body gt    lt  html gt

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Opacity of background  but not the text has some ideas  Either use a semi-transparent image  or overlay an additional element

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In order to make the background of an element semi-transparent  but have the content  text  amp  images  of the element opaque  you need to write CSS code for that image  and you have to add one attribute called opacity with minimum value   For example    image      position  relative     background-color  cyan     opacity  0 7         The smaller the value  the more it will be transparent  ore the value less will be transparency

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You can use pure CSS nbsp 3  rgba red  green  blue  alpha   where alpha is the level of transparency you want  There is no need for JavaScript or jQuery   Here is an example    item-you-want-to-style      background rgba 192 233  33  0 5

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If you are a Photoshop guy  you can also use     some-element     background-color  hsla 170  50   45   0 9        0 9 is the opacity range from 0 - 1        Or    some-element     background-color  rgba 170  190  45  0 9        0 9 is the opacity range from 0 - 1

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This is the best solution I could come up with  NOT using CSS 3  And it works great on Firefox  Chrome  and Internet Explorer as far as I can see   Put a container div and two children divs at the same level  one for content  one for the background  And using CSS  auto-size the background to fit the content and put the background actually in the back using z-index    x000D   x000D   container   x000D    position  relative  x000D    x000D   content   x000D    position  relative  x000D    color  White  x000D    z-index  5  x000D    x000D   background   x000D    position  absolute  x000D    top  0px  x000D    left  0px  x000D    width  100   x000D    height  100   x000D    background-color  Black  x000D    z-index  1  x000D       These three lines are for transparency in all browsers     x000D    -ms-filter   progid DXImageTransform Microsoft Alpha Opacity 50    x000D    filter  alpha opacity 50   x000D    opacity   5  x000D    x000D   lt div class  container  gt  x000D     lt div class  content  gt  x000D      Here is the content  x000D       lt br  gt Background should grow to fit  x000D     lt  div gt  x000D     lt div class  background  gt  lt  div gt  x000D   lt  div gt  x000D   x000D   x000D

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Here s how I do this  it might not be optimal  but it works    Create the div that you want to be semi-transparent  Give it a class id  Leave it empty  and close it  Give it a set height and width  say  300 pixels by 300 pixels   Give it an opacity of 0 5 or whatever you like  and a background color   Then  directly below that div  create another div with a different class id  Create a paragraph inside it  where you ll place your text  Give the div position  relative  and top  -295px  that s negative 295 pixels   Give it a z-index of 2 for good measure  and make sure its opacity is 1  Style your paragraph as you like  but make sure the dimensions are less than that of the first div so it doesn t overflow   That s it  Here s the code    x000D   x000D   trans   x000D    opacity  0 5  x000D    height  300px  x000D    width  300px  x000D    background-color  orange  x000D    x000D   trans2   x000D    opacity  1  x000D    position  relative  x000D    top  -295px  x000D    x000D   trans2 p   x000D    width  295px  x000D    color  black  x000D    font-weight  bold  x000D    x000D   lt body gt  x000D     lt div class  trans  gt  x000D     lt  div gt  x000D     lt div class  trans2  gt  x000D       lt p gt  x000D        text text text x000D       lt  p gt  x000D     lt  div gt  x000D   lt  body gt  x000D   x000D   x000D    This works in Safari 2 x  but I don t know about Internet nbsp Explorer

