Can a background image be larger than the div itse

Question

I have a footer div with 100% width. It's about 50px high, depending on its content.

Is it possible to give that #footer a background image that kind of overflows this div?

The image is about 800x600px, and I want it to be positioned in the left bottom corner of the footer. It should work sort of like a background image for my website, but I've already set a background image on my body. I need another image positioned at the bottom left corner of my website and the #footer div would be perfect for that.

#footer {
    clear: both;
    width: 100%;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 30px 0 0;
    background:#eee url(images/bodybgbottomleft.png) no-repeat left bottom fixed;
}

The image is set to the footer, however it doesn't overflow the div. Is it possible to make that happen?

overflow:visible doesn't do the job!

Answer 1

Using background-size cover worked for me.

#footer {
    background-color: #eee;
    background-image: url(images/bodybgbottomleft.png);
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-size: cover;
    clear: both;
    width: 100%;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 30px 0 0;
}

Obviously be aware of support issues, check Can I Use: http://caniuse.com/#search=background-size

Answer 2

This could help. It requires the footer height to be a fixed number. Basically, you have a div inside the footer div with it's normal content, with position: absolute, and then the image with position: relative, a negative z-index so it stays "below" everything, and a negative top value of the footer's height minus the image height (in my example, 50px - 600px = -550px). Tested in Chrome 8, FireFox 3.6 and IE 9.

Answer 3

I do not believe that you can make a background image overflow its div. Images placed in Image tags can overflow their parent div, but background images are limited by the div for which they are the background.