Backdrop Filter effect with CSS

#css #filter #html #webdev

Yesterday i came upon a really cool looking effect on a website and tried to reproduce the effect for a new web app i was developing. It had a transparent container create a filter backdrop on the background image behind it and it was really neat.

Here's the effect:

I tried the usual css property filter: blur(10px) but that only blurred the container itself and not the background behind the element. After some research i found a super simple one line css property to do just that. Since then i've been using it in every app or design i created (where appropriate).

here it is:



.container {
    backdrop-filter: blur(10px);
}

I had no idea that CSS property existed!

Now add a background image behind your container and watch the magic. Pretty cool right?

Note: Some browsers may not support the property. But the major ones like chrome, firefox and edge do.

Try it out and let me know what you think. Till next time!

Top comments (25)

Erik • Jul 15 '20

For Safari:

.container {
    backdrop-filter: blur(10px);
    -webkit-backdrop-filter: blur(10px);
}

Thorsten Hirsch • Jul 25 '20

Hmm... so you're using saturate(180%) in the backdrop-filter to cancel out the background color with opacity of your fallback...? There's a cleaner solution. You can check if the browser supports backdrop-filter and provide different css code, like with media queries:

@supports (-webkit-backdrop-filter: none) or (backdrop-filter: none) {
  .blurred-container {
    -webkit-backdrop-filter: blur(10px);
    backdrop-filter: blur(10px);
  }
}

/* slightly transparent fallback for Firefox (not supporting backdrop-filter) */
@supports not ((-webkit-backdrop-filter: none) or (backdrop-filter: none)) {
  .blurred-container {
    background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, .8);
  }
}

JasonLi-9933 • Jul 16 '20

Thanks for the sharing! The feature can be enabled in Firefox by setting the layout.css.backdrop-filter.enabled to true in about:config. For more info check out the caniuse.com/#search=backdrop-filter

Uriel Bitton • Jul 16 '20

Nice thanks for that!

Alex Janke • Jul 14 '20

Here's an overview of the browser support for backdrop-filter. Always check this when using more "special" css props :)
caniuse.com/#search=backdrop-filter

Definitely use the fallback option described by Rohit when using backdrop-filter

Andrew Bone • Jul 14 '20

Still pretty good coverage though, around 75%

Alex Janke • Jul 14 '20

True, but in general (not just css) there are some funky edge-cases in browsers out there so checking the availability never hurts. For example Safari doesn't support .ogg files - so if you have any audio on your page you'd better use mp3. Oof.