How to make mix-blend-mode round to black or white only

Riccardo Mario Battiato — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 12:42:43 +0000

One of the coolest CSS effects I know, used by many websites since when it started being supported by modern browsers, is the mix-blend-mode: difference property. It's generally used on elements of sticky headers such as logos and text, since it creates a nice contrasting visual effect with the background below it as the user scrolls.

However, one of the issues developers experience the most with the property is that you can't really control the colors that the difference or exclusion between the sticky elements and the background will produce. Specifically, how to make it so that mix-blend-mode will display only black or white colors.

Today we'll see a pure CSS solution to this known issue that uses a combination of backdrop and normal filters. Note: the solution is currently only supported by Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Edge, etc.).

CSS filters in action

The key to the solution is simple: the same element which blends with the background, must set a grayscale and contrast filter. The code responsible for the effect shown in the Pen above is as simple as the following:

.blending-element {
  mix-blend-mode: difference;
  backdrop-filter: grayscale(1) contrast(100); // be careful: the order matters!
  background-color: black;
}

Setting a background color isn't always required, but remember that in order for mix-blend-mode to work, both the blending element and the background must have an actual color. If your body looks white but is really transparent, there will be no colors to blend.

Once mix-blend-mode is set, you'll have the typical inverted-colors look: unless you have a perfectly black or white background, the blending element may show unwanted colors. This is where CSS filters come into action: grayscale will force any color into a tint of black or white, while setting a really high contrast value will "round" the grayscale tints to pure black or white.

You may have noticed that we're using a backdrop-filter rather than a normal one. There are two reasons for this:

First, it's becauase moving the grayscale(1) parameter to a normal, non-backdrop filter simply won't work. The solution is slightly hacky, and it needs for the backdrop to filter its colors to grayscale.
The contrast(/* really high value here */) on direct elements makes them look way worse. It's better to rely on the backdrop and let the mix-blend-mode do its job on the actual element anyway.

Relying on backdrop-filter has one issue: even if you have a transparent background behind your blending element, the rectangle behind it will look black or white too. This is fine for rectangular elements such as the simple scroller inside the CodePen example, but not for complex shapes such as the planet logo from the Noun Project shown in the same example.

What about complex shapes?

There's another really useful CSS property that will solve our problem: clip-path. Thanks to it, we're able to clip our visual page elements to simple shapes, custom polygons and custom SVG paths. The latter is the most flexible approach and the one I like the most.

Get your complex shape and/or text as SVG code. This could be an external file or an inline SVG such as in the example below.
Move the paths and other elements inside a <clipPath> definition element, as done below.
Set an id="..." for the <clipPath> element: the CSS code will need to reach it.

You should get something like this:

  <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1" viewBox="-5.0 -10.0 110.0 135.0">
    <defs>
      <clipPath id="complex-shape">
        <path d="m36.438 79.031c-2 1.5-3.9375 2.8438-5.75 4.0312-2.6289-1.5703-5.0547-3.4609-7.2188-5.625-9.4805-9.4805-13.18-23.293-9.7109-36.242 3.4688-12.949 13.582-23.062 26.531-26.531 12.949-3.4688 26.762 0.23047 36.242 9.7109 2.1719 2.1719 4.0625 4.6055 5.625 7.25-1.2188 1.8125-2.5312 3.7188-4.0312 5.7188-5.9023 7.9023-12.391 15.348-19.406 22.281-6.9336 7.0156-14.379 13.504-22.281 19.406zm26.625-15.062c-6.1797 6.207-12.723 12.039-19.594 17.469-2.125 1.6875-4.2188 3.25-6.2812 4.6875 8.9844 3.2617 18.875 2.9688 27.652-0.82031 8.7734-3.7891 15.77-10.785 19.559-19.562 3.7891-8.7734 4.082-18.664 0.82031-27.648-1.4688 2.0625-3.0312 4.1562-4.6562 6.25-5.4414 6.8828-11.285 13.434-17.5 19.625zm-38.25 22.719c-8.1875 4.6562-13.625 5.9062-15.062 4.4688s-0.1875-6.8438 4.4688-15.031c-1.3711-1.9453-2.5703-4.0078-3.5938-6.1562-6.9688 11.219-9.9062 20.844-5.2188 25.531 1.6641 1.5742 3.8984 2.3984 6.1875 2.2812 5.0938 0 11.906-2.8438 19.375-7.4688 2.0312-1.25 4.0938-2.6562 6.2188-4.1875-2.2695-0.78906-4.4453-1.8164-6.5-3.0625-2.0938 1.375-4.0625 2.5938-5.875 3.625zm69.781-80.375c-4.0938-4.0938-12.125-2.6562-23.844 4.25-0.53125 0.3125-1.0938 0.65625-1.625 1 2.1172 1.0117 4.1484 2.2031 6.0625 3.5625 3.9414-2.6719 8.4609-4.3672 13.188-4.9375 0.66016-0.058594 1.3203 0.10547 1.875 0.46875 1.4375 1.4375 0.1875 6.875-4.4688 15.062-1.0312 1.8438-2.25 3.8125-3.625 5.9062 1.2461 2.043 2.2734 4.2109 3.0625 6.4688 1.5-2.125 2.9062-4.2188 4.1562-6.25 6.9688-11.219 9.9062-20.844 5.2188-25.531z" />
        <text x="0.0" y="117.5" font-size="5.0" font-weight="bold" font-family="Arbeit Regular, Helvetica, Arial-Unicode, Arial, Sans-serif" fill="#000000">Created
          by Ricons</text>
        <text x="0.0" y="122.5" font-size="5.0" font-weight="bold" font-family="Arbeit Regular, Helvetica, Arial-Unicode, Arial, Sans-serif" fill="#000000">from
          Noun Project</text>
      </clipPath>
    </defs>
  </svg>

Afterwards, you need to prepare a <div /> or other element to be the one that will be clipped by your custom path. Personally, I like to reuse my SVG as an inline element in the page, both for providing the <clipPath> definition and for providing a visual element to clip.

If you use an empty element or an SVG which doesn't display actual elements by itself (as in my example), remember to specify a width or height you're about to clip:

.complex-shape {
  width: 6.875rem; // Warning: this has to be really precise!
}

Once the element is in page and has some dimensions, set the clip-path property so that it references your SVG definition:

.complex-shape {
  width: 6.875rem;
  clip-path: url(#clipping-shape);
}

Now you can make your black and white backdrop appear, and it will have the same shape or text from your SVG:

.complex-shape {
  width: 6.875rem;
  clip-path: url(#clipping-shape);
  mix-blend-mode: difference;
  backdrop-filter: grayscale(1) contrast(100); // be careful: the order matters!
}

Feel free to be creative with clip-path — there are many ways to use it, and many other ways to provide a valid SVG <clipPath> definition.

Let me know if you have any improvements to this solution or find even easier ways to accomplish the effect!

DEV Community: Riccardo Mario Battiato

How to make mix-blend-mode round to black or white only

CSS filters in action

What about complex shapes?