HTML + CSS - Overlapping Header Image - html

Question

I have seen the layout similar to the image below used on some sites before and I really like the design but don't exactly know how to implement the overlapping image (Profile Image). I am using bootstrap if that helps. Any ideas?
Thanks!

Answer 1

I can see three ways to do this generally.
position: absolute
You could give the image or the image's wrapper the attribute of position:absolute and giving its container (in your example the green box) position:relative. Then you would apply top: -100px or whatever and a left attribute of left: 100px or whatever. This gives the effect of the image being out of flow, aligned to the left and offset by 100px, and 100px offset from the top of the green container. The disadvantage of this approach would be that any body content in your green container could appear under the image.
position: relative
This is the same approach as the first one with the exception of how the image flows in the document. Instead of giving the image position:absolute, you would give it position:relative. Relative works differently from absolute. instead of being x and y coordinates of the parent container, it's just shifted by however much you give as a value for top and left. So in this case, you would apply top:-100px and just leave the other directional values as default. this would shift your element by that amount but also leave its original spot in the document flow. As such you end up with a gap below the image that other content will flow around.
negative margin
I honestly would prefer this method in your case. In this method, you can give the image a negative margin (e.g. margin-top:-100px). This will offset the image, collapse the area below the image, and it will still retain some of its flow in the document. This means that the content of the green container will flow around the image but only around the part that is still inside the container. It won't have a ghost area that content flows around like with relative positioning, but it also doesn't entirely take the image out of flow like absolute positioning. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that if you try to use overflow of any kind other than the initial value, it will cause undesirable effects to your image.
Demo
Here's a quick little demo demonstrating all three methods in a simple use case: http://jsfiddle.net/jmarikle/2w4wqfxs/1

Answer 2

The profile image can be set with position: absolute; top: 20px; left: 20px, or something like that to keep in from taking up space in the flow of the page.

Answer 3

make the html element that holds the header image "position:relative". Then put the header image and the profile image in that element. then make the profile image "position:absolute" and utilize "top: XXpx" depending on how far you want it from the top of the header element. Same for "left".
see fiddle here
<div class="header">
<img src="" alt="my image" class="floatdown">
this is my header, image could go here too
</div>
<div class="body">
this is my body content
</div>
.header {
position: relative;
width: 100%;
height: 150px;
border: 2px solid #000;
text-align: right;
}
.body {
position: relative;
width: 100%;
border: 2px solid #000;
height: 500px;
text-align: right;
}
img {
width: 90px;
height: 90px;
border: 2px solid #ddd;
}
.floatdown {
position: absolute;
top: 100px;
left: 20px;
}

Answer 4

You can use the float property on your profile image to take it out of the "flow" of the document, and play with the margins to place it properly.
CSS :
#profile-image{
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
float: left;
margin: 100px;
}
The marginis used to push it down and place it properly.
You can see an example of this in a Fiddle : http://jsfiddle.net/y706d77a/
I wouldn't recommand using position: absolute as you can get very strange results with different resolutions. I would only use that as a last resort.

Answer 5

This can be done many ways.
Anytime you see something like that on the web you can just use your inspector or firebug and see how they are doing it to get some ideas.
It wouldn't hurt to do some research on the web about CSS positioning.
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_positioning.asp
Another great site.
http://css-tricks.com/

Answer 6

I just finished it.
Here is a codepen link:
http://codepen.io/anon/pen/zxYrxE
HTML:
<div class="main-container">
<div class="header">
<p>This is the header div</p>
</div>
<div class="profile">
<p>Profile</p>
</div>
<div class="content">
<p>Some dummy content div</p>
</div>
</div>
CSS is to big to be pasted here, so just open the link.

Answer 7

Put the profile image in the header, make the position: absolute; and the image position: relative;, and give it a negative bottom value that's half the height of the image, and set left to position it horizontally to taste.
HTML
<header>
<img class="profile">
</header>
<div>Content</div>
CSS
header, div{
min-height: 110px;
background: darkgray;
}
header{
position: relative;
background: gray;
}
img{
position: absolute;
bottom: -50px;
left: 100px;
}
http://jsfiddle.net/dekqn84c/