Really Cool CSS Image Effects You Can Use Too (53 Examples)

Website designers used to rely solely on Photoshop to style their images. Now, CSS image effects are popular design assets for websites and browsers.

Website designers used to rely solely on Photoshop to style their images. Now, CSS image effects are popular design assets for websites and browsers.

An image is an important web design element. It tells the site’s story and purpose and motivates visitors to explore the site’s content.

Whether you are building a personal portfolio or an eCommerce website for a client, CSS image effects can be used to style your images.

CSS Image Effects Templates

There are hundreds of CSS image effect (filter property) examples online but it will take you quite a while to filter them all and pick the ones that are actually useful.

This article is a list of the top 53 CSS image effects. Click the header links to view the code and media queries for each template.

Optic Shop Showcase Slider

Solar System Showcase Slider

Deep Dive Ocean Water Effect

Photographer & Videographer Slider

Paintbrush Effect Collection

Classic Cars Before After Hero

CSS Mix Blend Mode Templates

Particle Effect One Slider

A Pen by Porecelanosa

Author: Porcelanosa

Made with: HTML, CSS

This option supports Mix-blend mode with a centered background image.

[CSS] anime effect

Author: Rplus

Made with: CSS, HTML

Here is a CSS anime with image hover effects and Mix-blend-mode.

Image Mosaic Effect With CSS Grids and Blend Modes

Author: Dudley Storey

Made with: HTML,SCSS

This filter effect is separated into various image boxes against a white background. This combination of image boxes creates the perfect max-width layout for the site’s UI.

Pen by Addison Staples

Author: Addison Staples

Made with: HTML, CSS

This example supports Mix-Blend mode with the background position of the image centered.

Templates With A Centered Background Position

A Pen by Arien

Author: Arien

Made with: HTML, CSS

Arien’s template is a CSS infrared image effect with a centered background image.

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One background for multiple divs

Author: Ivan Bogachev

Made with: HTML (Pug), CSS (Less)

This fancy image effect for your browser or website, features a demo image with three layers.

A Pen by Saudad Marketing

Author: Saudad Marketing

Made with: CSS, HTML

This example uses pseudo-elements and a mirror effect.

Flexible multi-panel background

Author: Ana Tudor

Made with: HTML (Pug), CSS (SCSS)

Here is a beautiful image animation with a centered background-position.

A Pen by Saudad Marketing

Author:  Saudad Marketing

Made with: HTML, CSS

This option features a fun photo-border effect. The border images are generated from the parent element in the middle. The code consists of a background size of 60% and 20% respectively with a centered background-position.

A Pen by Davy Peter Braun

Author: Davy Peter Braun

Made with: HTML, CSS

This is Davy Braun’s image with a hallucination effect. Its offset and height values are 5 px and 100 vh respectively.

colored pencil effect on image pure css

Author: erman enginler

Made with: CSS, HTML

Here is a design with a colored pencil effect and a centered background position.

A Pen by Julio Bonjoch

Author:  Julio Bonjoch

Made with: HTML

This colorful example works great on modern browsers like Google, Firefox, and Internet Explorer.

2.5D

Author: Matt Drew

Made with: CSS, HTML

The 2.5D option contains far-field effects that make pictures slide slowly. It has a box shadow but does not activate with image hover effects. 2.5 is great for old memories and old-age pictures.

hallucination-effect

Author: vr201

Made with: HTML, CSS

A beautiful hallucination effect with a centered background image.

Night-Vision Image Effect Templates

A Pen by tr13ze

Author: tr13ze

Made with: HTML, CSS

With the night vision and blur effect, your image will have a unique look. There are links within the code to access the stock image galleries

A Pen by Hoo Ja Oh

Creator: Hoo Ja Oh

Made with: CSS, HTML

This is a template with a night vision background color effect. The background-position of the image is centered with the background image code reflecting ‘$url’.

A Pen by Rick Metzger

Author: Rick Metzger

Made with: HTML, CSS

Here is a $url night vision effect with a centered background-position.

Pencil And Watercolor Effect Templates

A Pen by ha quang thien

Author: Ha Quang Thien

Made with: CSS, HTML

This CSS image features a pencil effect filter.

A Pen by Woody

Author: Woody

Made with: HTML, CSS

This example features the watercolor effect. The image code can be altered in many ways, including the:

  1. Background size
  2. Blur value
  3. Background position
  4. Brightness etc.

A Pen by Shaman Tito

Author: Shaman Tito

Made with: HTML, CSS

This example supports the Polaroid image effect.

Templates With Image Hover Effects

3D perspective mouse hover image

Author: Eriksen

Made with: HTML, CSS

The 3D Perspective Mouse Hover Image effect activates when the user hovers over the photo.

CSS Glitch Image Effect

Author: Nathan Dickison

Made with: HTML, CSS

In this example, the demo picture has clear details but activates with a glitch effect when hovered. 

CSS Clip-Path Hover Effect

Author: Ryan Mulligan

Made with: HTML, CSS

Here is an animated CSS clip-path template that activates with the hover effect.

