Creative Ways to Use CSS Blur Effect in Your Web Design

I’m super excited to talk about something that’s been on my mind lately: CSS blur effects. You know, I’ve seen trends come and go. But let me tell you, CSS blur effects have really changed the game.

I mean, who’d have thought that something so simple could have such a powerful impact on design, right?

You know, visual effects can really spice up a website’s appearance. With CSS blur effects, you can add that Gaussian touch to any element you’re working on.

These blur filters? They make your site design totally captivating, leaving your visitors with a lasting impression. So, let me just lay it out for you:

• Dive into the blur world: Get your hands on some top-notch CSS filter choices.
• Apply the magic: Use these awesome effects in your current project – you’ll see the difference!
• Expand your toolbox: Don’t stop there! Make them part of your front-end design arsenal for future use.

Give it a go, and I bet you’ll fall in love with the power of CSS blur effects!

Awesome CSS Blur Effects

Claymorphism Carousel

Material UI Slider

Neon WordPress Slider With Text

Optic Shop Showcase Slider

CSS Cool Directional Motion Blur

XYZt has done a great job in creating this HTML and CSS filter property.

Image Blur With a Soft Transition

This is a cross-browser blur that would work great on a website’s background image. It uses the SVG filter property for Firefox and CSS for Webkit. We owe this piece to Dudley Storey.

Blobby Background

Ted Kusio was able to create this blurred texture based on green and blue circles. The design is responsive and includes a texture on the top.

Subway-type Red Line

Carl Calderon brings this filter property based on a subway line from Stockholm.

Shifting Depth of Field

This option will look great on a solid background color. Thomas Trinca was able to imitate the color shifting of a camera lens. He uses keyframes and a cool CSS blur effect.

CSS3 filters on your background images

Check out bookcasey’s fine work. A blurry background image can highlight the headings or the site’s main content.

CSS Blur

A blurry background image right behind an attractive layout where to place the heading. The user aadamski91 created a stunning blur effect with the possibility to resize the window.

Simple Blur Effect on a white background

Scott Dunham describes his work as “messing around” with a filter property and throwing in some parallax effect.

iOS 7 Header

A CSS filter blur for every browser like in iOS7. A fine work by Rik Schennink.

CSS3 filter animation

This type of blurred effect is very hard to achieve. Hence, developers can feel frustrated and irritated when trying to implement such a feature. However, this changed in 2018 as Dorian Nowak found this awesome solution. Implement this on a website and make your heading look amazing.

Backdrop filter

Ycw brings an easy solution for an fx without a backdrop-filter.

Pure CSS Blur with a Hover Effect

Mathew Craig wanted to see if he could apply a blur filter without affecting the overlay. He managed to do it by playing around with CSS filter blur options.

Blur effect with filter fallback and backdrop-filter

If you need to add a scroll feature, bind the event to backdrop. Follow Rplus’s advice to create this stunning blur effect.

Simple Blur

It’s amazing what you can achieve with a CSS filter. Here is one example by Michael Tempest. The overlay that you see on top is based on the same image. It has an SVG base64 mask of the original photo. With this, the developer creates a focused view. Such an approach is very useful if you want the viewer to focus on a particular element.

Blurring Out

A backdrop filter is a great tool for inserting a blurry background image. It’s great for blurring the background of a pop-up off-canvas menu. SitePoint has done a great job.

CSS Blur image cross browser

A filter for Firefox with a cross-browser effect. The author is Yudo.

I ♥ BLUR

Visitors usually like little surprises. Sometimes, designers can spread cool blur effect options across the page to surprise the user and create a superb experience for them. Click this button and you’ll see an original approach that provides visual feedback.

Bulanıklık efekti

Ayhan ALTINOK created this cool effect that will surely inspire you.

SVG vs CSS

Jonas Sandstedt shows you the difference between a CSS option and an SVG example.

Intrinsic Ratio Blur

Apply a CSS filter blur to achieve this interesting effect on your background image. Congratulations to Charlotte Dann for a fantastic job.

Blurred Hover Effect – No jittering

Check out this CSS blurry background image by Alexander Flenniken.

CSS Effect

Jay Holtslander brings this cool CSS blurred image.

Blurry impressive Background

There’s nothing like an iOS background image to showcase these blurred elements.

CSS blur effect

This effect’s author is hchiam

Pure motion

Here is how to use an element in motion. Karlo Videk created this animation based on one single element.

Frosted Glass Effect for a Form

This example by Usama Tahir will make your forms look impressive.

CSS Blur Effect

Shahid Khan brings us this colorful screen blend.

Canva’s blur effect

Sam Woolerton is the author of this cool effect from the source code.

CSS – Background with Blur

A simple image with a stylish blurred background. The author is Tiago Dias.

Hover effect

By learning CSS you can put together functional and stunning effects. Designs that are based on CSS are lighter than the ones made on graphics.

CSS blur effect with button overlay

A blurred background image with a button.

Text Over Any Background

Chris Smith provides both contrast and brightness in this example. He lowered the contrast by 70% so that the viewer could read the title easily.

CSS Blur Effect

In this case, the author is vaibhav-lone.

Blurred text with only CSS only

Adam Ruf decided to explore new ways of applying a CSS blur effect. In this case, the text shadow covers only some parts of the paragraph. You can achieve a backdrop filter on the image if you use 100% width and height.

CSS Blur Effect

Three blur effects in a row on images.

Blur with CSS & SVG

Vincent De Oliveira created this progressive blur.

CSS Blur Effect Test

Marius brings us this blurry background with an impressive color selection.

