Everything About mask-composite in CSS

css mask composite guide
10 November 2024

Beautiful and Progressive Masking with mask-composite

Hello dear friend! Today we want to talk about one of the interesting and useful features in CSS called mask-composite. This feature is used to compose graphic masks and allows you to create more complex overlays. If you haven't worked with masking properties before, don't worry. We will thoroughly explore its functionality together.

Suppose you have created two or more different masks and intend to combine them in a way that parts of the image or underlying elements become visible or hidden. Here, the mask-composite property comes into play and allows you to control how these masks interact with several values such as add, subtract, and intersect.

Why is mask-composite important? Because in web design, beautiful visual overlays can enhance user experience and simultaneously maintain a suitable balance between performance and aesthetics, giving your design a special touch. By using mask-composite, you will be able to convey your creativity to a new surface and create unique designs.

To work with mask-composite, you first need to understand what this property can do. Generally, mask allows you to define layers of masks for CSS elements, and mask-composite specifies how these layers should interact with each other.

Let’s consider a simple example. Suppose you have two masks: one circular and the other rectangular. By using mask-composite, you can determine how these two shapes should be combined to create a new and unique piece.


.element {
    mask-image: url(circle-mask.png), url(rect-mask.png);
    mask-composite: add;
}

Line-by-Line Code Explanation

.element: This CSS class applies to a specific element.
mask-image: url(circle-mask.png), url(rect-mask.png);: Two different masks for the element are defined, one circular and the other rectangular.
mask-composite: add;: This line specifies how these two masks should be combined, here using the add method to create an overlay effect.

FAQ

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In what cases is the mask-composite property used?

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How can I combine two masks using mask-composite?

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Does mask-composite affect site performance?