How to apply inverse text mask with CSS

I've managed to achieve this with a couple of different methods. See my answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/32476482/2315496

See Below:

There are three ways to what you're looking for in HTML/CSS/JavaScript, some a little more hacky than others.

  1. Use <canvas> to draw your shape and type, and set ctx.globalCompositeOperation="xor";where ctx is your canvas context.

var c=document.getElementById('myCanvas');
var ctx=c.getContext('2d');
ctx.font = "bold 36px Proxima Nova";
ctx.fillStyle='blue';
ctx.fillText("MORE",100,87);
ctx.globalCompositeOperation='xor';
ctx.beginPath();
ctx.fillStyle='white';
ctx.arc(150,75,75,0,2*Math.PI);
ctx.fill();
body{
  background: -webkit-radial-gradient(top left,rgb(23, 39, 34) 4%,rgb(56, 99, 99) 37%,rgb(22, 27, 15) 73%,rgb(22, 27, 14) 93%,#232323 100%);
  width:100%;
  height:100%;
}

html{
  height:100%
}
<canvas id='myCanvas'></canvas>
  1. Use mix-blend-mode: screen and set the colour of the text to black.

.blend-mode {
  background:white;
  border-radius:100%;
  width:150px;
  height:150px;
  line-height:155px;
  float:left;
  margin:20px;
  font-family: "Proxima Nova", Hevetica, sans-serif;
  font-weight:bold;
  color:black;
  text-align:center;
  vertical-align:middle;
  font-size:36px;
  mix-blend-mode: screen;
}

body{
  background: -webkit-radial-gradient(top left,rgb(23, 39, 34) 4%,rgb(56, 99, 99) 37%,rgb(22, 27, 15) 73%,rgb(22, 27, 14) 93%,#232323 100%);
  width:100%;
  height:100%;
}

html{
  height:100%;
}
<div class="blend-mode">MORE</div>
  1. Use -webkit-text-fill-color:transparent and -webkit-background-clip:text to reveal a copy of the background behind it. This one requires some alignment of the background copy to match the 'original' background.

.wrap{
  margin:20px;
  float:left;
  position:relative;
}

.background {
  width: 150px;
  height: 150px;
  border-radius: 100%;
  background: white;
  position:absolute;
  top:0;
  left:0;
  z-index:4;
  
}

.text {
  position:absolute;
  top: 25px;
  left: 25px;
  z-index:5;
  background: -webkit-radial-gradient(top left, rgb(23, 39, 34) 4%, rgb(56, 99, 99) 37%, rgb(22, 27, 15) 73%, rgb(22, 27, 14) 93%, #232323 100%);
  font-family: Proxima Nova, Helvetica, sans-serif;
  font-weight:bold;
  line-height:100px;
  font-size: 36px;
  color: #666;
  -webkit-background-clip: text;
  -webkit-text-fill-color: transparent;
}

body{
  background: -webkit-radial-gradient(top left,rgb(23, 39, 34) 4%,rgb(56, 99, 99) 37%,rgb(22, 27, 15) 73%,rgb(22, 27, 14) 93%,#232323 100%);
  width:100%;
  height:100%;
}

html{
  height:100%;
}
<div class="wrap">
  <div class="background"></div>
  <div class="text">MORE</div>
</div>

None of these are likely to work that well cross browser, and I haven't tested them!


I don't think CSS can do that. But you can hack it together using three different nested elements:

  • The outermost element contains the background-image
  • The middle element contains the middle image
  • The inner element contains the text, and has the same background image as the outermost element, masked with background-clip:text; like on your first example.

This works, but is a little cumbersome, as you'll have to compensate the masks background-position to achieve the desired effect. Here is an example: http://jsfiddle.net/dzkTE/.


* { margin: 0; padding: 0 }

header {
    overflow: hidden;
    height: 100vh;
    background: url(https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/s.cdpn.io/2017/17_04_art_bw_butterfly_bg.jpg) 50%/ cover
}

h2 {
    color: white;
    mix-blend-mode: difference;
    font: 900 35vmin/35vh cookie, cursive;
    text-align: center
}
<header>
    <h2 contentEditable role='textbox' aria-multiline='true'>And stay alive...</h2>
</header>

Tags:

Html

Css

Mask

Clipping

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