Given a transparent PNG displaying a simple shape in white, is it possible to somehow change the color of this through CSS? Some kind of overlay or what not?
You can use filters with -webkit-filter
and filter
:
Filters are relatively new to browsers but supported in over 90% of browsers according to the following CanIUse table: https://caniuse.com/#feat=css-filters
You can change an image to grayscale, sepia and lot more (look at the example).
So you can now change the color of a PNG file with filters.
body {
background-color:#03030a;
min-width: 800px;
min-height: 400px
}
img {
width:20%;
float:left;
margin:0;
}
/*Filter styles*/
.saturate { filter: saturate(3); }
.grayscale { filter: grayscale(100%); }
.contrast { filter: contrast(160%); }
.brightness { filter: brightness(0.25); }
.blur { filter: blur(3px); }
.invert { filter: invert(100%); }
.sepia { filter: sepia(100%); }
.huerotate { filter: hue-rotate(180deg); }
.rss.opacity { filter: opacity(50%); }
<!--- img src http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/Mona_Lisa%2C_by_Leonardo_da_Vinci%2C_from_C2RMF_retouched.jpg/500px-Mona_Lisa%2C_by_Leonardo_da_Vinci%2C_from_C2RMF_retouched.jpg -->
<img alt="Mona Lisa" src="https://images.pexels.com/photos/40997/mona-lisa-leonardo-da-vinci-la-gioconda-oil-painting-40997.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&dpr=3&h=750&w=1260" title="original">
<img alt="Mona Lisa" src="https://images.pexels.com/photos/40997/mona-lisa-leonardo-da-vinci-la-gioconda-oil-painting-40997.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&dpr=3&h=750&w=1260" title="saturate" class="saturate">
<img alt="Mona Lisa" src="https://images.pexels.com/photos/40997/mona-lisa-leonardo-da-vinci-la-gioconda-oil-painting-40997.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&dpr=3&h=750&w=1260" title="grayscale" class="grayscale">
<img alt="Mona Lisa" src="https://images.pexels.com/photos/40997/mona-lisa-leonardo-da-vinci-la-gioconda-oil-painting-40997.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&dpr=3&h=750&w=1260" title="contrast" class="contrast">
<img alt="Mona Lisa" src="https://images.pexels.com/photos/40997/mona-lisa-leonardo-da-vinci-la-gioconda-oil-painting-40997.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&dpr=3&h=750&w=1260" title="brightness" class="brightness">
<img alt="Mona Lisa" src="https://images.pexels.com/photos/40997/mona-lisa-leonardo-da-vinci-la-gioconda-oil-painting-40997.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&dpr=3&h=750&w=1260" title="blur" class="blur">
<img alt="Mona Lisa" src="https://images.pexels.com/photos/40997/mona-lisa-leonardo-da-vinci-la-gioconda-oil-painting-40997.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&dpr=3&h=750&w=1260" title="invert" class="invert">
<img alt="Mona Lisa" src="https://images.pexels.com/photos/40997/mona-lisa-leonardo-da-vinci-la-gioconda-oil-painting-40997.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&dpr=3&h=750&w=1260" title="sepia" class="sepia">
<img alt="Mona Lisa" src="https://images.pexels.com/photos/40997/mona-lisa-leonardo-da-vinci-la-gioconda-oil-painting-40997.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&dpr=3&h=750&w=1260" title="huerotate" class="huerotate">
<img alt="Mona Lisa" src="https://images.pexels.com/photos/40997/mona-lisa-leonardo-da-vinci-la-gioconda-oil-painting-40997.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&dpr=3&h=750&w=1260" title="opacity" class="rss opacity">
So short answer is that there isn't any general solution for the majority of browsers.
But will huerotate or saturate actually do anthing to a white image?
2016 Update: this now works in almost all browsers except IE: caniuse.com/#feat=css-filters
@datatype_void Sometimes you don't control the starting image yourself. So, it seems that you agree that my point is valid, you can't get to any color starting from black or white. Oh, and I played for way more than 5 minutes to reach this conclusion.
also specify that you can do stuff like this :
.gifcorrect{ filter: invert(28%) sepia(100%) hue-rotate(-180deg) saturate(3); }
which means you CAN go from black & transparent or grayscale to color and it works even on animated gifs