Offset a background image from the right using CSS

Is there a way to position a background image a certain number of pixels from the right of its element?

For example, to position something a certain number of pixels (say, 10) from the left, this is how I'd do it:

#myElement {
    background-position: 10px 0;
}

I found this CSS3 feature helpful:

/* to position the element 10px from the right */
background-position: right 10px top;

As far as I know this is not supported in IE8. In latest Chrome/Firefox it works fine.

See Can I use for details on the supported browsers.

Used source: http://tanalin.com/en/blog/2011/09/css3-background-position/

Update:

This feature is now supported in all major browsers, including mobile browsers.

> !! Outdated answer, since CSS3 brought this feature

Is there a way to position a background image a certain number of pixels from the right of its element?

Nope.

Popular workarounds include

• setting a margin-right on the element instead
• adding transparent pixels to the image itself and positioning it top right
• or calculating the position using jQuery after the element's width is known.

The easiest solution is to use percentages. This isn't exactly the answer you were looking for since you asked for pixel-precision, but if you just need something to have a little padding between the right edge and the image, giving something a position of 99% usually works well enough.

Code:

/* aligns image to the vertical center and horizontal right of its container with a small amount of padding between the right edge */
div.middleleft {
  background: url("/images/source.jpg") 99% center no-repeat;
}

> Outdated answer: It is now implemented in major browsers, see the > other answers to this question.

CSS3 has modified the specification of background-position so that it will work with different origin point. Unfortunately, I can't find any evidence that it is implemented yet in any major browsers.

http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-background/#the-background-position See example 12.

background-position: right 3em bottom 10px;

As proposed here, this is a pretty cross browser solution that works perfectly:

background: url('/img.png') no-repeat right center;
border-right: 10px solid transparent;

I used it since the CSS3 feature of specifying offsets proposed in the answer marked as solving the question is not supported in browsers so well yet. E.g.

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+ */

A simple but dirty trick is to simply add the offset you want to the image you are using as background. it's not maintainable, but it gets the job done.

This will work on most modern browsers...apart from IE (browser support). Even though that page lists >= IE9 as supported, my tests didn't agree with that.

You can use the calc() css3 property like so;

.class_name {
    background-position: calc(100% - 10px) 50%;
}

For me this is the cleanest and most logical way to achieve a margin to the right. I also use a fallback of using border-right: 10px solid transparent; for IE.

Ok If I understand what your asking you would do this;

You have your DIV container called #main-container and .my-element that is within it. Use this to get you started;

#main-container { 
  position:relative;
}
/*To make the element absolute - floats above all else within the parent container do this.*/
.my-element {
  position:absolute;
  top:0;
  right:10px;
}

/*To make the element apart of elements, something tangible that affects the position of other elements on the same level within the parent then do this;*/
.my-element {
  float:right;
  margin-right:10px;
}

By the way, it better practice to use classes if you referencing a lower level element within a page (I assume you are hence my name change above.

The CSS3 specification allowing different origins for background-position is now supported in Firefox 14 but still not in Chrome 21 (apparently IE9 partly supports them, but I've not tested it myself)

In addition to the Chrome issue that @MattyF referenced there's a more succinct summary here: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=95085

If you have proportioned elements, you could use:

.valid {
    background-position: 98% center;
}

.half .valid {
    background-position: 96% center;
}

In this example, .valid would be the class with the picture and .half would be a row with half the size of the standard one.

Dirty, but works as a charm and it's reasonably manageable.

If you would like to use this for adding arrows/other icons to a button for example then you could use css pseudo-elements?

If it's really a background-image for the whole button, I tend to incorporate the spacing into the image, and just use

background-position: right 0;

But if I have to add for example a designed arrow to a button, I tend to have this html:

<a href="[url]" class="read-more">Read more</a>

And tend to do the following with CSS:

.read-more{
    position: relative;
    padding: 6px 15px 6px 35px;//to create space on the right
    font-size: 13px;
    font-family: Arial;
}

.read-more:after{
    content: '';
    display: block;
    width: 10px;
    height: 15px;
    background-image: url('../images/btn-white-arrow-right.png');
    position: absolute;
    right: 12px;
    top: 10px;
}

By using the :after selector, I add a element using CSS just to contain this small icon. You could do the same by just adding a span or <i> element inside the a-element. But I think this is a cleaner way of adding icons to buttons and it is cross-browser supported.

you can check out the fiddle here: http://codepen.io/anon/pen/PNzYzZ

background-position: calc(100% - 8px);

use center right as the position then add a transparent border to offset it?

If you have a fixed width element and know the width of your background image, you can simply set the background-position to : the element's width - the image's width - the gap you want on the right.

For example : with a 100px-wide element and a 300px-wide image, to get a gap of 10px on the right, you set it to 100-300-10=-210px :

#myElement {
  background:url(my_image.jpg) no-repeat -210px top;
  width:100px;
}

And you get the rightmost 80 pixels of your image on the left of your element, and a gap of 20px on the right.

I know it can sound stupid but sometimes it saves the time... I use that much in a vertical manner (gap at bottom) for navigation links with text below image.

Not sure it applies to your case though.

my problem was I needed the background image to stay the same distance from the right border when the window is resized i.e. for tablet / mobile etc My fix is to use a percenatge like so:

background-position: 98% 6px;

and it sticks in place.

yes! well to position a background image as though 0px from the right-hand side of the browser instead of the left - i use:

background-position: 100% 0px;