Semi-transparent color layer over background-image?

Question

I have a DIV and I would like to put a pattern as background. This pattern is gray. So to make it a little more nice, I would like to put a light transparent color "layer" over. Below is what I tried but which did not work. Is there a way to put the colored layer over the background image?

Here's my CSS:

background: url('../img/bg/diagonalnoise.png');
background-color: rgba(248, 247, 216, 0.7);

Gorgoneion

active question probably higly outdated This other question/answer offers a few options that do not require position nor pseudo elements to do the trick : #36680149 (multiple background, background-blend-mode & inset shadow ) much easier and reliable to set. – Crashland

Answer 1

Here it is:

.background {
    background:url('../img/bg/diagonalnoise.png');
    position: relative;
}

.layer {
    background-color: rgba(248, 247, 216, 0.7);
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    left: 0;
    width: 100%;
    height: 100%;
}

HTML for this:

<div class="background">
    <div class="layer">
    </div>
</div>

Of course you need to define a width and height to the .background class, if there are no other elements inside of it

Inchoative

there is absolute no reason for a relative and absolute positioning. – Binaural

Ah yes, of course, I kinda was into the modal popup, don't know why. You're answer is of course cleaner and easier. – Astragalus

@JohannesKlauß how come his answer is cleaner and easier? it is not working, at least for my case. – Didactics

I think this is cleaner. The box-shadow has issues if content not longer than bg etc. – Lenticular

Not my favorite answer. Josh Crozier's answer will help you do things without additional elements, and BevansDesign can help you achieve everything without any pseudoelement (which would be necessary if you want to use inline css for CMS reason). – Aeriela

This helped! Thank you! For me the text I had on the image won't be visible without the positioning - this was exactly what I needed! @JohannesKlauß – Pentup

Answer 2

I know this is a really old thread, but it shows up at the top in Google, so here's another option.

This one is pure CSS, and doesn't require any extra HTML.

box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 1000px rgba(0,0,0,.2);

There are a surprising number of uses for the box-shadow feature.

Archambault

As much as this is an amazing possibility, its only supported in IE 9+ which means ignoring 1,8% of the web users as of Oct 2014. – Hand

Very nice! Is this a good idea performance-wise? Haven't looked into the performance of box-shadow – Concernment

@Notflip & others, it is when in limited use, it definitely isn't if you have this set on over 100 elements. Render-overload. Source: personal experience. – Yungyunick

Nice hack but a big performance killer. This will slow down every mobile device. Box shadow causes performance problems on mobile devices. It's better to avoid it especially if there are other way to go. – Gare

Just an update a couple years later: I currently use this method all over kotulas.com, and there's no significant slowdown that I've noticed. It could become an issue if you're using it on hundreds of elements, but even on a page with 150+ images, it's not an issue for me. (And this is on a work computer.) Naturally, you'll want to test it ahead of time to make sure that it's right for you. And as for old browser compatibility, since the fallback is that the user doesn't see a hover-over effect (with no other problems), I'm ok with that. – Archambault

I personally use it like this: box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 100vmax rgba(0, 0, 0, .2). – Uncanonical

@MichaelDeKeyser Can we get a new update on what percentage are being ignored on March 20, 2022? – Ketchup

@Uncanonical Actually 50vmin is enough to cover the whole screen because the overlay converges from all sides of the screen – Brookins

Answer 3

From CSS-Tricks... there is a one step way to do this without z-indexing and adding pseudo elements-- requires linear gradient which I think means you need CSS3 support

.tinted-image {
  background-image: 
    /* top, transparent red */
    linear-gradient(
      rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.45), 
      rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.45)
    ),
    /* your image */
    url(image.jpg);
}

Ariel

This worked great, you can't animate gradients however if you wanted to pulse a color, don't think that's possible with any method. – Geoponics

I had background-size:cover; and background-position:center center; set on this element. This seems to cancel that effect. – Clance

Working great with a background-size:cover; after. On chrome at least. – Topography

Definitely the most convenient way to tint background patterns and images but be careful to check it with Chrome and others, especially if applied to the body tag, chrome will scroll with a tonne of lag. FF handles it fine. – Pickle

Using background will reset all other background settings to default. Use background-image instead. (I proposed this as an edit of the answer) – Tradeswoman

Answer 4

You can also use a linear gradient and an image: http://codepen.io/anon/pen/RPweox

.background{
  background: linear-gradient(rgba(0,0,0,.5), rgba(0,0,0,.5)),
    url('http://www.imageurl.com');
}

This is because the linear gradient function creates an Image which is added to the background stack. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/linear-gradient

Czarist

Answer 5

Try this. Works for me.

