The background-clip Property

The background-clip property determines how a background fill or background image will be placed relative to the element: under the border, only inside the padding, or only over the content.

Features

When using border-box with transparent borders, the background will be visible beneath them
The text value requires vendor prefixes for full support
The property works with gradients and multiple backgrounds
With border-radius, the background is clipped to the rounded corners

Browser Support

All modern browsers support border-box, padding-box, and content-box. The text value requires the -webkit- prefix and is supported in Chrome, Safari, Edge.

Syntax

selector {
	background-clip: border-box | padding-box | content-box | text;
}

Values

Value	Description
`border-box`	The background extends to the outer edge of the border (under the border).
`padding-box`	The background is clipped to the inner edge of the border (does not go under `border`).
`content-box`	The background is displayed only over the content (`padding` is clipped).
`text`	The background is clipped to the text.

Default value: border-box.

Example . border-box value

The background extends under the semi-transparent border:

<div id="elem"></div>

#elem {
	background-clip: border-box;
	background-color: #ffd6d6;
	background-repeat: no-repeat;
	border: 10px dashed rgba(0,0,0,0.3);
	padding: 30px;
	width: 250px;
	height: 150px;
}

Example . padding-box value

The background does not extend under the border:

<div id="elem"></div>

#elem {
	background-clip: padding-box;
	background-color: #ffd6d6;
	background-repeat: no-repeat;
	border: 10px dashed rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
	padding: 30px;
	width: 250px;
	height: 150px;
}

Example . content-box value

The background does not extend into the padding:

<div id="elem">
	text text text text text
	text text text text text
	text text text text text
</div>

#elem {
	background-clip: content-box;
	background-color: #ffd6d6;
	background-repeat: no-repeat;
	border: 10px dashed rgba(0,0,0,0.3);
	padding: 30px;
	width: 250px;
	height: 150px;
}

Example . text value

The background is clipped to the text (requires -webkit-text-fill-color with the transparent value):

<div id="elem">text text text</div>

#elem {
	display: inline-block;
	background: linear-gradient(to right, red, blue);
	-webkit-background-clip: text;
	-webkit-text-fill-color: transparent;
	background-clip: text;
	
	font-size: 40px;
	font-weight: bold;
}