Glitch Effect on Hover

Author: Ryan Yu

Made with: HTML, SCSS

This design features a CSS clip-path glitch effect without JavaScript.

Kitties! (hover images)

Creator: Ana Tudor

Made with: CSS, HTML

This option activates with a hover effect but there is no edge support for the pentagons. It looks great because of the clip-path and the box-shadow feature around the pentagons.

Css Image Hover Effects

Author: Yaroslavw

Made with: CSS, HTML

For this option, photos are displayed within a content box. When the user hovers over the images, they slide from right to left to reveal text.

Grid Image Effect

Author: Jesús Gracia

Made with: HTML, CSS

An amazing grid effect that activates with the CSS image-hover effect.

Zoom iMage with scale

Author: Omar Dsoky

Made with: CSS, HTML

When the user hovers over the picture, the text disappears to display the full image.

When Life Gives You Lemons

Author: Collin Smith

Made with: CSS, HTML

In this template image hover, effects can be used for links to categories or posts. The container is skewed and the background image is kept straight.

CPC · Image hover · 01

Author: Noah Delagardelle

Made with: HTML, CSS

This design activates with the CSS image hover effect.

Colored Overlay Using “box-shadow”.

Creator: Preethi

Made with: HTML, CSS

This example has a colored overlay effect with a box-shadow for images.

Perspective Tilty Images

Author: Henry Desroches

Made with: HTML, CSS

This template t uses transform: matrix3d() in the CSS code. The image animation activates when hovered over.

Pure CSS Thumbnail Hover Effect

Author: Aysha anggraini

Made with: HTML, CSS

Here’s a jQuery option that features 6 fallback images that activate with the hover effect. You can adjust the code or use this option to display multiple photos at once. Click the header link to view tutorials for these thumbnail themes.

Image Hover – CSS (filters & transitions) – CodePen Challenge

Author: Vlad Racoare

Made with: HTML, CSS

This image effect activates when hovered. It uses elements like:

  • Transforms
  • Filters
  • Positioning
  • And Pseudo-elements

Water Your Cat

Author: Ana Tudor

Made with: HTML, SCSS

This is a beautiful design for websites. Above the center picture, there is a checkbox to the left of the demo text (water your cat so it grows). When the user clicks into it, the center image transforms. This option also has an image hover function that activates on the checkbox.

Simple Pulsing Image Hover Effect

Author: Alex Raven

Made with: CSS, HTML

When site visitors hover the cursor over an image, the effect is activated with a blurry gray square at the center of the image box.

Image revealing from text on hover

Author: Web-tiki

Made with: HTML, CSS

Here is a responsive thumbnail image for any browser or web design project. You can include text that inspires the user to hover over the image box. Once the viewer points the cursor at the image, the text disappears and transitions into the image.

3D image hover CSS

Author: Shounak Ghosh

Made with: HTML, CSS

A beautiful image animation effect that activates when hovered.

CSS Image Templates With Multiple Effects

Image with reflection and proximity effect on hover

Author: Tiago Alexandre Lopes

Made with: HTML, CSS

This template features the image with reflection and image hover effects.

Image Effects

Author: Dominik Suter

Made with: HTML, CSS

As the user scrolls, images display from blurry to clear with crisp colors. In addition, there is an effect that can make your images fade away because of no colors.

CSS Gradient Hover Effect

Author: Jon Daiello

Made with: HTML, SCSS

A CSS template that utilizes mix-blend-mode and image hover effects.

Images Hover Animations

Author: Stas Melnikov

Made with: HTML, CSS

This option features a variety of fallback animations and CSS image hover effects. Each image effect activates with a blurry purple screen covering it.

Simple CSS Image Effects

Author: Ion Emil Negoita

Made with: CSS, HTML

Here is a code for creating stunning CSS filters that can be applied to any image on your website. Each demo has a different background color with a filter brightness of 70%.

CSS Blend Modes

Author: Eddie Solar

Made with: HTML, CSS

This option experiments with different CSS blend modes. It offers various fallback web templates in the event the client dislikes the first demo.

hallucination effect

Author: Soruly

Made with: CSS, HTML

The Hallucination Effect template displays a lovely full-page anime image. The code supports mix blend mode and includes elements like:

  • Background-image set to $url
  • Background-size set to cover
  • Background-position set to center

A Pen by Luchadora

Author: Luchadora

Made with: CSS, HTML

This option uses the overlay effect to add interactivity to site images and activates with the hover effect. It includes code parameters, such as:

  1. Background image URL
  2. Background size
  3. Background-position
  4. Background-repeat

image selector with reflection

Author: Paul

Made with: CSS, HTML

A design that uses radio buttons to select images. It features the reflection, background color transition, and image hover effects. The background-position of the reflection effect is coded to the bottom of the image.

Portfolio Items CSS3 transitions effects

Author: foxeisen

Made with: HTML, SCSS

This design features five transition effects for portfolio image items. It uses the portfolio and image hover effects.

A Pen by Airen

Author: Airen

Made with: CSS, HTML

Use this image effect to heighten the user experience of visitors to your website. It supports filter, invert, and mix blend mode.