.background {
    background-image: url(images/images.jpg);
    display: block;
    position: relative;
}

.background::after {
    content: "";
    background: rgba(45, 88, 35, 0.7);
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    left: 0;
    right: 0;
    bottom: 0;
    z-index: 1;
}

.background > * {
    z-index: 10;
}

Mcminn

Answer 6

You need then a wrapping element with the bg image and in it the content element with the bg color:

<div id="Wrapper">
  <div id="Content">
    <!-- content here -->
  </div>
</div>

and the css:

#Wrapper{
    background:url(../img/bg/diagonalnoise.png); 
    width:300px; 
    height:300px;
}

#Content{
    background-color:rgba(248,247,216,0.7); 
    width:100%; 
    height:100%;
}

Binaural

Answer 7

I've used this as a way to both apply colour tints as well as gradients to images to make dynamic overlaying text easier to style for legibility when you can't control image colour profiles. You don't have to worry about z-index.

HTML

<div class="background-image"></div>

SASS

.background-image {
  background: url('../img/bg/diagonalnoise.png') repeat;
  &:before {
    content: '';
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    left: 0;
    right: 0;
    bottom: 0;
    background: rgba(248, 247, 216, 0.7);
  }
}

CSS

.background-image {
  background: url('../img/bg/diagonalnoise.png') repeat;
}

.background-image:before {
    content: '';
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    bottom: 0;
    right: 0;
    left: 0;
    background: rgba(248, 247, 216, 0.7);
  }

Hope it helps

Tanishatanitansy

This works, but you need to change the second "left: 0;" to "bottom: 0;" – Fewer

This should be the accepted answer since it avoids unnecessary elements creation. Just make sure your .background-image div has at least a position: relative – Aponte

Answer 8

See my answer at https://mcmap.net/q/101697/-multiple-css-backgrounds-colour-over-image-ignored for a comprehensive overview of possible solutions:

1. using multiple backgrounds with a linear gradient,
2. multiple backgrounds with a generated PNG, or
3. styling an :after pseudoelement to act as a secondary background layer.

Liebknecht

Please don't post links as answers. Put the relevant code here, but link to the source you copied it from in addition. – Kelwunn

Answer 9

Why so complicated? Your solution was almost right except it's a way easier to make the pattern transparent and the background color solid. PNG can contain transparencies. So use photoshop to make the pattern transparent by setting the layer to 70% and resaving your image. Then you only need one selector. Works cross browser.

CSS:

.background {
   background: url('../img/bg/diagonalnoise.png');/* transparent png image*/
   background-color: rgb(248, 247, 216);
}

HTML:

<div class="background">
   ...
</div> 

This are the basic. A usage example follows where I switched from background to background-image but both properties works the same.

body { margin: 0; }
div {
   height: 110px !important;
   padding: 1em;
   text-transform: uppercase;
   font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
   font-weight: 600;
   color: white;
   text-shadow: 0 0 2px #333;
}
.background {
   background-image: url('https://www.transparenttextures.com/patterns/arabesque.png');/* transparent png image */
   }
.col-one {
  background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);
}
.col-two {
  background-color: rgb(0, 255, 255);
}
.col-three {
  background-color: rgb(0, 255, 0);
}

<div class="background col-one">
 1. Background
</div> 
<div class="background col-two">
 2. Background
</div> 
<div class="background col-three">
 3. Background
</div> 

PLEASE WAIT A MINUTE! IT TAKES SOME TIME TO LOAD THE EXTERNAL PATTERNS.

This website seems to be rather slow...

