Multiple background images positioning

Question

I've got three background images, all of width 643px. I want them to be set out like so:

• top image (12px height) no-repeat

• middle image repeat-y

• bottom image (12px height) no repeat

I can't seem to do it without getting them to overlap (which is a problem because the images are partially transparent), is something like this possible?

background-image:    url(top.png),
                     url(bottom.png),
                     url(middle.png);

background-repeat:   no-repeat,
                     no-repeat,
                     repeat-y;

background-position: left 0 top -12px,
                     left 0 bottom -12px,
                     left 0 top 0;

Chema

Answer 1

Your problem is that the repeat-y is going to fill the whole height, no matter where you position it initially. Thus, it overlaps your top and bottom.

One solution is to push the repeating background into a pseudo element positioned off of the container by the 12px at the top and bottom. The result can be seen here (the opacity in the demo is just to show that there is no overlap going on). Without opacity, see here. The relevant code (tested in CSS3 browsers: IE9, FF, Chrome):

CSS

div {
    position: relative;
    z-index: 2;
    background: url(top.png) top left no-repeat, 
                url(bottom.png) bottom left no-repeat;
}

div:before {
    content: '';
    position: absolute;
    z-index: -1; /* push it to the background */
    top: 12px; /* position it off the top background */
    right: 0;
    bottom: 12px; /* position it off the bottom background */
    left: 0;
    background: url(middle.png) top left repeat-y;
}

If you needed or wanted IE8 support (which does not support multiple backgrounds), then you could put the top background in the main div, and put the bottom background in by using the div:after pseudo element positioned to the bottom of the container.

Hach

Answer 2

If you can add padding/borders to the block equal to the backgrounds you want to position without overlapping other block, you can use the background-clip & background-origin to position the top and bottom backgrounds over the paddings/borders, and the repeating background over the content/paddings+content.

Here is an example: http://dabblet.com/gist/2668803

For your code, you'll possibly need to add something like this:

padding: 12px 0;
background-clip: padding-box, padding-box, content-box;
background-origin: padding-box, padding-box, content-box;

or

border: solid transparent;
border-width: 12px 0;
background-clip: border-box, border-box, padding-box;
background-origin: border-box, border-box, padding-box;

And you'll get what you need. If you can't get the paddings/borders, the pseudo-element like ScottS mentioned would work perfectly.

Civism

+1--this also works and I always like to see other creative ways to use CSS (and this is creative). – Hach

It works so long as everything is inside the container div. When adding webpage content below the div, then scrollbars are forced even if not needed. Example – Buffet

Answer 3

Try do it like this:

 background: url(PICTURE.png) left top no-repeat, url(PICTURE2.png) right bottom no-repeat, url(PICTURE3.jpg) left top no-repeat;
    }

EDIT: Was just an example, but here's the css with your css:

background: url(top.png) left 0px top -12px no-repeat, url(middle.png) left 0px top 0px repeat-y, url(bottom.png) left 0px bottom -12px no-repeat;
        }

Sprouse

and with the edit, the background images don't display (in Chrome) – Chema

Try read-up here: snook.ca/archives/html_and_css/multiple-bg-css-gradients it's for Cross-Browser – Sprouse

Answer 4

I actually found a simpler fix, because I was having this same issue with a horizontal navigation.

Rather than adding code like the other answers you just have to list it differently in your CSS. The center image that repeats needs to be listed last, not first or second.

In my code it looks like this:

background-image: url(../images/leftNav.gif), url(../images/rightNav.gif), url(../images/centerNav.gif);
background-position: left, right, center;
background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat, repeat-x;

Siderostat

Answer 5

to use backgroud-position with 2 arguments, must to Write in extended writing backgroud-position-x and backgroud-position-y

background-position-x: left 0;
background-position-y: top -12px, bottom -12px, top 0;

Calcify

Answer 6

Here's a method that uses 3 div's for each of the Top, Middle, and Bottom images that are transparent to apply to your webpage.

Background wallpaper is optional.

Tested in modern browsers and is IE8 friendly.

This method allows you to treat the body element as it should be treated, i.e., your webpage markup does not need to be in a wrapper or containing element.

jsFiddle Example
jsFiddle Example with centered filled

Since the above example uses image place holder content that is without transparency for Top and Bottom images, you can verify markup works with transparency with this jsFiddle that uses mini transparent icons in repeat mode HERE.

Buffet

Answer 7

The only (practical, non hair-threatening) way I see is do do that in Javascript, when the page has loaded, and when it is resized, with a canvas sized to fit the innerHeight and the 3 images: draw the first one once at the top, draw the second as many times as required to cover the remainder of the canvas, and draw the 3rd one at the bottom of the canvas. Position the canvas at 0,0 with a ridiculously negative z-index.

I had a go at it with 3 images (643 x 12, 100 and 12) and of course the first issue I saw is that the 3rd image is drawn over part of the last iteration of the 2nd image -- unless you have a window height of exactly 12+12+(p2.height*X), you'll have some overlap. But that's expected, right?

Gametangium

Answer 8

I think z-index will fix this because z-index only affects CHILD elements, meaning you can't mess up anything else on the page that uses z-index.

top and bottom images z-index:3;

middle image z-index:2; background-repeat:repeat-y;

Disaccustom

Answer 9

A radical but effective way to deal with this, if:

1. you want to apply backgrounds with no overlapping to a ":before"
2. the ":before" element as a known max height

---

&:before {
    background: url('vertical-line.png') no-repeat 0px,
                url('vertical-line-repeat.png') no-repeat 140px,
                url('vertical-line-repeat.png') no-repeat 200px,
                url('vertical-line-repeat.png') no-repeat 260px,
                url('vertical-line-repeat.png') no-repeat 320px,
                url('vertical-line-repeat.png') no-repeat 380px,
                url('vertical-line-repeat.png') no-repeat 440px,
                url('vertical-line-repeat.png') no-repeat 500px,
                url('vertical-line-repeat.png') no-repeat 560px,
                url('vertical-line-repeat.png') no-repeat 620px,
                url('vertical-line-repeat.png') no-repeat 680px,
                url('vertical-line-repeat.png') no-repeat 740px;
}

Noisemaker