background-clip
Baseline Widely available
This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.
The background-clip
CSS property sets whether an element's background extends underneath its border box, padding box, or content box.
Try it
The background is always drawn behind the border, so background-clip: border-box
has a visual effect only when the border is partially opaque or has transparent or partially opaque regions. Also, the background-clip: text
property has little to no visual effect if the text is fully or partially opaque.
Note: Because the root element has a different background painting area, the background-clip
property has no effect when specified on it. See "The backgrounds of special elements."
Note: For documents whose root element is an HTML element: if the computed value of background-image
on the root element is none
and its background-color
is transparent
, user agents must instead propagate the computed values of the background
properties from that element's first HTML <body>
child element. The used values of that <body>
element's background
properties are their initial values, and the propagated values are treated as if they were specified on the root element. It is recommended that authors of HTML documents specify the canvas background for the <body>
element rather than the HTML element.
Syntax
/* Keyword values */
background-clip: border-box;
background-clip: padding-box;
background-clip: content-box;
background-clip: text;
background-clip: border-area;
/* Global values */
background-clip: inherit;
background-clip: initial;
background-clip: revert;
background-clip: revert-layer;
background-clip: unset;
Values
border-box
-
The background extends to the outside edge of the border (but underneath the border in z-ordering).
padding-box
-
The background extends to the outside edge of the padding. No background is drawn beneath the border.
content-box
-
The background is painted within (clipped to) the content box.
text
-
The background is painted within (clipped to) the foreground text.
border-area
-
The background is painted within (clipped to) the area painted by the border, taking
border-width
andborder-style
into account but ignoring any transparency introduced byborder-color
.
Accessibility
When using background-clip: text
, check that the contrast ratio between the background color and the color of the text placed over it is high enough that people experiencing low vision conditions will be able to read the content of the page.
If the background image does not load, this could also lead to the text becoming unreadable. Add a fallback background-color
to prevent this from happening, and test without the image.
Consider using feature queries with @supports
to test for support of background-clip: text
and provide an accessible alternative where it is not supported.
Formal definition
Initial value | border-box |
---|---|
Applies to | all elements. It also applies to ::first-letter and ::first-line . |
Inherited | no |
Computed value | as specified |
Animation type | a repeatable list |
Formal syntax
Examples
HTML
<p class="border-box">The background extends behind the border.</p>
<p class="padding-box">
The background extends to the inside edge of the border.
</p>
<p class="content-box">
The background extends only to the edge of the content box.
</p>
<p class="text">The background is clipped to the foreground text.</p>
<p class="border-area">
The background is clipped to the area painted by the border.
</p>
CSS
p {
border: 0.8em darkviolet;
border-style: dotted double;
margin: 1em 0;
padding: 1.4em;
background: linear-gradient(60deg, red, yellow, red, yellow, red);
font: 900 1.2em sans-serif;
text-decoration: underline;
}
.border-box {
background-clip: border-box;
}
.padding-box {
background-clip: padding-box;
}
.content-box {
background-clip: content-box;
}
.text {
background-clip: text;
color: rgb(0 0 0 / 20%);
}
.border-area {
background-clip: border-area;
border-color: transparent;
}
Result
Specifications
Specification |
---|
CSS Backgrounds and Borders Module Level 3 # background-clip |
CSS Backgrounds and Borders Module Level 4 # background-clip |
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser
See also
- The
clip-path
property creates a clipping region that defines what part of an entire element should be displayed. - Background properties:
background
,background-color
,background-image
,background-origin
- Introduction to the CSS box model