In/out of focus

Are you looking for some text effects? Jonny Scholes brings an example that’s easy to implement, even for beginners. These examples are excellent for acquiring experience fast.

Focus Circle

Andy created this unique effect.

Lightbox with zoom & blur effect

A workaround for vertical videos filling the remaining space with their blurred versions.

Blur Buttons

Natalie Frecka combined more blur than you can imagine with a hovering effect.

CSS blur effect hover card

In this case, the author is Ankit Srivastava

Draggable blur mask over image

A job well done by marcruecker.

CSS blur effect

A nice effect over a long text.

Bokeh Pattern

Owlypixel is the author of this blur which reminds us of the Bokeh-style.

Css blur effect

Gabriel Pizarro Correa did a neat job with this effect.

A blurred overlay

Any Gaussian function or CSS blur effect looks better if the designer inserts his/her personal touch. Glenn Reyes manages to give an artistic touch that looks great on Internet Explorer or any other browser.

CSS Blur Effect

Maria placed the word “love” on a red background.

CSS Filters

Sam Jarvis uses the blur smartly on two circles with overlapped sections.

CSS blur effect

Check out the work of ManuTheCode.

Loading Animation CSS

You can achieve an effect like this using only CSS.

Text blurring animation

Andrew Burton uses tex shadow and CSS3 animations to achieve this cool effect.

Pure CSS Text Blur

If you’re looking for a solution that’s easy and that has a short learning curve, check out this example.

Rollover CSSS Blur Filter Image Gallery

Make your background beautiful with an effect like this. It’s triggered by the mouse movements which provides an awesome user experience.

FAQ on CSS blur effects

What is a CSS blur effect?

The CSS blur effect is a visual alteration applied to an element that makes it appear out of focus or blurry. It’s commonly achieved using the blur() function within the filter property. This effect can be applied to text, images, or other elements to create a sense of depth, draw attention to specific content, or as a part of your design aesthetic.

How do I apply a blur effect to an image?

To apply a blur effect to an image, you’ll want to use the filter property along with the blur() function in your CSS. For example:

img {
  filter: blur(5px);
}

This code will apply a 5-pixel blur to all images on your webpage.

Can I create a hover effect with a blur?

Absolutely! You can create a hover effect with a blur by using the :hover pseudo-class in your CSS. Here’s an example:

img {
  transition: filter 0.3s ease-in-out;
}

img:hover {
  filter: blur(5px);
}

In this example, the image will become blurry when the user hovers over it, with a smooth transition.

Can I apply a blur effect to text?

Yes, you can apply a blur effect to text using the filter property and the blur() function, just like with images. Here’s an example:

p {
  filter: blur(2px);
}

This code will apply a 2-pixel blur to all paragraphs on your webpage.

How do I create a frosted glass effect using CSS blur?

To create a frosted glass effect using CSS blur, you’ll need to create a semi-transparent background and apply a blur effect to the content beneath it. You can achieve this using a combination of backdrop-filter, background-color, and CSS positioning. Here’s an example:

.frosted-glass {
  backdrop-filter: blur(10px);
  background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);
  /* Additional styles for positioning and sizing go here */
}

Can I animate the blur effect?

Yes, you can animate the blur effect using CSS animations or transitions. For example, here’s how you can create a simple animation that gradually increases the blur:

@keyframes blur-animation {
  from {
    filter: blur(0);
  }
  to {
    filter: blur(5px);
  }
}

.element {
  animation: blur-animation 2s infinite;
}

How do I create a depth of field effect with CSS blur?

To create a depth of field effect with CSS blur, you can apply different levels of blur to elements positioned at various “depths” in your design. By giving the appearance that some elements are closer or further away, you can create a sense of depth. For example, you could have a foreground element with no blur, a midground element with a slight blur, and a background element with a stronger blur.

Are there performance considerations when using CSS blur?

Using CSS blur can impact the performance of your webpage, particularly on slower devices or browsers with limited support for hardware acceleration. Applying blur effects to large images or multiple elements can cause your page to load slowly or become unresponsive. To minimize performance issues, use blur effects sparingly and consider using alternative techniques, like pre-blurred images, for static content.

Can I use CSS blur with SVG elements?

Yes, you can apply CSS blur effects to SVG elements using the filter property, just like with HTML elements. However, you’ll need to ensure that the filter

property is applied within the SVG’s <style> element or in an external CSS file, rather than inline on the SVG element itself. Here’s an example:

<svg width="200" height="200">
  <style>
    circle {
      filter: blur(3px);
    }
  </style>
  <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="50" fill="red" />
</svg>

In this example, a 3-pixel blur is applied to the red circle within the SVG.

Are there browser compatibility issues with CSS blur?

While most modern browsers support the filter property and the blur() function, there may be compatibility issues with older browsers, such as Internet Explorer. It’s essential to test your design across different browsers and consider using feature detection or fallback styles for browsers that don’t support CSS blur. You can use tools like Can I use (caniuse.com) to check browser support for specific CSS features, including the filter property.

Final Thoughts on Cool CSS Blur Effect Options

There are lots of excellent CSS features and the backdrop filter is one of the best ones. If you use this in combination with CSS animation, you can give your background image a unique touch.

Every web designer should experiment with CSS blur effect options and explore the wide range of possibilities that this tool offers.

If you liked this article about CSS blur effects, you should check out this article about CSS animation libraries.

There are also similar articles discussing cool CSS buttons, CSS shadow effects, CSS blockquotes, and CSS charts.

And let’s not forget about articles on CSS headers, CSS parallax effects, CSS animations on scroll, and CSS page transitions.