How to replicate PS multiply layer mode

css image overlay photoshop rgba

51,239

Solution 1

There are new CSS properties being introduced to do just this thing, they are blend-mode and background-blend-mode.

Currently, you won't be able to use them in any sort of production environment, as they are very very new, and currently only supported by Chrome Canary (experimental web browser) & Webkit Nightly.

These properties are set up to work nearly exactly the same as photoshop's blending modes, and allow for various different modes to be set as values for these properties such as overlay, screen, lighten, color-dodge, and of course multiply.. among others.

blend-mode would allow images (and possibly content? I haven't heard anything to suggest that at this point though.) layered on top of each other to have this blending effect applied.

background-blend-mode would be quite similar, but would be intended for background images (set using background or background-image) rather than actual image elements.

EDIT: The next section is becoming a bit irrelevant as browser support is growing.. Check this chart to see which browsers have support for this: http://caniuse.com/#feat=css-backgroundblendmode

If you've got the latest version of Chrome installed on your computer, you can actually see these styles in use by enabling some flags in your browser (just throw these into your address bar:)

chrome://flags/#enable-experimental-web-platform-features
chrome://flags/#enable-css-shaders

* note that the flags required for this might change at any time

Enable those bad boys and then check out this fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/cqzJ5/ (If the styles are properly enabled in your browser, the two images should be blended to make the scene look like it is underwater)

While this may not be the most legitimate answer at the current moment due to the almost entirely nonexistent support for this feature, we can hope that modern browsers will adopt these properties in the near future, giving us a really nice and easy solution to this problem.

Some extra reading resources on blending modes and the css properties:

Solution 2

Simple with a bit of SVG:

<svg width="200" height="200" viewBox="10 10 280 280">
    <filter id="multiply">
        <feBlend mode="multiply"/>
    </filter>
    <image id="kitten" x="0" y="0" width="300" height="300" xlink:href="http://placekitten.com/300" />
</svg>

and some CSS:

#kitten:hover {
    filter:url(#multiply);
}

The fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/7uCQQ/381/

Solution 3

Just for the record, this guy is developing a library to do so. I just came into it while doing a research, haven't tried yet.

https://github.com/Phrogz/context-blender

Solution 4

It is possible with a 24.png - if you know the trick.

In illustrator you can export the graphic as a 24.png, but this never seems to work like multiply.

I've found away.

get your multiplied graphic on its own
place a solid black 100% box behind it, and select both graphics
in the transparency window select 'Make Mask' and then 'Invert Mask'
export as a 24.png file

works just like a multiply when z-index(ed) on top of a picture.

Solution 5

No such ability is available. The only compositing options you get that are even close are:

lighter compositing mode on an HTML5 <canvas> (which is a+b not a*b, and has about the opposite effect to multiply)
min or subtract Compositor filters in IE only.

Neither are really practical.

In general you should not attempt to export Photoshop comps as layers, but render them down to a single opaque image. For rollovers you can make two images (one for normal state, one for hovered) and swap between them using the CSS :hover style to choose a different background image, or—better, as it requires no preloading and reduces HTTP requests—combine both images into one and use background-image/background-position to display the right part of that image in each state as a background image. (“CSS sprites”)

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51,239

Author by

Andrew Philpott

Updated on July 01, 2020

Comments

Andrew Philpott almost 4 years

Does anybody know of a good way to replicate Photoshop's multiply layer mode using either an image or CSS?

I'm working on a project that has thumbnails that get a color overlay when you hover over them, but the designer used a layer set to multiply and I can't figure out how to produce it on the web.

The best thing I've come up with is either using rgba or a transparent png, but even then it doesn't look right.
kilrizzy about 14 years

will probably just need two images with just a rollover state
Andrew Philpott about 14 years

Yeah, I thought about using sprites but that's not practical because the client is going to be publishing new entries and doesn't have access to Photoshop or anything like that.
Andrew Philpott about 14 years

Yeah, I didn't find any JavaScript solutions either. I ended up just using a CSS based overlay that's semi-transparent. It's not the exact same look, but it's the closest I can get since using image based rollovers won't really work in this case.
JohnK almost 12 years

Excellent tutorial. Excellent workaround: just adjust the transparency of the image so "multiply layer" is no longer an issue. (And just excellent general PS knowledge.) Thank you so much for posting!
Larry about 11 years

+1 Doesn't create the exact effect of a multiply, but gets very close to it! Thanks for this.
Harry Mustoe-Playfair almost 11 years

Thanks for this, this is exactly what I was looking for!
Andrew Philpott over 10 years

Any idea what browser support is like for this method?
jhanifen over 10 years

Would love to see an example of this on the web somewhere.