Gare

Can you apply background-color with for example :hover and that would overlay on top of the background image? – Vocoid

it would take longer to boot up Photoshop and do this, rather than add a few lines of code. – Dorsal

I tried this but found the transparent png was quite large (~500kb) in file size, which may be a disadvantage of this approach – Abdulabdulla

@Abdulabdulla I spoke of making a pattern - which shouldn't result in a big file. I added an example using a 110x110px image that has as little as 5kb. If you really need a bigger image try using tinypng.com to compress it. – Gare

Answer 10

background-image: linear-gradient(180deg, rgba(255,255,255,0) 0, rgba(0,0,0,0.6) 0),url(images/image.jpg);

Cachucha

Answer 11

from an answer of mine at How to add a color overlay to a background image? marked as a duplicate of that question where no pseudo element ,nor extra element is required.

That duplicate, right here and after a few years, is still missing the background-blend-mode property , widely implemented nowdays (It lays below the multiple background and inset shadow examples).

So here is about my answer out there, answer that gives you 3 easy ways without extra markup nor pseudos :

At first , i saw two easy options at that time (2016, those two option are also within answers standing here too, so nothing really new to add about these, ... mind the third one if you already read other answers about bg and box-shadow):

• multiple background with a translucent single gradient over image from an an old codepen of mine with few examples.

• huge inset shadow which does about the same thing as a gradient overlay

Examples given out there where:

gradient option:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/CSS_Images/Using_CSS_gradients

CSS gradients are represented by the <gradient> data type, a special type of <image> made of a progressive transition between two or more colors. You can choose between three types of gradients: linear (created with the linear-gradient() function), radial (created with the radial-gradient() function), and conic (created with the conic-gradient() function). You can also create repeating gradients with the repeating-linear-gradient(), repeating-radial-gradient(), and repeating-conic-gradient() functions.

Gradients can be used anywhere you would use an <image>, such as in backgrounds. Because gradients are dynamically generated, they can negate the need for the raster image files that traditionally were used to achieve similar effects. In addition, because gradients are generated by the browser, they look better than raster images when zoomed in, and can be resized on the fly.

    html {
      min-height:100%;
      background:linear-gradient(0deg, rgba(255, 0, 150, 0.3), rgba(255, 0, 150, 0.3)), url(https://picsum.photos/id/100/2500/1656);
      background-size:cover;
    }

shadow option:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/box-shadow

The box-shadow CSS property adds shadow effects around an element's frame. You can set multiple effects separated by commas. A box shadow is described by X and Y offsets relative to the element, blur and spread radius, and color.

inset

If not specified (default), the shadow is assumed to be a drop shadow (as if the box were raised above the content). The presence of the inset keyword changes the shadow to one inside the frame (as if the content was depressed inside the box). Inset shadows are drawn inside the border (even transparent ones), above the background, but below content.

html {
  min-height: 100%;
  background: url(https://picsum.photos/id/100/2500/1656);
  background-size: cover;
  box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2000px rgba(255, 0, 150, 0.3);
}

an old codepen of mine with few examples

---

Now, that third option missing here :

• with background-blen-mode :

The background-blend-mode CSS property sets how an element's background images should blend with each other and with the element's background color.

html {
  min-height: 100%;
  background: url(https://picsum.photos/id/100/2500/1656) rgba(255, 0, 150, 0.3);
  background-size: cover;
  background-blend-mode: multiply;
}

---

There is of course and also other valuable ways to do this, depending on your project, CSS libraries used and the few option left over from what you already have. There is almost never a single way/method , but different ways .What matters is to find the option that suits your needs the best and efficiently, the method that you understand/master , the browser specifity, option left over from what already being used if you feel confident with or already have a javascript or a server side function that already can/do that job, use it if its already there. a wheel is a wheel.

Crashland

Answer 12

You can use a semitransparent pixel, which you can generate for example here, even in base64 Here is an example with white 50%:

background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mP8Xw8AAoMBgDTD2qgAAAAASUVORK5CYII=),
url(../img/leftpanel/intro1.png);
background-size: cover, cover;

• without uploading

• without extra html

• i guess the loading should be quicker than box-shadow or linear gradient

Psychologist

Answer 13

Here is a more simple trick with only css.

