Question 225562 in Html Question posted in
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Html – How to overlap positioned absolute div with position relative

I’m trying to achieve a layout where I have a div with position: relative, and inside it, I want to place another div with position: absolute. However, I want only the part of the absolute div that is outside the relative div to be visible, while the part inside the relative div should be hidden. How can I accomplish this effect using CSS? Any help would be appreciated!

.relative-container {
  position: relative;
  width: 200px;
  height: 200px;
  background-color: red;
  z-index: 2;
}

.absolute-element {
  position: absolute;
  bottom: -10px;
  right: -10px;
  z-index: 1;
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  background-color: blue;
}
<div class="relative-container">
  <div class="absolute-element"></div>
</div>
Tags:

4

Answers


  1. 0

    Just remove z-index declaration from the relative container and put a negative z-index to the absolute container.

    .relative-container {
  position: relative;
  width: 200px;
  height: 200px;
  background-color: red;
}

.absolute-element {
  position: absolute;
  bottom: -10px;
  right: -10px;
  z-index: -1;
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  background-color: blue;
}
    <div class="relative-container">
  <div class="absolute-element"></div>
</div>
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  2. 0 
    .relative-container {
  position: relative;
  width: 200px;
  height: 200px;
  background-color: red;
  z-index: 2;
}

.absolute-element {
  position: absolute;
  bottom: -10px;
  right: -10px;
  z-index: 1;
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  background-color: blue;
  clip-path:polygon(90px 0 , 100px 0, 100px 100px , 0 100px , 0 90px, 90px 90px);
}
    <div class="relative-container">
  <div class="absolute-element"></div>
</div>
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  3. 0

    You could for instance just put the absolute-element behind the relative div like you tried with z-index but the relative div itself can’t have z-index otherwise it becomes the z-index ancestor of the absolute div and can’t be put behind anymore

    .relative-container {
  position: relative;
  width: 200px;
  height: 200px;
  background-color: red;
}

.absolute-element {
  position: absolute;
  bottom: -10px;
  right: -10px;
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  background-color: blue;
  z-index: -1;
}
    <div class="relative-container">
  <div class="absolute-element"></div>
</div>

    If you need the red div to have z-index then you can root both to another (possibly invisible) parent div and set them both to absolute.

    .relative-container {
  position: relative;
  width: 200px;
  height: 200px;
}

.red-element{
  position: absolute;
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  background-color: red;
  z-index: 2;
}

.blue-element {
  position: absolute;
  bottom: -10px;
  right: -10px;
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  background-color: blue;
  z-index: 1;
}
    <div class="relative-container">
  <div class="red-element"></div>
  <div class="blue-element"></div>
</div>
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  4. 0

    You can use mix-blend-mode:

    .relative-container {
  position: relative;
  width: 200px;
  height: 200px;
  background-color: red;
}

.absolute-element {
  position: absolute;
  bottom: -10px;
  right: -10px;
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  background-color: blue;
  mix-blend-mode: overlay;

}
    <div class="relative-container">
  <div class="absolute-element">hello</div>
</div>

    Or 3D transform: (Credit: How to get a child element to show behind (lower z-index) than its parent?)

    .relative-container {
  position: relative;
  width: 200px;
  height: 200px;
  background-color: red;
  transform-style: preserve-3d;
}

.absolute-element {
  position: absolute;
  bottom: -10px;
  right: -10px;
  transform: translateZ(-10px);
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  background-color: blue;
}
    <div class="relative-container">
  <div class="absolute-element"></div>
</div>

    The other provided solutions won’t work if you create a stacking context in the parent (see CSS negative z-index: what does it mean?):

    .relative-container {
  position: relative;
  width: 200px;
  height: 200px;
  background-color: red;
  z-index: 0; /* creates a stacking context, (or any other stacking context creating property https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/CSS_positioned_layout/Understanding_z-index/Stacking_context )*/
  
}

.absolute-element {
  position: absolute;
  bottom: -10px;
  right: -10px;
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  background-color: blue;
  z-index: -1;
}
    <div class="relative-container">
  <div class="absolute-element">hello</div>
</div>
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