Unlock Stunning Visuals: Mastering CSS Mix-Blend-Mode

Unlock the Power of CSS: Mastering Mix-Blend-Mode

When it comes to creating visually stunning designs, CSS has got you covered. One of the most powerful and versatile properties is mix-blend-mode, which allows you to blend the content of an element with its parent and background. This property opens up a world of possibilities for frontend developers, enabling them to create native designs with real text on images, removing the need for edited images and promoting better performance.

What is Mix-Blend-Mode?

mix-blend-mode creates a stacking context, an imaginary z-axis relative to the user-facing viewport where HTML elements reside. This property applies to all elements, including SVGs, and allows you to define how the content of an element should blend with its parent and background.

Syntax and Values

The syntax for mix-blend-mode is straightforward: mix-blend-mode: <blend-mode>;. The <blend-mode> value can be one of the following:

• normal: The default value, which doesn’t add any blend mode.
• multiply: Multiplies the element’s color with that of the background, resulting in a darker color.
• screen: Makes the content much brighter than its background.
• overlay: Multiplies if the background is darker than the content and screens if the background is lighter.
• darken: Darkens the area of the background that is dark and leaves other parts unchanged.
• lighten: Makes the content lighter around the parts of the background that have a light color.
• color-dodge: Brightens the background color to reflect the color of the element’s content.
• color-burn: Darkens the color of the background to reflect the element’s content color.
• hard-light: Multiplies if the content color is darker than the background and screens if the content color is lighter.
• soft-light: Applies lighten or darken depending on the color of the content, giving a softer look.
• difference: Picks the darker of the colors between the content and background and subtracts it from the other (lighter) color.
• exclusion: Similar to difference, but with much lower contrast.
• hue: Combines the hue of the content and the saturation and luminosity of the background.
• saturation: Combines the saturation of the content and the hue and luminosity of the background.
• color: Creates a color for the content by combining the hue and saturation of the content with the luminosity of the background.
• luminosity: Inverts the color attribute.

Practical Use Cases

mix-blend-mode has numerous practical applications, including:

• Removing white background from logos: Use multiply to change the white part of the logo to the color of the background.
• Creating dynamic text contrast: Use mix-blend-mode to make text contrast with its background, regardless of the background color.
• Designing cut-out effects: Use screen to create a cut-out effect for text by giving it a white background.
• Achieving spotlight effects: Use darken to hide text until a div with a yellow color is on top of it, creating a spotlight effect.
• Combining with filter: Use mix-blend-mode with the filter property to achieve engaging and enthralling designs.

Experiment and Explore

The possibilities with mix-blend-mode are endless. By experimenting with different properties and values, you can unlock new design possibilities and take your frontend development skills to the next level.

Optimize Your Application’s Performance

As you explore the world of mix-blend-mode, don’t forget to monitor and track client-side CPU usage, memory usage, and more for all of your users in production. Try LogRocket to modernize how you debug web and mobile apps.