<div class="background"> </div>
    <style>
    .background {
      position:relative;
      height:50px;
      background-color: rgba(248, 247, 216, 0.7);
      background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAgAAAAICAYAAADED76LAAAAJElEQVQYV2NctWrVfwYkEBYWxojMZ6SDAmT7QGx0K1EcRBsFAADeG/3M/HteAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); 
    }

    .background:after {
        content:" ";
        background-color:inherit;
        position: absolute;
        top: 0;
        left: 0;
        width: 100%;
        height: 100%; 
    }

    </style>

Rainie

Answer 14

Another one with an SVG as inline overlay-image (note: if you use # inside the svg-code you have to urlencode that!):

background: url('data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1 1"><path fill="rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.4)" d="M0 0h1v1H0z"/></svg>')
                no-repeat center center/cover, 
            url('overlayed-image.jpg') no-repeat center center/cover;

Buiron

Answer 15

I simply used background-image css property on the target background div.
Note background-image only accepts gradient color functions.
So I used linear-gradient adding the same desired overlay color twice (use last rgba value to control color opacity).

Also, found these two useful resources to:

1. Add text (or div with any other content) over the background image: Hero Image
2. Blur background image only, without blurring the div on top: Blurred Background Image

HTML

<div class="header_div">
</div>

<div class="header_text">
  <h1>Header Text</h1>
</div>

CSS

.header_div {
  position: relative;
  text-align: cover;
  min-height: 90vh;
  margin-top: 5vh;
  background-position: center;
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-size: cover;
  width: 100vw;
  background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(38, 32, 96, 0.2), rgba(38, 32, 96, 0.4)), url("images\\header img2.jpg");
  filter: blur(2px);
}

.header_text {
  position: absolute;
  top: 50%;
  right: 50%;
  transform: translate(50%, -50%);
}

Conurbation

Answer 16

Actually, I used :before in a different way, I just used one HTML element <div> and using just one CSS class name and using pseudo-element trick:

.background {
  /* ↓↓↓ the decorative CSS */

  font-family: tahoma;
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: space-between;
  padding: 10px 20px;
  border-radius: 8px;
  overflow: hidden;
  
  /* ↓↓↓ the main CSS */

  position: relative;
  background: url('https://picsum.photos/id/355/600/400') no-repeat center / cover;
  z-index: 1;
}

.background:before {
  /* ↓↓↓ the main CSS */

  content: '';
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  right: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  left: 0;
  background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.5);
  z-index: -1;
}

.text {
  /* ↓↓↓ the decorative CSS */

  font-size: 20px;
  color: #072252;
}

<div class="background">
  <span class="text">Some child</span>
  <span class="text"></span>
</div>

Fetal

Answer 17

You can also add opacity to your overlay color.

Instead of doing

background: url('../img/bg/diagonalnoise.png');
background-color: rgba(248, 247, 216, 0.7);

You can do:

background: url('../img/bg/diagonalnoise.png');

Then create a new style for the opacity color:

.colorStyle{
    background-color: rgba(248, 247, 216, 0.7);
    opacity: 0.8;
}

Change the opacity to whatever number you want below 1. Then you make this color style the same size as your image. It should work.

Plaintive

Answer 18

#img-div{
    height: 100vh;
    background-image: url("https://images.pexels.com/photos/46160/field-clouds-sky-earth-46160.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&dpr=2&h=750&w=1260");
    background-position: center;
    background-size: cover;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    position: relative;
}

#overlay-div{
    background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5);
    height: 100vh;
    position: relative;
}

<div id="img-div">
  <div id="overlay-div"></div>
</div>

Retreat

Answer 19

Use before pseudo-class and use opacity

.left-side {
  position: relative;
  background-color: #5200ff; /*bg color*/
}

.left-side::before {
  content: '';
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  top: 0;
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  background-image: url(./images/img.jpeg);  /*bg image*/
  background-size: cover;
  background-position: 100%;
  opacity: 0.22;  /*use opacity to show bg color */
}

Lurid