Position a CSS background image x pixels from the right? - css

Question

I think the answer is no, but can you position a background image with CSS, so that it is a fixed amount of pixels away from the right?
If I set background-position values of x and y, it seems those only give fixed pixel adjustments from the left and top respectively.

Answer 1

background-position: right 30px center;
It works in most browsers. See: http://caniuse.com/#feat=css-background-offsets for full list.
More information: http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-background/#the-background-position

Answer 2

It is possible to use attribute border as length from the right
background: url('/img.png') no-repeat right center;
border-right: 10px solid transparent;

Answer 3

There is one way but it's not supported on every browser (see coverage here)
element {
background-position : calc(100% - 10px) 0;
}
It works in every modern browser, but it is possible that IE9 is crashing. Also no coverage for =< IE8.

Answer 4

As far as I know, the CSS specification does not provide for exactly what you're asking, outside of CSS expressions, of course. Working off the assumption that you don't want to use expressions or Javascript, I see three hackish solutions:
Make sure your background image matches the size of the container (at least in width) and set background-repeat: repeat or repeat-x if only the width is equalized. Then, having something appear x pixels from the right is as simple as background-position: -5px 0px.
Using percentages for background-position exhibits special behaviour that is better seen than described here. Give it a shot. Essentially, background-position: 90% 50% will make the right edge of the background image line up 10% away from the right edge of the container.
Create a div containing the image. Explicitly set the position of the containing element position: relative if not already set. Set the image container to position: absolute; right: 10px; top: 10px;, obviously adjusting the final two as you see fit. Place the image div container into the containing element.

Answer 5

Try this:
#myelement {
background-position: 100% 50%;
margin-right: 5px;
}
Note though that the code above will move the whole element (not the background image only) 5px from the right. This might be ok for your case.

Answer 6

You can do it in CSS3:
background-position: right 20px bottom 20px;
It works in Firefox, Chrome, IE9+
Source: MDN

Answer 7

Image workaround with transparent pixels on the right to serve as right margin.
The image workaround for the same is to create a PNG or GIF image (image file formats that support transparency) which has a transparent portion on the right of the image exactly equal to the number of pixels that you want to give a right margin of (eg: 5px, 10px, etc.)
This works well consistently across fixed widths as well as widths in percentages.
Practically a good solution for accordion headers having a plus/minus or up/down arrow image on the header's right!
Downside: Unfortunately, you cannot use JPG unless the background portion of the container and the background color of the CSS background image are of the same flat color (with out a gradient/vignette), mostly white/black etc.

Answer 8

If you happen to stumble on this topic in these days of modern browsers you can use pseudo-class :after to do practicaly anything with the background.
.container:after{
content:"";
position:absolute;
right:20px;
background:url(http://lorempixel.com/400/200) no-repeat right bottom;
}
this css will put background to bottom right corner of ".container" element with 20px space on the right side.
See this fiddle for example http://jsfiddle.net/h6K9z/226/

Answer 9

The most appropriate answer is the new four-value syntax for background-position, but until all browsers support it your best approach is a combination of earlier responses in the following order:
background: url(image.png) no-repeat 97% center; /* default, Android, Sf < 6 */
background-position: -webkit-calc(100% - 10px) center; /* Sf 6 */
background-position: right 10px center; /* Cr 25+, FF 13+, IE 9+, Op 10.5+ */

Answer 10

If you want to specify only the x-axis, you can do the following:
background-position-x: right 100px;

Answer 11

Just put the pixel padding into the image - add 10px or whatever to the canvas size of the image in photohop and align it right in CSS.

Answer 12

I was trying to do a similar task to get a dropdown arrow always on the right side of the table header and came up with this which seemed to work in Chrome and Firefox, but safari was telling me it was an invalid property.
background: url(http://goo.gl/P93P5Q) center right 10px no-repeat;
After doing a bit of messing around in the inspector, I came up with this cross-browser solution that works in IE8+, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, as well as responsive designs.
background: url(http://goo.gl/P93P5Q) no-repeat 95% center;
Here is a codepen of how it looks and works. Codepen is written with SCSS - http://cdpn.io/xqGbk

Answer 13

You can position your background image in an editor to be x pixels from the right side.
background: url(images_url) no-repeat right top;
The background image will be positioned in top right, but will appear to be x pixels from the right.

Answer 14

Works for all real browsers (and for IE9+):
background-position: right 10px top 10px;
I use it to RTL WordPress themes.
See example: temporary website or the real website will be up soon.
Look at the icons at the big DIVs right corners.

Answer 15

Another solution I haven't seen mentioned is to use pseudo elements and I do believe this solution will work with any CSS 2.1 compliant browser (≥ IE8,≥ Safari 2, ...) and it should also be responsive :
element::after
{
content:' ';
position:relative;
display:block;
width:100%;
height:100%;
bottom:0;
right:-5px; /* 10 px from the right of element inner-margin (padding) see example */
background:url() right center no-repeat;
}
Example: The element eg. a square sized 100px (without considering borders) has a 10px padding and a background image should be shown inside the right padding. This means the pseudo-element is a 80px sized square. We want to stick it to the right border of the element with right:-10px;. If we'd like to have the background-image 5px away from the right border we need to stick the pseudo-element 5px away from the right border of the element with right:-5px;...
Test it for your self here : http://jsfiddle.net/yHucT/

Answer 16

If the container has a fixed height:
Tweek the percentages (background-position) until it fits correctly.
If the container has a dynamic height:
If you want a padding between your background and your container (such as when custom styling inputs, selects), add your padding to your image and set the background position to right or bottom.
I stumbled on this question while I was trying to get the background for a select box to fit say 5 px from the right of my select. In my case, my background is an arrow down that would replace the basic drop down icon. In my case, the padding will always remain the same (5-10 pixels from the right) for the background, so it's an easy modification to bring to the actual background image (making its dimensions 5-10 pixels wider on the right side.
Hope this helps!

Answer 17

Tweaking percentages from the left is a little brittle for my liking. When I need something like this I tend to add my container styling to a wrapper element and then apply the background on the inner element with background-position: right bottom
<style>
.wrapper {
background-color: #333;
border: solid 3px #222;
padding: 20px;
}
.bg-img {
background-image: url(path/to/img.png);
background-position: right bottom;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
}
.content-breakout {
margin: -20px
}
</style>
<div class="wrapper">
<div class="bg-img">
<div class="content-breakout"></div>
</div>
</div>
The .content-breakout class is optional and will allow your content to eat into the padding if required (negative margin values should match the corresponding values in the wrapper padding). It's a little verbose, but works reliably without having to be concerned about the relative positioning of the image compared to its width and height.

Answer 18

Its been loong since this question has been asked, but I just ran into this problem and I got it by doing :
background-position:95% 50%;

Answer 19

Solution for negative values. Adjust the padding-right to move the image.
<div style='overflow:hidden;'>
<div style='width:100% background:url(images.jpg) top right; padding-right:50px;'>
</div>
</div>

Answer 20

Better for all
background: url('../images/bg-menu-dropdown-top.png') left 20px top no-repeat !important;

Answer 21

This works in Chrome 27, i don't know if it's valid or not or what other browswers do with it. I was surprised about this.
background: url(../img/icon_file_upload.png) top+3px right+10px no-repeat;