How to color specific word in a container using CSS

Background

This is a Vanilla JavaScript solution because it ain't possible with CSS. Not joking, read the specification. You can match on an element, the name of an attribute in the element, and the value of a named attribute in an element. I don't see anything for matching content within an element though.

Introduction

Here's my shot at it. I am sure there is a sleeker way, but this is the gist of how it would start off as. Also, since there are a finite number of colors that you will want to colorify, it's nice to use a bunch of if statements like I have.

A better technique of course would be to do it more programmatically by building a color dictionary and hence make the code organized. But this works, and it's Vanilla JS. Apparently, I didn't have expertise in Regex, so I am sure a few lines are unnecessary.

Features

• Works for multiple color occurrences
• Works for multiple colors as visible

http://jsfiddle.net/TB62H/5/

var text = document.getElementById("content");
var str = text.innerHTML,
    reg = /red|blue|green|orange/ig; //g is to replace all occurances

//fixing a bit
var toStr = String(reg);
var color = (toStr.replace('\/g', '|')).substring(1);

//split it baby
var colors = color.split("|");

if (colors.indexOf("red") > -1) {
    str = str.replace(/red/g, '<span style="color:red;">red</span>');
}

if (colors.indexOf("blue") > -1) {
    str = str.replace(/blue/g, '<span style="color:blue;">blue</span>');
}

if (colors.indexOf("green") > -1) {
    str = str.replace(/green/g, '<span style="color:green;">green</span>');
}

if (colors.indexOf("orange") > -1) {
    str = str.replace(/orange/g, '<span style="color:orange;">orange</span>');
}


document.getElementById("updated").innerHTML = str;

Results

Sadly CSS does not have any selector right now to achieve what you need. You have to use JavaScript or Server Side Scripting to achieve what you want.

Not to prove a point, but to answer your question - this is possible in CSS without JS: Example

In short: we set a black background color for text color and a red background image for the specific red string. We remove the original text fill using -webkit-text-fill-color. The background is clipped to the text outline using -webkit-background-clip: text; and the red image is sized and positioned over whatever text string we want to color.

Please note: I would never recommend using this for any live website. This works in webkit only as it's based on non-standard wekbit-specific CSS rules. And the color is not really bound to the colored text string - it's completely static.

Edit: Here's the CSS:

#container {
    -webkit-text-fill-color: transparent;
    -webkit-background-clip: text;
    background-size: 1.5em 1em;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-position: 3.4em 0;
    background-color: #000;
    background-image: url(data:image/jpeg;base64,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);
}