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For a simple semi-transparent background color  the above solutions  CSS3 or bg images  are the best options  However  if you want to do something fancier  e g  animation  multiple backgrounds  etc    or if you don t want to rely on CSS3  you can try the    pane technique       pane   pane  gt   back   pane  gt   cont   display  block      pane       position  relative      pane  gt   back       position  absolute      width  100   height  100       top  auto  bottom  auto  left  auto  right  auto      pane  gt   cont       position  relative      z-index  10       lt p class  pane  gt       lt span class  back  style  background-color  green  opacity  0 6   gt  lt  span gt       lt span class  cont  style  color  white   gt Hello world lt  span gt   lt  p gt    The technique works by using two    layers    inside of the outer pane element    one  the    back     that fits the size of the pane element without affecting the flow of content  and one  the    cont     that contains the content and helps determine the size of the pane    The position  relative on pane is important  it tells back layer to fit to the pane s size   If you need the  lt p gt  tag to be absolute  change the pane from a  lt p gt  to a  lt span gt  and wrap all that in a absolutely-position  lt p gt  tag    The main advantage this technique has over similar ones listed above is that the pane doesn t have to be a specified size  as coded above  it will fit full-width  normal block-element layout  and only as high as the content  The outer pane element can be sized any way you please  as long as it s rectangular  i e  inline-block will work  plain-old inline will not    Also  it gives you a lot of freedom for the background  you re free to put really anything in the back element and have it not affect the flow of content  if you want multiple full-size sub-layers  just make sure they also have position  absolute  width height  100   and top bottom left right  auto    One variation to allow background inset adjustment  via top bottom left right  and or background pinning  via removing one of the left right or top bottom pairs  is to use the following CSS instead    pane  gt   back       position  absolute      width  auto  height  auto      top  0px  bottom  0px  left  0px  right  0px      As written  this works in Firefox  Safari  Chrome  IE8   and Opera  although IE7 and IE6 require extra CSS and expressions  IIRC  and last time I checked  the second CSS variation does not work in Opera   Things to watch out for    Floating elements inside of the cont layer will not be contained  You ll need to make sure they are cleared or otherwise contained  or they ll slip out of the bottom  Margins go on the pane element and padding goes on the cont element  Don t do use the opposite  margins on the cont or padding on the pane  or you ll discover oddities such as the page always being slightly wider than the browser window  As mentioned  the whole thing needs to be block or inline-block  Feel free to use  lt div gt s instead of  lt span gt s to simplify your CSS      A fuller demo  showing off the flexiblity of this technique by using it in tandem with display  inline-block  and with both auto  amp  specific widths min-heights    x000D   x000D   pane   pane  gt   back   pane  gt   cont   display  block    x000D   pane   x000D   position  relative  x000D   width  175px  min-height  100px  x000D   margin  8px  x000D    x000D   x000D   pane  gt   back   x000D   position  absolute  z-index  1  x000D   width  auto  height  auto  x000D   top  8px  bottom  8px  left  8px  right  8px  x000D    x000D   x000D   pane  gt   cont   x000D   position  relative  z-index  10  x000D    x000D   x000D   debug red   background  rgba 255  0  0  0 5   border  1px solid rgba 255  0  0  0 75     x000D   debug green   background  rgba 0  255  0  0 5   border  1px solid rgba 0  255  0  0 75     x000D   debug blue   background  rgba 0  0  255  0 5   border  1px solid rgba 0  0  255  0 75     x000D   lt p class  pane debug blue  style  float  left   gt  x000D    lt span class  back debug green  gt  lt  span gt  x000D    lt span class  cont debug red  gt  x000D    Pane content  lt br  gt  x000D    Pane content  x000D    lt  span gt  x000D   lt  p gt  x000D   lt p class  pane debug blue  style  float  left   gt  x000D    lt span class  back debug green  gt  lt  span gt  x000D    lt span class  cont debug red  gt  x000D    Pane content  lt br  gt  x000D    Pane content  lt br  gt  x000D    Pane content  lt br  gt  x000D    Pane content  lt br  gt  x000D    Pane content  lt br  gt  x000D    Pane content  lt br  gt  x000D    Pane content  lt br  gt  x000D    Pane content  lt br  gt  x000D    Pane content  x000D    lt  span gt  x000D   lt  p gt  x000D   lt p class  pane debug blue  style  float  left  display  inline-block  width  auto   gt  x000D    lt span class  back debug green  gt  lt  span gt  x000D    lt span class  cont debug red  gt  x000D    Pane content  lt br  gt  x000D    Pane content  x000D    lt  span gt  x000D   lt  p gt  x000D   lt p class  pane debug blue  style  float  left  display  inline-block  width  auto  min-height  auto   gt  x000D    lt span class  back debug green  gt  lt  span gt  x000D    lt span class  cont debug red  gt  x000D    Pane content  lt br  gt  x000D    Pane content  x000D    lt  span gt  x000D   lt  p gt  x000D   x000D   x000D    And here s a live demo of the technique being used extensively