Magnifying Glass image effect using CSS

Author: Santosh Goswami

Made with: HTML, CSS

The Magnifying Glass Image Effect scans images under a rectangle mirror. This mirror moves across the UI from left to right, vice versa, and enlarges objects. This is an attractive option for designing a browser or website.

FAQs about CSS image effects

1. How can I add a drop shadow effect to an image in CSS?

The CSS box-shadow property can be used to provide a drop shadow effect to an image. You can add a shadow to any element, even an image, with this attribute. The shadow’s position, size, blur, and color are all adjustable. For instance, you can use the CSS code shown below to generate a simple drop shadow effect to an image:

img {
box-shadow: 2px 2px 5px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
}

2. What is the CSS filter property and how can it be used to modify images?

You can apply a variety of image effects and adjustments, like grayscale, blur, brightness, and more, using the CSS filter property. Without changing the image file itself, you can change images directly in CSS by using the filter property. For instance, you can use the CSS code below to apply a grayscale effect to an image:

img {
filter: grayscale(100%);
}

3. How can I add a hover effect to an image in CSS?

With the CSS:hover selector, you may give an image a hover effect. When a user hovers their mouse over an element with this selector, you can apply styles to that element. For instance, you can use the CSS code below to make a straightforward opacity transition on hover:

img {
opacity: 1;
transition: opacity 0.3s ease-in-out;
}

img:hover {
opacity: 0.7;
}

4. How can I create a grayscale effect on an image using CSS?

As was already said, you can make a picture grayscale by using the CSS filter property. With this effect, the image loses all color and is reduced to a variety of grayscales. For instance, you can use the CSS code below to apply a grayscale effect to an image:

img {
filter: grayscale(100%);
}

5. What is the CSS opacity property and how can it be used to make an image transparent?

The CSS opacity property regulates an element’s transparency, including that of an image. An opacity value of 1 means the element is totally opaque, while a value of 0 means the element is fully transparent. You can use the CSS code shown below, for instance, to make an image 50% translucent.

img {
filter: blur(5px);
}

6. How can I create a blur effect on an image using CSS?

Moreover, a blur effect can be added to a picture using the CSS filter property. The image will appear hazy or out of focus as a result of this impact. For instance, you can use the CSS code below to add a blur effect to an image:

img {
filter: blur(5px);
}

7. How can I apply a sepia effect to an image in CSS?

A sepia effect can be added to an image using the CSS filter property, much as the grayscale effect. This effect will give the picture a rusty, brown appearance. For instance, you can use the CSS code below to add a sepia effect to an image:

img {
filter: sepia(100%);
}

8. How can I create a zoom-in effect on an image using CSS?

To give an image a zoom-in look, utilize CSS transitions. When the user hovers over the image, this effect will make it appear larger and more noticeable. For instance, you can use the CSS code below to add a zoom-in effect to an image:

img {
transition: transform

0.3s ease-in-out;

}

img:hover { transform: scale(1.2);

}

9. What is the CSS transition property and how can it be used to create image animations?

To create fluid animations between two states of an element, utilize the CSS transition property. You may specify the property to animate, the length of the animation, the timing function, and more with CSS transitions. CSS transitions can be used to alter properties like opacity, transform, or position to produce graphic animations. For instance, you can use the CSS code below to give a picture a straightforward fade-in effect:

img {
opacity: 0;
transition: opacity 0.3s ease-in-out;
}

img.fade-in {
opacity: 1;
}

10. How can I use CSS to make an image appear as if it’s moving or sliding?

To add sliding or moving effects to an image, utilize CSS animations. This can be done by gradually altering the image’s location, transform, or other attributes. For instance, you can use the CSS code below to give a picture a sliding effect:

img {
position: relative;
left: 0;
transition: left 0.3s ease-in-out;
}

img.slide {
left: 100px;
}

This will use an ease-in/ease-out timing function to move the image 100 pixels to the right over the course of 0.3 seconds. You may make a variety of dynamic picture effects with CSS by modifying the animation’s parameters and timing.

Ending thoughts on these CSS image effects

Gone are the days when web designers had to rely solely on Photoshop for filter effects. For great filter and image hover effects, etc. grab a CSS image effect from this list.

CSS image effects display on all screen sizes and modern browsers. So, when creating a personal portfolio, website of any kind, browser, etc. use CSS image effects to style your images.

If you liked this article about CSS image effects, you should check out this article about CSS progress bars.

There are also similar articles discussing CSS select stylesCSS loadersCSS login forms, and CSS background patterns.

And let’s not forget about articles on CSS dropdown menusCSS border animationsCSS arrows, and CSS cards.

Really Cool CSS Image Effects You Can Use Too (53 Examples)

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The Author

Dirk Gavor

Slider Revolution high priest on the mission to find the line between not enough coffee and just a little too much coffee. Same with beer.

For any inquiries or additional resources related to this blog post or else, please don't hesitate to comment below or email me at dirk@stage.rvsldr.com.

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