Imitate Photoshop blend effects like multiply, overlay etc - css

Question

I'm making a website with a full page background image. I want to create a background image for a side column that acts like a Photoshop layer with multiply as blend mode. It's just a blue colored surface with the 'behaviour' of a Photoshop multiply layer.
It's not possible to merge the overlay and the image since the background can change when the website is opened in another screen ratio/size.
There are a lot of solutions on SO, but they only work with multiplying 2 images with a fixed position, not a colored surface with variable position/background.
Are there tricks to achieve this?

Answer 1

jsBin demo
Use the CSS3 property mix-blend-mode MDN Docs
(For fallback use an rgba or hsla color with a bit of alpha transparency.)
Assign a desired blend-* class to your element like:
/* ::: BLEND MODE CLASSES */
.blend-normal{ mix-blend-mode: normal; }
.blend-multiply{ mix-blend-mode: multiply; }
.blend-screen{ mix-blend-mode: screen; }
.blend-overlay{ mix-blend-mode: overlay; }
.blend-darken{ mix-blend-mode: darken; }
.blend-lighten{ mix-blend-mode: lighten; }
.blend-colordodge{ mix-blend-mode: color-dodge; }
.blend-colorburn{ mix-blend-mode: color-burn; }
.blend-hardlight{ mix-blend-mode: hard-light; }
.blend-softlight{ mix-blend-mode: soft-light; }
.blend-difference{ mix-blend-mode: difference; }
.blend-exclusion{ mix-blend-mode: exclusion; }
.blend-hue{ mix-blend-mode: hue; }
.blend-saturation{ mix-blend-mode: saturation; }
.blend-color{ mix-blend-mode: color; }
.blend-luminosity{ mix-blend-mode: luminosity; }
/* ::: SET HERE YOUR INITIAL COLORS */
div{
background: rgba(0, 80, 200, 0.8);
color: #fff;
}
div span{
color:#000;
}
/* ::: FOR DEMO ONLY */
html, body{margin:0; height:100%;font:100%/1 sans-serif;}
body{background: url(http://i.stack.imgur.com/cBy6q.jpg)fixed 50%/cover;}
div{font-size:2.2em; padding:20px; margin:15px;}
div:first-of-type{margin-top:150px;}
div:last-of-type{margin-bottom:150px;}
<div class="">(rgba) <span>(rgba)</span></div>
<div class="blend-normal">normal <span>normal</span></div>
<div class="blend-multiply">multiply <span>multiply</span></div>
<div class="blend-screen">screen <span>screen</span></div>
<div class="blend-overlay">overlay <span>overlay</span></div>
<div class="blend-darken">darken <span>darken</span></div>
<div class="blend-lighten">lighten <span>lighten</span></div>
<div class="blend-colordodge">color-dodge <span>color-dodge</span></div>
<div class="blend-colorburn">color-burn <span>color-burn</span></div>
<div class="blend-hardlight">hard-light <span>hard-light</span></div>
<div class="blend-softlight">soft-light <span>soft-light</span></div>
<div class="blend-difference">difference <span>difference</span></div>
<div class="blend-exclusion">exclusion <span>exclusion</span></div>
<div class="blend-hue">hue <span>hue</span></div>
<div class="blend-saturation">saturation <span>saturation</span></div>
<div class="blend-color">color <span>color</span></div>
<div class="blend-luminosity">luminosity <span>luminosity</span></div>

Answer 2

Simple with a bit of SVG:
<svg width="200" height="200" viewBox="10 10 280 280">
<filter id="multiply">
<feBlend mode="multiply"/>
</filter>
<image id="kitten" x="0" y="0" width="300" height="300" xlink:href="http://placekitten.com/300" />
</svg>
and some CSS:
#kitten:hover {
filter:url(#multiply);
}
The fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/7uCQQ/

Answer 3

As FC said you can use CSS3 custom filters or SVG/Canvas.
But if you need a cross-browser solution for blending layers you have to use JS method. For example, JS image processing script from Pixastic: http://www.pixastic.com/lib/docs/actions/blend/
In addition it has a lot of other visual effects like blur, noise, crop, mosaic etc.
I used this script before for several projects, it works realy great :)
Hope it helps you)

Answer 4

I'm a designer and had the same problem, looking for solutions before putting the psd over to the dev team - you can try this js and/or http://css-tricks.com/basics-css-blend-modes/
Jsfiddle code:
#kitten:hover {
filter:url(#multiply);
}
<svg width="200" height="200" viewBox="10 10 280 280">
<filter id="multiply">
<feBlend mode="multiply"/>
</filter>
<image id="kitten" x="0" y="0" width="300" height="300" xlink:href="http://placekitten.com/300" />
</svg>
Hope it works for you or others here. :)