User · Answer

This gives the desired result - body       background-image  url  quot  images dark-cloud jpg quot        background-size  100  100       background-attachment  fixed      opacity   8     Setting the opacity of the background

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You can use RGBA  red  green  blue  alpha  in the CSS  Something like this   So simply doing something like this is going to work in your case   p     position  absolute    background-color  rgba 0  255  0  0 6      span     color  white

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lt div align  center  style  width 100  height 100  background white opacity 0 5 position absolute z-index 1001  gt       lt img id  search img  style  margin-top 20    src     resources images loading small gif  gt   lt  div gt    http   jsfiddle net x2ukko7u

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It s better to use a semi-transparent  png   Just open Photoshop  create a 2x2 pixel image  picking 1x1 can cause an Internet nbsp Explorer bug    fill it with a green color and set the opacity in  Layers tab  to 60   Then save it and make it a background image    lt p style  background  url green png    gt any text lt  p gt    It works cool  of course  except in lovely Internet nbsp Explorer nbsp 6  There are better fixes available  but here s a quick hack   p        filter  expression  runtimeStyle backgroundImage     none     runtimeStyle filter    progid DXImageTransform Microsoft AlphaImageLoader src   currentStyle backgroundImage split       1     sizingMethod scale     runtimeStyle filter runtimeStyle backgroundImage    none

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If you re using Less  you can use fade color  30

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The problem is  that the text actually has full opacity in your example  It has full opacity inside the p tag  but the p tag is just semi-transparent   You could add an semi-transparent PNG background image instead of realizing it in CSS  or separate text and div into two elements and move the text over the box  for example  negative margin    Otherwise it won t be possible   Just like Chris mentioned  if you use a PNG file with transparency  you have to use a JavaScript workaround to make it work in the pesky Internet Explorer

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There is a trick to minimize the markup  Use a pseudo element as the background and you can set the opacity to it without affecting the main element and its children   DEMO  Output     Relevant code    x000D   x000D  p   x000D    position  relative  x000D    x000D  p after   x000D    content      x000D    position  absolute  x000D    top  0  x000D    left  0  x000D    width  100   x000D    height  100   x000D    background   fff  x000D    -ms-filter   progid DXImageTransform Microsoft Alpha Opacity 50    x000D    opacity   6  x000D    z-index  -1  x000D    x000D       The following is just for demo styles       x000D   x000D  body   x000D    background  url  http   i imgur com k8BtMvj jpg   no-repeat  x000D    background-size  cover  x000D    x000D  p   x000D    width  50   x000D    padding  1em  x000D    margin  10  auto  x000D    font-family  arial  serif  x000D    color   000  x000D    x000D  img   x000D    display  block  x000D    max-width  90   x000D    margin   6em auto  x000D    x000D   lt p gt Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet  consectetur adipiscing elit  Sed a ligula ut nunc dignissim molestie  x000D     lt img src  http   i imgur com hPLqUtN jpg  alt      gt  x000D   lt  p gt  x000D   x000D   x000D    Browser support is Internet nbsp Explorer nbsp 8 and later    pseudo elements opacity

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A while back  I wrote about this in Cross Browser Background Transparency With CSS    Bizarrely Internet Explorer 6 will allow you to make the background transparent and keep the text on top fully opaque  For the other browsers I then suggest using a transparent PNG file

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Either use a semi-transparent PNG image or use CSS nbsp 3   background-color  rgba 255  0  0  0 5     Here s an article from css3 info  Opacity  RGBA and compromise  2007-06-03       x000D   x000D   lt p style  background-color  rgba 255  0  0  0 5    gt  x000D     lt span gt Hello  World  lt  span gt  x000D   lt  p gt  x000D   x000D   x000D

