Opacity on Background Images and z-index [duplicate] - css

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>Link 1</li>
<li>Link 2</li>
<li>Link 3</li>
<li>Link 4</li>
<li>Link 5</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%;
}

Answer 1

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>

Answer 2

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

Answer 3

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/

Answer 4

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;
}

Answer 5

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/

Answer 6

#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.

Answer 7

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.

Answer 8

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;
}

Answer 9

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.

Answer 10

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!

Answer 11

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);
}

Answer 12

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).

Answer 13

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

Answer 14

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.

Answer 15

#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