To my knowledge, there is sadly no CSS filter to colorise an element [perhaps with the use of some SVG filter magic, but I'm somewhat unfamiliar with that] and even if that wasn't the case, filters are basically only supported by webkit browsers.
With that said, you could still work around this and use a canvas
to modify your image. Basically, you can draw an image element onto a canvas and then loop through the pixels, modifying the respective RGBA values to the
colour you want.
However, canvases do come with some restrictions. Most importantly, you have to make sure that the image src comes from the same domain as the page. Otherwise the browser won't allow you to read or modify the pixel data of the canvas.
Here's a JSFiddle changing the colour of the JSFiddle logo.
//Base64 source, but any local source will work
var src = "data:image/png;base64,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";
var canvas = document.getElementById["theCanvas"];
var ctx = canvas.getContext["2d"];
var img = new Image;
//wait for the image to load
img.onload = function[] {
//Draw the original image so that you can fetch the colour data
ctx.drawImage[img,0,0];
var imgData = ctx.getImageData[0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height];
/*
imgData.data is a one-dimensional array which contains
the respective RGBA values for every pixel
in the selected region of the context
[note i+=4 in the loop]
*/
for [var i = 0; i < imgData.data.length; i+=4] {
imgData.data[i] = 255; //Red, 0-255
imgData.data[i+1] = 255; //Green, 0-255
imgData.data[i+2] = 255; //Blue, 0-255
/*
imgData.data[i+3] contains the alpha value
which we are going to ignore and leave
alone with its original value
*/
}
ctx.clearRect[0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height]; //clear the original image
ctx.putImageData[imgData, 0, 0]; //paint the new colorised image
}
//Load the image!
img.src = src;
body {
background: green;
}
How TO - Black and White Images
Learn how to create a "black and white" image with CSS.
Black and White Image
Original image
grayscale[100%]
Use the CSS filter
property to convert an image to black and white.
Grayscale Example
Change the color of all images to black and white [100% gray]:
img {
-webkit-filter: grayscale[100%]; /* Safari 6.0 - 9.0 */
filter: grayscale[100%];
}
Try it Yourself »
Go to our CSS Images Tutorial to learn more about how to style images.
Go to our CSS filter Property to learn more about CSS filters.