Stretch and scale a CSS image in the background - with CSS only

Css Problem Overview

I want that my background image stretch and scale depending on the browser viewport size.

I've seen some questions on Stack Overflow that do the job, like Stretch and scale CSS background for example. It works well, but I want to place the image using background, not with an img tag.

In that one an img tag is placed, and then with CSS we tribute to the img tag.

width:100%; height:100%;

It works, but that question is a bit old, and states that in CSS 3 resizing a background image will work pretty well. I've tried this example the first one, but it didn't work out for me.

Is there a good method to do it with the background-image declaration?

Css Solutions

Solution 1 - Css

CSS3 has a nice little attribute called background-size:cover.

This scales the image so that the background area is completely covered by the background image while maintaining the aspect ratio. The entire area will be covered. However, part of the image may not be visible if the width/height of the resized image is too large.

Solution 2 - Css

You could use the CSS3 property to do it quite nicely. It resizes to ratio so no image distortion (although it does upscale small images). Just note, it's not implemented in all browsers yet.

background-size: 100%;

Solution 3 - Css

Using the code I mentioned...

HTML

<div id="background">
    <img src="img.jpg" class="stretch" alt="" />
</div>

CSS

#background {
    width: 100%; 
    height: 100%; 
    position: fixed; 
    left: 0px; 
    top: 0px; 
    z-index: -1; /* Ensure div tag stays behind content; -999 might work, too. */
}

.stretch {
    width:100%;
    height:100%;
}

That produces the desired effect: only the content will scroll, not the background.

The background image resizes to the browser viewport for any screen size. When the content doesn't fit the browser viewport, and the user needs to scroll the page, the background image remains fixed in the viewport while the content scrolls.

With CSS 3 it seems this would be a lot easier.

Solution 4 - Css

CSS:

html,body {
    background: url(images/bg.jpg) no-repeat center center fixed;
    -webkit-background-size: cover; /* For WebKit*/
    -moz-background-size: cover;    /* Mozilla*/
    -o-background-size: cover;      /* Opera*/
    background-size: cover;         /* Generic*/
}

Solution 5 - Css

background-size: 100% 100%;

stretches the background to fill the entire element on both axes.

Solution 6 - Css

The following CSS part should stretch the image with all browsers.

I do this dynamically for each page. Therefore I use PHP to generate its own HTML tag for each page. All the pictures are in the 'image' folder and end with 'Bg.jpg'.

<html style="
      background: url(images/'.$pic.'Bg.jpg) no-repeat center center fixed;
      -webkit-background-size: cover;
      -moz-background-size: cover;
      -o-background-size: cover;
      background-size: cover;
      filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(src=\'images/'.$pic.'Bg.jpg\',     sizingMethod=\'scale\');
      -ms-filter: \"progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(src=\'images/'.$pic.'Bg.jpg\', sizingMethod=\'scale\')\
";>

If you have only one background picture for all pages then you may remove the $pic variable, remove escaping back-slashes, adjust paths and place this code in your CSS file.

html{
    background: url(images/homeBg.jpg) no-repeat center center fixed;
    -webkit-background-size: cover;
    -moz-background-size: cover;
    -o-background-size: cover;
    background-size: cover;
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(src='images/homeBg.jpg',     sizingMethod='scale');
    -ms-filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(src='images/homeBg', sizingMethod='scale');
}

This was tested with Internet Explorer 9, Chrome 21, and Firefox 14.

Solution 7 - Css

Use this CSS:

background: url('img.png') no-repeat; 
background-size: 100%;

Solution 8 - Css

You can actually achieve the same effect as a background image with the img tag. You just have to set its z-index lower than everything else, set position:absolute and use a transparent background for every box in the foreground.

Solution 9 - Css

You can add this class into your CSS file.

.stretch {
    background: url(images/bg.jpg) no-repeat center center fixed;
    -webkit-background-size: cover;
    -moz-background-size: cover;
    -o-background-size: cover;
    background-size: cover;
}

It works in:

Safari 3 or later
Chrome Whatever or later
Internet Explorer 9 or later
Opera 10 or later (Opera 9.5 supported background-size, but not the keywords)
Firefox 3.6 or later (Firefox 4 supports non-vendor prefixed version)

Solution 10 - Css

It is explained by CSS tricks: Perfect Full Page Background Image

Demo: https://css-tricks.com/examples/FullPageBackgroundImage/progressive.php

Code:

body {
  background: url(images/myBackground.jpg) no-repeat center center fixed;
  -webkit-background-size: cover;
  -moz-background-size: cover;
  -o-background-size: cover;
  background-size: cover;
}

Solution 11 - Css

In order to scale your images appropriately based on the container size, use the following:

background-size: contain;
background-repeat: no-repeat;

Solution 12 - Css

I use this, and it works with all browsers:

<html>
    <head>
        <title>Stretched Background Image</title>
        <style type="text/css">
            /* Remove margins from the 'html' and 'body' tags, and ensure the page takes up full screen height. */
            html, body {height:100%; margin:0; padding:0;}

            /* Set the position and dimensions of the background image. */
            #page-background {position:fixed; top:0; left:0; width:100%; height:100%;}