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There s an easier solution to put an overlay over an image on the same div  It s not the right use of this tool  But works like a charm to make that overlay using CSS   Use an inset shadow like this   box-shadow  inset 0 0 0 1000px rgba 255  255  255  0 9     That s all

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It worked for me when using the format  AARRGGBB so the one working for me was  1C00ff00  Give it a try  because I have seen it working for some and not working for someone else  I am using it in CSS

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This method allows you to have an image in the background and not only a solid color  and can be used to have transparency on other attributes such as borders  No transparent PNG images are required   Use  before  or  after  in CSS and give them the opacity value to leave the element at its original opacity  Thus you can use  before to make a faux element and give it the transparent background  or borders  you want and move it behind the content you want to keep opaque with z-index    An example  fiddle   note that the DIV with class dad is just to provide some context and contrast to the colors  this extra element is actually not needed  and the red rectangle is moved a bit down and to the right to leave visible the background behind the fancyBg element     lt div class  dad  gt       lt div class  fancyBg  gt          Test text that should have solid text color lets see if we can manage it without extra elements      lt  div gt   lt  div gt    with this CSS    dad       background  lime  border  1px double black  margin  1ex 2ex      padding  0 5ex  position  relative  -k-z-index  5     fancyBg       border  1px dashed black  position  relative  color  white  font-weight  bold      z-index  0    background  black       fancyBg before  content  -   display  block      position  absolute  background  red  opacity   5      top  2ex  right  -2ex  bottom  -2ex  left  2ex        top  0  right  0  bottom  0  left  0        z-index  -1      In this case  fancyBg before has the CSS properties you want to have with transparency  red background in this example  but can be an image or borders   It s positioned as absolute to move it behind  fancyBg  use values of zero or whatever is more appropriate for your needs

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Almost all these answers assume the designer wants a solid color background  If the designer actually wants a photo as the background the only real solution at the moment is JavaScript like the jQuery Transify plugin mentioned elsewhere   What we need to do is join the CSS working group discussion and make them give us a background-opacity attribute  It should work hand in hand with the multiple-backgrounds feature

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background-color  rgba 255  0  0  0 5   as mentioned above is the best answer simply put  To say use CSS  3  even in 2013  is not simple because the level of support from various browsers changes with every iteration  While background-color is supported by all major browsers  not new to CSS  3   1  the alpha transparency can be tricky  especially with Internet Explorer prior to version 9 and with border color on Safari prior to version 5 1   2  Using something like Compass or SASS can really help production and cross platform compatibility    1  W3Schools  CSS background-color Property  2  Norman s Blog  Browser Support Checklist CSS3  October 2012

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Here is a jQuery plugin that will handle everything for you  Transify  Transify - a jQuery plugin to easily apply transparency   opacity to an element   s background    I was running into this problem every now and then  so I decided to write something that would make life a lot easier  The script is less than 2 nbsp KB and it only requires one line of code to get it to work  and it will also handle animating the opacity of the background if you like

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I normally use this class for my work  It s pretty good    x000D   x000D   transparent   x000D    filter  alpha opacity 50      Internet Explorer    x000D    -khtml-opacity  0 5           KHTML and old Safari    x000D    -moz-opacity  0 5             Firefox and Netscape    x000D    opacity  0 5                  Firefox  Safari  and Opera    x000D    x000D   x000D   x000D

User · Answer

The easiest method would be to use a semi-transparent background PNG image    You can use JavaScript to make it work in Internet Explorer 6 if you need to   I use the method outlined in Transparent PNGs in Internet Explorer 6   Other than that  you could fake it using two side-by-side sibling elements - make one semi-transparent  then absolutely position the other over the top

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CSS nbsp 3 has an easy solution of your problem  Use   background-color rgba 0  255  0  0 5     Here  rgba stands for red  green  blue  and alpha value  The green value is obtained because of 255 and half transparency is obtained by a 0 5 alpha value

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