CSS or JavaScript to highlight certain area of image opacity

Question

I'm looking to do something like this but with CSS or JavaScript.

I need to highlight a certain part of an image but everything I find is how to do it in Photoshop. Can I do this with CSS or maybe JavaScript?

Am I even asking the right question?

EDIT:

Well here is a great submission but I have a follow up question:

I need this for a mobile device and portrait and landscape views as well for many devices like: iOS, iPad, Android, WebOS, Etc... So the fixed position I'm not sure will work.

Any advice?

Repulse

Answer 1

You could use background-position with absolutely positioned divs as follows:

CSS:

.container {
    position:relative;
    height:455px;
    width:606px;
}

.container div {
    position:absolute;
    background-image:url(http://www.beachphotos.cn/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/indoensianbeach.jpg);
}

.container .bg-image {
    opacity:0.3;
    height:455px;
    width:606px;
}

.container div.highlight-region {
    height:50px;
    width:50px;
    opacity:0;
}

.container div.highlight-region:hover {
    opacity:1;
}

HTML:

<div class="container">
    <div class="bg-image"></div>
    <div class="highlight-region" style="top:50px;left:50px;background-position: -50px -50px;"></div>
    <div class="highlight-region" style="top:150px;left:150px;background-position: -150px -150px;"></div>
</div>

Please see http://jsfiddle.net/MT4T7/ for an example

Credit to beachphotos.com for using their image.

EDIT (response to OP comment): Please also see http://jsfiddle.net/zLazD/ I turned off the hover aspect. also added some borders.

CSS changes:

.container div.highlight-region {
    height:50px;
    width:50px;
    border: 3px solid white;
}

/* removed :hover section */

Gervase

Thanks, Yeah I want the image to highlight a certain part while the rest is darker but transparent. I need one image as it's for a mobile site and I want to cut down on load time. – Repulse

I just edited out the first two as the last one was best. included is a link to a working example. please note that in my example the regions only highlight on hover. – Gervase

added an "always-on" region as well – Gervase

This is exactly what I want but without the hover: jsfiddle.net/MT4T7 Can you also see my update to the question? – Repulse

yeah. I see you need it for mobile. in which case the hover aspect is un-needed. you just need the highlight region to be appropriately positioned (no opacity changes) – Gervase

Thanks, I just removed the hover and I think this will work. As for the mobile part any tips for that issue? – Repulse

Answer 2

You can probably fake it, here is a sample: http://jsfiddle.net/erick/JMBFS/3/

I covered the image with an opaque element. The color of the element is the same as the background of the image. Used z-index to put it on top.

Unaccomplished

I like this method but I have another follow up question. This is for a mobile device, how do I code it for portrait and landscape views? and on multiple devices such as iOS, iPad, Android, etc... – Repulse

In the sample code, the image should always end up on the top-left corner regardless of orientation, as long as your implementing on an HTML. If you are working on a native iOS or native Android app, I really can't help much as I don't work on those platforms(yet). – Unaccomplished

Answer 3

You sure can. For example, most crop plugins provide "highlighting" as the basis of their UI. So for a complete cross-browser solution, just use an existing plugin, like Jcrop.

Of course, you might want it to be fixed, in which case you can programmatically tell the plugin which section to highlight and that the user shouldn't be able to move it, and then it will act as a highlighter, not a cropper.

Truncation

Answer 4

These are the steps you can take to highlight a part of an image:

1. Access the image in JavaScript, and dynamically add another identical image immediately after it. (this could be done just in HTML, but it would change the semantics of your markup)
2. Position the second image over the first image
3. Apply a css mask on the second image so that only the "highlighted" part shows up
4. When the user hovers over the images' container, adjust the opacity of the first image.

I can provide more technical details on this later if need be.

Flea

Answer 5

What about overlaying the cropped image (with 100% opacity) on top of the whole image (with 30% opacity)?

This answer is only a proof of concept

body {
  margin: 0 0 0 0;
  padding: 0 0 0 0;
}
.img {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
}
.img-base {
  opacity: 0.3;
  z-index: -99;
}
.img-overlay {
  opacity: 1.0;
}
.cropper{
  width: 150px; /* input width and height of the box here */
  height: 120px;
  overflow: hidden;
  position: relative;
  padding: 0 0 0 0;
  margin: 0 0 0 0;
  left: 90px; top: 170px; /* input starting location of the box here */
}
#overlay1 {
  position: absolute;
  left: 0px; right: 0px;
  margin-left: -90px; margin-top: -170px; /* input starting location of the box here */
}

<img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1583355862089-81e9e6e50f7a?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjEyMDd9&auto=format&fit=crop&w=334&q=80"  class="img img-base">

<div class="cropper">
  <img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1583355862089-81e9e6e50f7a?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjEyMDd9&auto=format&fit=crop&w=334&q=80"  class="img img-overlay" id="overlay1">
</div>

Sf