            /* Specify the position and layering for the content that needs to appear in front of the background image. Must have a higher z-index value than the background image. Also add some padding to compensate for removing the margin from the 'html' and 'body' tags. */
            #content {position:relative; z-index:1; padding:10px;}
        </style>
        <!-- The above code doesn't work in Internet Explorer 6. To address this, we use a conditional comment to specify an alternative style sheet for IE 6. -->
        <!--[if IE 6]>
        <style type="text/css">
            html {overflow-y:hidden;}
            body {overflow-y:auto;}
            #page-background {position:absolute; z-index:-1;}
            #content {position:static;padding:10px;}
        </style>
        <![endif]-->
    </head>
    <body>
        <div id="page-background"><img src="http://www.quackit.com/pix/milford_sound/milford_sound.jpg" width="100%" height="100%" alt="Smile"></div>
        <div id="content">
            <h2>Stretch that Background Image!</h2>
            <p>This text appears in front of the background image. This is because we've used CSS to layer the content in front of the background image. The background image will stretch to fit your browser window. You can see the image grow and shrink as you resize your browser.</p>
            <p>Go on, try it - resize your browser!</p>
        </div>
    </body>
</html>

Solution 13 - Css

Thanks!

But then it was not working for the Google Chrome and Safari browsers (stretching worked, but the hight of the pictures was only 2 mm!), until someone told me what lacks:

> Try to set height:auto;min-height:100%;

So change that for your height:100%; line, gives:

#### #background {
    width: 100%; 
    height: 100%; 
    position: fixed; 
    left: 0px; 
    top: 0px; 
    z-index: -1;
}

.stretch {
    width:100%;
    height:auto;
    min-height:100%;
}

Just before that newly added code I have this in my Drupal Tendu themes style.css:

> html, body{height:100%;} > #### #page{background:#ffffff; height:auto !important;height:100%;min-height:100%;position:relative;}

Then I have to make a new block within Drupal with the picture while adding class=stretch:

> #### < img alt="" class="stretch" src="pic.url" />

Just copying a picture with the editor in that Drupal block doesn't work; one has to change the editor to non-formatted text.

Solution 14 - Css

I wanted to center and scale a background image, without stretching it to the entire page, and I wanted the aspect ratio to be maintained. This worked for me, thanks to the variations suggested in other answers:

INLINE IMAGE: ------------------------

<div id="background">
    <img src="img.jpg" class="stretch" alt="" />
</div>

CSS ----------------------------------

html {
	height:100%;
}

#background {
	text-align: center;
	width: 100%; 
	height: 100%; 
	position: fixed;
	left: 0px; 
	top: 0px; 
	z-index: -1;
}

.stretch {
	margin: auto;
	height:100%;
}

Solution 15 - Css

I agree with the image in absolute div with 100% width and height. Make sure you set 100% width and height for the body in the CSS and set margins and padding to zero. Another issue you will find with this method is that when selecting text, the selection area can sometimes encompass the background image, which has the unfortunate effect of making the full page have the selected state. You can get round this by using the user-select:none CSS rule, like so:

<html>
    <head>
        <style type="text/css">

            html,body {
                height: 100%;
                width: 100%
                margin: none;
                padding: none;
            }

            #background {
                width: 100%;
                height: 100%;
                position: fixed;
                left: 0px;
                top: 0px;
                z-index: -99999;
                -webkit-user-select: none;
                -khtml-user-select: none;
                -moz-user-select: none;
                -o-user-select: none;
                user-select: none;
            }

            #background img {
                width: 100%;
                height: 100%;
            }

            #main{ z-index:10;}
        </style>
    </head>
    <body>
        <div id="main">
            content here
        </div>
        <div id="background"><img src="bg.jpg"></div>
    </body>
</html>

Again, Internet Explorer is the bad guy here, because it doesn't recognise the user-select option - not even Internet Explorer 10 preview supports it, so you have the option of either using JavaScript to prevent background image selection (for example, http://www.felgall.com/jstip35.htm ) or using CSS 3 background-stretch method.

Also, for SEO I would put the background image at the bottom of the page, but if the background image takes too long to load (that is, with a white background initially), you could move to the top of the page.

Solution 16 - Css

I used a combination of the background-X CSS properties to achieve the ideal scaling background image.

background-size: cover;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: center;
background-attachment: fixed;

This makes the background always cover the entire browser window and remains centered when scaling.

Solution 17 - Css

Use the Backstretch plugin. One could even have several images slide. It also works within containers. This way for example one could have only a portion of the background been covered with an background image.

Since even I could get it to work proves it to be an easy to use plugin :).

Solution 18 - Css

If you want to have the content centered horizontally, use a combination like this:

background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-size: cover;
background-position: center;

This will look beautiful.

Solution 19 - Css

The following worked for me.

.back-ground {
   background-image: url("../assets/background.png");
   background-size: 100vw 100vh;
}

that worked to cover the entire background on different dimensions

Solution 20 - Css

You can use the border-image : yourimage property to scale the image up to the border. Even if you give the background-image, the border image will be drawn over it.

The border-image property is very useful if your style sheet is implemented somewhere which doesn't support CSS 3. If you are using Google Chrome or Firefox, then I recommend the background-size:cover property itself.

Solution 21 - Css