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CSS•CSS Foundations

CSS Opacity

CSS Image Opacity

Formula

The opacity property specifies the opacity/transparency of an element.
The opacity property can take a value from 0.0 - 1.0:
0.0 - The element will be completely transparent
0.5 - The element will be 50% transparent
1.0 - Default. The element will be fully opaque opacity 0.2 opacity 0.5 opacity 1.0

(default)

Example img {
opacity: 0.5;
}

Opacity and :hover

The opacity property is often used with

Formula

:hover to change the opacity on mouse - over:
Example img {
opacity: 0.5;
}
img:hover {
opacity: 1.0;
}

Reversed Hover Effect

Here is an example of reversed hover effect:

Example img:hover {

opacity: 0.5;
}

Transparent Boxes

When using the opacity property to add transparency to the background of an element, all child elements inherit the same transparency. This can make the text inside a transparent element hard to read: opacity 1 opacity 0.6 opacity 0.3 opacity 0.1

Example div {
opacity: 0.3;
}

Transparency using background-color

Formula

To NOT apply the transparency to child elements, you can use the background - color property with an RGBA value.

RGBA color values are an extension of RGB color values with an alpha channel - which specifies the opacity for a color. An RGBA color value is specified with: rgba(red, green, blue, alpha). Where the alpha parameter is a number between 0.0 (fully transparent) and 1.0 (fully opaque).

Tip:

You will learn more about RGBA Colors in our CSS Colors Chapter. The following example sets the opacity for the background color and not the text: 100% opacity 60% opacity 30% opacity 10% opacity

Example div {
background: rgba(4, 170, 109, 0.3) /* Green background with 30%

opacity */

}

Text in Transparent Box

This is some text that is placed in the transparent box.

Example

<html> <head> <style>

div.background {
background: url(klematis.jpg) repeat;
border: 2px solid black;
}
div.transbox {
margin: 30px;
background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.6);
border: 1px solid black;
}
div.transbox p {
margin: 5%;
font-weight: bold;
color: #000000;
}

</style> </head> <body> <div class="background"> <div class="transbox">

Formula

< p > This is some text that is placed in the transparent box.</p >

</div> </div> </body> </html>

Example explained

Formula

Create a < div > element (class ="background") with a background image, and a border.
Create another < div > (class ="transbox") inside the first < div >.

The

<div class="transbox"> have a 0.6 transparent background color, and a border.

Inside the transparent

Formula

< div >, we add some text inside a < p > element.

CSS Property

Property

Description opacity

Sets the opacity level for an element

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