How can I grey out page except for one element?
Can do it using css box-shadow.
.box{display:inline-block; width:100px; height:100px; margin-top:50px; text-align:center; padding-top:2em}
.box.selected{
box-shadow: 0 0 0 99999px rgba(0, 0, 0, .5);
}<div class="box">Box 1</div>
<div class="box">Box 2</div>
<div class="box selected">Box 3</div>
<div class="box">Box 4</div>Alternate solution using 4 overlay elements
Overlays are positioned based on highlighted element position and dimensions.
The top and bottom overlays are 100% width. The top one just needs it's height set to value of top offset of highlighted element. Bottom one gets it's top set to bottom of the element.
Right and left are same height as highlighted element and reach to each edge of page to fill holes between the top and bottom overlays
var $el = $('.box.selected'),
$oLay = $('.overlay'),
elPos = $el.offset(),// coordinates of element within document
elH = $el.height(),
elW = $el.width();
$oLay.filter('.top').height(elPos.top);
$oLay.filter('.left').css({
top: elPos.top,
height: elH,
width: elPos.left
});
$oLay.filter('.right').css({
top: elPos.top,
height: elH,
left: elPos.left + elW
});
$oLay.filter('.bottom').css({
top: elPos.top + elH
});.box {
display: inline-block;
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
margin-top: 50px;
text-align: center;
padding-top: 2em
}
.overlay {
position: absolute;
background: rgba(0, 0, 0, .5);
z-index: 100
}
.overlay.top {
top: 0;
left: 0;
width: 100%
}
.overlay.left {
left: 0
}
.overlay.right {
right: 0
}
.overlay.bottom {
width: 100%;
left: 0;
bottom: 0
}<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div class="box">Box 1</div>
<div class="box">Box 2</div>
<div class="box selected">Box 3</div>
<div class="box">Box 4</div>
<div class="overlay top"></div>
<div class="overlay left"></div>
<div class="overlay right"></div>
<div class="overlay bottom"></div>You could put a second overlay inside <a class="item-link" href="www.example.com" alt="Reading List">. So:
<a class="item-link" href="www.example.com">
<div class="overlay"></div>
…
</a>
And in the CSS:
.item-link {
position: relative
}