How to use css linear gradients in IE10?

Question

In IE10, I am trying to create a css linear gradient, from the top of the page to the bottom of the page. This is what I have so far ``` Test

Test

``` css ``` body { margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom, #dcdcdc 0%, #b0b0b0 100%); } #title { color:red; } ``` But it doesn't look the way I want it to look. This ends up with linear gradients that's about the height of 100px, then keeps repeating downwards. Similar to this image: Does anyone know whats wrong?

Accepted Answer

This is not an issue with IE10 alone; in fact, it's by design.

Backgrounds have special behavior when applied to `body` and/or `html`. When you apply a background to `body` without touching `html`, what happens is that the body background gets propagated to the viewport, and that background acts as if it were declared on `html`:

For documents whose root element is an HTML `HTML` element or an XHTML `html` element: if the computed value of ‘background-image’ on the root element is ‘none’ and its ‘background-color’ is ‘transparent’, user agents must instead propagate the computed values of the background properties from that element's first HTML `BODY` or XHTML `body` child element. The used values of that `BODY` element's background properties are their initial values, and the propagated values are treated as if they were specified on the root element.

Even though it appears otherwise, the `html` and `body` elements don't actually start with an intrinsic 100% height (except in IE in quirks mode); rather they take the height of their contents, just like any other block boxes. This means `html` is the same height as the combined height of your `p` element and its default margins (which are collapsed with the `body` element).

While gradient backgrounds are designed to stretch across the full height and width by default, the actual height of `html` doesn't allow enough room for a gradient to cover the entire viewport by itself, so it only stretches to a certain height before it starts repeating. AFAIK, this behavior is consistent across all browsers that implement gradients according to the latest standard.

If you want to make the gradient stretch across the whole viewport even if there isn't enough content for the whole page, simply add this rule:

```
html {
    min-height: 100%;
}
```

If you want, you can move the background styles from `body` to `html` as well, but as long as you only set a background on one of those elements at a time, it doesn't make a difference which one you apply it to.

How to use css linear gradients in IE10?

Solution

Problem