How old are CSS filters?

Question

Filters like

img {filter:flipV;}

I'm guessing are pretty old, I just was asked by a colleague why they weren't working for him in FF. I assume they were an IE only thing that died out a while back?

Answer 1

Yes, it is IE-only. They didn't die-out, they were just a bad idea to begin with.

Answer 2

They were the only way to do some things in IE, for example PNG transparency in IE6...so they're still around. Web developers everywhere are hoping they die :)

Even in the latest jQuery UI files you can find it being used for Alpha transparency: http://dev.jqueryui.com/browser/trunk/themes/base/jquery.ui.theme.css

By no means are they gone...unfortunately. At this point, I'm hoping they don't stick something like this into IE9 and call it a "feature"...

Answer 3

They are pretty old and work only in IE. Bad, don't use them unless you are targetting only IE (not good again). There are some things in CSS3 not supported by IE, you can sometimes use these filters to get around things.

For example, box shadow effect can be easily done with CSS3 but IE again does not support that, you can use these filters for IE and normal CSS3 for other browsers to create a cross-browser solution.

Answer 4

You may find this article interesting. While filter is IE only, there is a Firefox equivalent (opacity) which is part of the CSS3 recommendation.