Set opacity of background image without affecting child elements

Css Problem Overview

Is it possible to set the opacity of a background image without affecting the opacity of child elements?

Example

All links in the footer need a custom bullet (background image) and the opacity of the custom bullet should be 50%.

HTML

<div id="footer">
    <ul>
        <li><a href="#">Link 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Link 2</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Link 3</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Link 4</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Link 5</a></li>
    </ul>
</div>

CSS

#footer ul li {
	background: url(/images/arrow.png) no-repeat 0 50%;
}

What I've Tried

I tried setting the opacity of the list items to 50%, but then the opacity of the link text is also 50% - and there doesn't seem to be a way to reset the opacity of child elements:

#footer ul li {
	background: url(/images/arrow.png) no-repeat 0 50%;
    /* will also set the opacity of the link text */        
    opacity: 0.5;
}

I also tried using rgba, but that doesn't have any effect on the background image:

#footer ul li {
    /* rgba doesn't apply to the background image */
    background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.5) url(/images/arrow.png) no-repeat 0 50%;
}

Css Solutions

Solution 1 - Css

You can use CSS linear-gradient() with rgba().

div {
  width: 300px;
  height: 200px;
  background: linear-gradient(rgba(255,255,255,.5), rgba(255,255,255,.5)), url("https://i.imgur.com/xnh5x47.jpg");
}
span {
  background: black;
  color: white;
}

<div><span>Hello world.</span></div>

Solution 2 - Css

Take your image into an image editor, turn down the opacity, save it as a .png and use that instead.

Solution 3 - Css

This will work with every browser

div {
 -khtml-opacity:.50; 
 -moz-opacity:.50; 
 -ms-filter:"alpha(opacity=50)";
  filter:alpha(opacity=50);
  filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(opacity=0.5);
  opacity:.50; 
}

If you don't want transparency to affect the entire container and its children, check this workaround. You must have an absolutely positioned child with a relatively positioned parent.

Check demo at http://www.impressivewebs.com/css-opacity-that-doesnt-affect-child-elements/

Solution 4 - Css

If you are using the image as a bullet, you might consider the :before pseudo element.

#footer ul li {
}

#footer ul li:before {
    content: url(/images/arrow.png);
    filter:alpha(opacity=50);
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(opacity=0.5);
    opacity:.50;
}

Solution 5 - Css

You can put the image in the div:after or div:before and set the opacity on that "virtual div"

div:after {
  background: url(https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/s.cdpn.io/3/owl1.jpg);
  opacity: 0.25;
}

found here http://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/transparent-background-images/

Solution 6 - Css

#footer ul li {
  position: relative;
  opacity: 0.99;
}

#footer ul li::before {
  content: "";
  position: absolute;
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  z-index: -1;
  background: url(/images/arrow.png) no-repeat 0 50%;
  opacity: 0.5;
}

Hack with opacity .99 (less than 1) creates z-index context so you can not worry about global z-index values. (Try to remove it and see what happens in the next demo where parent wrapper has positive z-index.)
If your element already has z-index, then you don't need this hack.

Demo of this technique.

Solution 7 - Css

Unfortunately, at the time of writing this answer, there is no direct way to do this. You need to:

use a semi-transparent image for background (much easier).
add an extra element (like div) next to children which you want the opaque, add background to it and after making it semi-transparent, position it behind mentioned children.

Solution 8 - Css

Another option is CSS Tricks approach of inserting a pseudo element the exact size of the original element right behind it to fake the opaque background effect that we're looking for. Sometimes you will need to set a height for the pseudo element.

div {
  width: 200px;
  height: 200px;
  display: block;
  position: relative;
}

div::after {
  content: "";
  background: url(image.jpg);
  opacity: 0.5;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  right: 0;
  position: absolute;
  z-index: -1;   
}

Solution 9 - Css

The "filter" property, needs an integer for percentage of opacity instead of double, in order to work for IE7/8.

filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(opacity=50);

P.S.: I post this as an answer, since SO, needs at least 6 changed characters for an edit.

Solution 10 - Css

To really fine-tune things, I recommend placing the appropriate selections in browser-targeting wrappers. This was the only thing that worked for me when I could not get IE7 and IE8 to "play nicely with others" (as I am currently working for a software company who continues to support them).

/* color or background image for all browsers, of course */			   
#myBackground {
	background-color:#666; 
}
/* target chrome & safari without disrupting IE7-8 */
@media screen and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio:0) {
	#myBackground {
		-khtml-opacity:.50; 
		opacity:.50;
	}
}
/* target firefox without disrupting IE */
@-moz-document url-prefix() {
	#myBackground {
		-moz-opacity:.50;
		opacity:0.5;
	}
}
/* and IE last so it doesn't blow up */
#myBackground {
	opacity:.50;
	filter:alpha(opacity=50);
	filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(opacity=0.5);
}

I may have redundancies in the above code -- if anyone wishes to clean it up further, feel free!

Solution 11 - Css

If you have to set the opacity only to the bullet, why don't you set the alpha channel directly into the image? By the way I don't think there is a way to set the opacity to a background image via css without changing the opacity of the whole element (and its children too).

Solution 12 - Css

Just to add to the above..you can use the alpha channel with the new color attributes eg. rgba(0,0,0,0) ok so this is black but with zero opacity so as a parent it will not affect the child. This only works on Chrome, FF, Safari and....I thin O.

convert your hex colours to RGBA

Solution 13 - Css

I found a pretty good and simple tutorial about this issue. I think it works great (and though it supports IE, I just tell my clients to use other browsers):

CSS background transparency without affecting child elements, through RGBa and filters

From there you can add gradient support, etc.

Solution 14 - Css

we can figure out that by not playing with opacity just by using rgba color

e.g "background-color: rgba(0,0,0, 0.5)"

Sample :

Previous Css:

 .login-card {
  // .... others CSS
  background-color: #121e1b;
  opacity: 0.5;
}

To :

 .login-card {
      // .... others CSS
      background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5);
    }

Solution 15 - Css

#footer ul li
     {
       position:relative;
       list-style:none;
     }
    #footer ul li:before
     {
       background-image: url(imagesFolder/bg_demo.png);
       background-repeat:no-repeat;
       content: "";
       top: 5px;
       left: -10px;
       bottom: 0;
       right: 0;
       position: absolute;
       z-index: -1;
       opacity: 0.5;
    }

You can try this code. I think it will be worked. You can visit the demo

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