Darkening Element Background Color with CSS

Enhancing the user interface involves highlighting interactive elements, such as buttons, by altering their appearance. A common approach is to darken the background color upon hover.

Initially, one might attempt to adjust the opacity, but that affects both the color and transparency. A more targeted solution exists.

Method: Overlay a Dark Layer

Create a dark overlay using background-image. This method preserves the original text color while darkening the background.

Implement the overlay layer in CSS:

.Button {
  background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(0 0 0/40%) 0 0);
}

.Button:hover {
  background-color: /* Original background color */;
}

This technique automagically darkens any background color, even multiple colors as seen in the example:

 some text 
By leveraging this overlay method, developers can easily darken element background colors on hover, enhancing user interactivity without the hassle of manually calculating darker shades.