CSS-only Acrylic Material from Fluent Design System

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EDIT: 2022-05-07

Made backdrop-filter the first option with much better browser support now.

I can think of two ways to do this…

  1. backdrop-filter on .acrylic for modern browsers

  2. Blurred bg on .acrylic for all (including legacy) browsers

1. backdrop-filter on .acrylic (Modern browsers)

main {
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
  height: 100vh;
}

.acrylic {
  padding: 4em 6em;
  position: relative;
  background: rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
  -webkit-backdrop-filter: blur(10px);
  backdrop-filter: blur(10px);
  margin: 7px;
}

body {
  background: url("https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1452723312111-3a7d0db0e024?w=700") center/cover;
  background-attachment: fixed;
  margin: 0;
  font: 1em/1.4 Sans-serif;
  color: #fff;
}
<main>
  <div class="acrylic shadow">
    Acrylic material!
  </div>
  <div class="acrylic shadow">
    Acrylic material!
  </div>
</main>

<main>
  <div class="acrylic shadow">
    Acrylic material!
  </div>
  <div class="acrylic shadow">
    Acrylic material!
  </div>
</main>

<main>
  <div class="acrylic shadow">
    Acrylic material!
  </div>
</main>

2. Blurred bg on .acrylic (Legacy browsers)

We duplicate bg on .acrylic elements too, because just bringing down opacity will show the content behind them not in them, which AFAIK is not covered by blur filter…

Smart way to calc positions would be to set background-attachment: fixed for both parent element (body) and .acrylic guys, this will allow you to have multiple .acrylic guys as well 😉

Since we use same background for parent and children, we can club them together 😉

body, .acrylic::before {
  background: url("IMG_URL_HERE") center/cover;
  background-attachment: fixed;
}

Here is a working snippet 😉
Turned opacity on .acrylic:after a bit down so background is a bit more visible 😉

body {
  margin: 0;
  font: 1em/1.4 Sans-serif;
}

body, .acrylic::before {
  background: url("https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1452723312111-3a7d0db0e024?w=700") center/cover;
  background-attachment: fixed;
}

main {
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
  height: 100vh;
}

.acrylic {
  padding: 4em 6em;
  position: relative;
  overflow: hidden;
  margin: 1em;
}

.acrylic::before {
  filter: blur(10px);
  content: "";
  position: absolute;
  left: -10px;
  top: -10px;
  width: calc(100% + 20px);
  height: calc(100% + 20px);
  z-index: -1;
}

.acrylic::after {
  content: "";
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  top: 0;
  right: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  z-index: -1;
  opacity: 0.35;
  border: 1px solid #fff;
  background: #fff;
  background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,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);
}

.shadow {
  border-radius: 1px;
  box-shadow: 0 10px 30px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1), 0 1px 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
}
<main>
  <div class="acrylic shadow">
    Acrylic material!
  </div>
  <div class="acrylic shadow">
    Acrylic material!
  </div>
</main>

<main>
  <div class="acrylic shadow">
    Acrylic material!
  </div>
  <div class="acrylic shadow">
    Acrylic material!
  </div>
</main>

<main>
  <div class="acrylic shadow">
    Acrylic material!
  </div>
</main>

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