Question

I know how to specify multiple background images using CSS3 and modify how they are displayed using different options.

Currently I have a <div>, which needs to have a different color for about 30% of the width on the left side:

div#content {
  background: url("./gray.png") repeat-y, white;
  background-size: 30%;
}

Instead of loading the image which is totally gray, how can I do this specifying the color, and without additional <div>s?

Answer 1

You can’t really — background colours apply to the entirely of element backgrounds. Keeps ’em simple.

You could define a CSS gradient with sharp colour boundaries for the background instead, e.g.

background: -webkit-linear-gradient(left, grey, grey 30%, white 30%, white);

But only a few browsers support that at the moment. See http://jsfiddle.net/UES6U/2/

(See also http://www.webkit.org/blog/1424/css3-gradients/ for an explanation CSS3 gradients, including the sharp colour boundary trick.)