CSS background-origin
The CSS background-origin property was introduced in CSS3 for the purposes of setting the background positioning area of an element.
The background-origin property allows you to specify whether the background will be positioned relative to the "content box", "border box", or the "padding box".
The background-origin property can be used in conjunction with the background-clip and background-image properties to modify the position of a background image to match the clipping effect (supplied by the background-clip property).
In CSS3, the background-origin property has been added to the background shorthand property. This means that you can set the background-origin from within the background property (for example, background: url("background.png") 40% / 10em lightblue round fixed border-box;).
Syntax
The formal syntax for this property is:
Where
Below is an explanation of these values.
Possible Values
border-box- Specifies that the background position is relative to the border box.
padding-box- Specifies that the background position is relative to the padding box.
content-box- Specifies that the background position is relative to the content box.
In addition, all CSS properties also accept the following CSS-wide keyword values as the sole component of their property value:
initial- Represents the value specified as the property's initial value.
inherit- Represents the computed value of the property on the element's parent.
unset- This value acts as either
inheritorinitial, depending on whether the property is inherited or not. In other words, it sets all properties to their parent value if they are inheritable or to their initial value if not inheritable.
Basic Property Information
- Initial Value
padding-box- Applies To
- All elements
- Inherited?
- No
- Media
- Visual
- Animatable
- No
Example Code
Basic CSS
Working Example within an HTML Document
CSS Specifications
- The
background-originproperty is defined in CSS Backgrounds and Borders Module Level 3 (W3C Candidate Recommendation Snapshot)
Browser Support
Browser support for CSS properties can vary, particularly for newer or experimental features. Check current browser compatibility before using a property in production, especially when supporting older browsers.
The following table provided by Caniuse.com shows the level of browser support for this feature.
Initial Value
CSS properties have an initial value that applies when the property has not been explicitly set. The initial value is different from the value inherited from a parent element and may vary between properties.
Inheritance
Some CSS properties inherit their computed value from their parent element by default, while others do not. The inherit, initial, unset, and revert keywords can also be used to control how a property gets its value.
Vendor Prefixes
Most modern CSS properties use the standard, unprefixed syntax. Vendor-prefixed properties such as -webkit- are mainly relevant to older browser versions or specific features and should only be used when required by your browser support targets.