Question

setting background color opacity

Asked by: awolfe76

i have a table with an image in the background. what i want to do is have one of the cells have a background of white but make the white transparent so that the tables image shows through. i only want the white to be transparent and not affect the text within the cell. can this be done with css? i have done it but it makes the background and anything else with the cell transparent.
thanks.

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Asked On
2004-04-02 at 04:45:28ID20941278
Tags

color

Topic

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Participating Experts
5
Points
250
Comments
12

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Answers

 

by: dorwardPosted on 2004-04-02 at 05:08:39ID: 10740248

The short answer is: No

The long answer is that you could use a background image with partial transparency, but Internet Explorer doesn't support it.

 

by: COBOLdinosaurPosted on 2004-04-02 at 10:15:12ID: 10742986

do the td tag this way:
<td style="background-color:#000001;filter:chroma(color=000001)">
IE only.

Cd&

 

by: strolfeyPosted on 2004-04-02 at 18:29:17ID: 10746005

If you don't mind a dithered effect, you can use a 2x2 transparent/color gif to simulate transparency. Not elegant, but it works in all browsers.

 

by: DaydreamsPosted on 2004-04-02 at 22:44:49ID: 10746635

Take a look at this (IE only):

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
 "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>example page</title>
<style type="text/css">

.text {color:#000; position: absolute; top:100px;left:100px;border:1pt #000 solid;width:100px;height:100px;}

.box {background-image: url(myimage.jpg);filter:alpha(opacity=15); border:1pt #000 solid;  background-repeat:no-repeat; position: absolute; top:100px;left:100px;width:100px;height:100px;}

</style>
</head>
<body><table><tr>
<td class="box"><td class="text">This text is not affected by the transparency</td></tr></table>
</body>
</html>


..without tables:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
 "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>example page</title>
<style type="text/css">
.text {color:#000; position: absolute; top:100px;left:100px;border:1pt #000 solid;width:100px;height:100px;}

.box {background-image: url(myimage.jpg);filter:alpha(opacity=15); border:1pt #000 solid; background-repeat:no-repeat; position: absolute; top:100px;left:100px;width:100px;height:100px;}

</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="box"></div><div class="text">This text is not affected by the transparency</div>
</body>
</html>

 

by: awolfe76Posted on 2004-04-03 at 01:15:42ID: 10746869

i have tried everyones suggestions but it hasnt quite worked yet. so i have a couple questions for each of you.
COBOLdinosaur - i can only get the white box to be shown or not be shown using your code. if you could explain to me how to make it transparent, change the opacity, it may work.
strolfey - i thought about using and even tried early the gif but it just doesnt look right. thanks though.
daydreams  - you idea works great with only one problem. the text that is covered by the transparent box has links in it which the box covers and doesnt allow them to be used. if you have any way of fixing this it would be great.
i will keep trying the code and playing with them all hopefully something will come up soon. thanks to all.

 

by: awolfe76Posted on 2004-04-03 at 02:00:57ID: 10746984

i am working with the following code as well as trying your suggestions. kind of a combination or everthing:

<td width="100" height="230" align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="#FFFFFF; filter:alpha(opacity='40', finishopacity='40', style='0', startx='0', starty='0', finishx='0', finishy='0')">

but for some reason the background ends up red. but the links do work with it.

 

by: seanpowellPosted on 2004-04-03 at 05:54:19ID: 10747601

Hi,

A couple of things...

1. Your td cell is turning red because you've missed the style parameter, so the browser is likely seeing #FFFFFF0 - or something to that effect. Also, those other parameters are not needed unless you're going for some type of gradient effect.
<td width="100" height="230" align="left" valign="top" style="background-color:#FFF; filter:alpha(opacity='40')">

The problem though - is that this is going to effect the text as well, and there's no way to override it as long as you're styling the cell - everything internal will also get styled.

One possible solution is to use div's and absolute positioning, similar to Daydreams code above, but with the table code and the div code combined. A lot of code for a simple effect, nothing new there :-)

Here's an example for you - most of the coding in the second example is inline to help you see what's going on.
http://www.pdgmedia.com/ee/trans.html

 

by: DaydreamsPosted on 2004-04-03 at 08:06:16ID: 10747930

awolfe76, any links, like the text, should be in td or div class "text":

<td class="box"><td class="text">This text is not affected by the transparency. Here is a link: <a href="Somwhere">click here</a></td><</tr></table>

 

by: seanpowellPosted on 2004-04-03 at 08:13:25ID: 10747955

I'm afraid this code isn't exactly valid...

<td class="box"><td class="text">

 

by: DaydreamsPosted on 2004-04-03 at 08:14:20ID: 10747960

Nevermind.. Sean's example is excellent..  :)

 

by: COBOLdinosaurPosted on 2004-04-03 at 08:21:18ID: 10747984

My bad you have to declare the chroma at the body level. so ieffects the whole page.  That is why you use a color code like #000001, the you are only using specificaly where yu want transparency.  As for controling opacity. Nope... does not have parameters.  You have the alpha filter for that, and as you have already seen, it doesn't have teh capbality to allow what you want.  

You will have to compromise on something; change your design; or continue chasing your tail, because the way yu want it to work cannot be done.  I think Daydreams is going to get you the closest approxiamtion.

Cd&

 

by: awolfe76Posted on 2004-04-03 at 09:43:08ID: 10748255

thanks for all the help. sean your help worked great just have to play with it a little to get it to work for me but it is the closest thing to what i was looking for. thanks again.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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