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CSS

Posted by Kristian Woods
Kristian Woods
23,414 Points

I don't fully understand z-index

I don't fully understand how I achieved this result -

I have an image, and sitting directly above that image is a div with the class of overlay. Both have the CSS transition property.

I set the default value for the overlay div to 0 - However, on hover, I want the opacity to change to 1. Simultaneously, I want the image to scale in size.

When I set the overlay opacity to change to 1 on hover, it did. When I set the image to scale up on hover, it did. However, insert both declarations, it wouldn't work. I only got one or the other. BUT when I added a z-index value of 999 to the overlay, both worked.

Could someone explain what is going on?

<div class="scale_image_container">
        <div class="overlay">
            <h1>Fade Overlay</h1>
            <button type="button">Link</button>
        </div>
        <img src="https://placeimg.com/300/300/animals" alt="animal image">
    </div>

.scale_image_container {
    width: 300px;
    height: 300px;
    position: relative;
    overflow: hidden;
    img {
        transition: all .4s;
    }
    .overlay {
        position: absolute;
        top: 0;
        right: 0;
        bottom: 0;
        left: 0;
        background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, .6);
        display: flex;
        flex-direction: column;
        justify-content: center;
        align-items: center;
        opacity: 0;
        transition: all .4s;
        color: #fff;
        font-family: sans-serif;
        z-index: 999;
        button {
            width: 110px;
            border: none;
            border-radius: 30px;
            padding: .6em;
            color: gray;
            background-color: #fff;
            font-size: 1em;
            transition: all .4s cubic-bezier(.14, .01, .89, 1.47);
            &:hover {
                transform: scale(1.1);
                background-color: transparent;
                border: 2px solid #fff;
                color: #fff;
            }
        }
    }

    &:hover .overlay {
        opacity: 1;
    }

    &:hover img {
        transform: scale(1.4);
    }

}

Thanks

PS I'm using sass

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,275 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,275 Points

Normally, when two elements occupy the same space, the one that appears later in the HTML will be on top. So since the image comes after the overlay, the overlay is hidden under the image.

But by giving the container a relative position, it becomes a "positioning context" which allows the normal layer order to be overridden using z-index. Any explicit value puts the overlay in front of anything with a lower z-index, and the default is 0 (so 1 would work as well as 999).

For more info, see this MDN page on z-index.