How can I mitigate or reduce flickering caused by blurred items with large backdrop filters on Chrome when using Webflow?
TL;DR
- Minimize
backdrop-filtersize and intensity, avoid animations on affected elements, and usewill-changeto prompt GPU acceleration. - Simulate blur with semi-transparent overlays, simplify layer stacking, and test across browsers, favoring Safari or Firefox over Chrome.
Flickering from blurred elements using large backdrop-filter effects in Chrome is a known rendering issue that can affect performance and visual stability. Webflow doesn’t offer native settings to fix this directly, but there are key strategies to mitigate it.
1. Reduce backdrop-filter Intensity and Area
- Limit the size of elements using
backdrop-filter: blur()to just what's necessary for design. - Avoid full-screen blur overlays, especially on scroll.
- Use lower blur values (e.g.,
blur(10px)instead ofblur(30px)).
2. Avoid Animating or Transitioning the Affected Elements
- Do not animate opacity, filter, or transform on elements using large or complex
backdrop-filtereffects. - Keep filter layers static—moving blur layers introduces GPU stress, especially in Chrome.
3. Force Layer Promotion with will-change
- in Webflow, apply a custom embed style tag or a small custom style within the page settings:
- Apply
will-change: transform;orwill-change: opacity;to the blurred element. - This can hint Chrome to GPU-accelerate the layer, reducing flickers.
4. Use a Solid Color Overlay as a Fallback
- Place a semi-transparent background color (e.g.,
rgba(255,255,255,0.6)) behind or on top of the blur layer. - This simulates the blur effect and reduces reliance on
backdrop-filterfor the visual result.
5. Test With Lower Z-Index and Layer Simplification
- Excessive use of
position: fixedor stacking multiple filters can increase rendering issues. - Try lowering the z-index or re-arranging layers to make the blurred item render more stably.
6. Disable GPU Rasterization in Edge Cases
- For testing, try reducing hardware acceleration or GPU rasterization in Chrome flags, but note this isn’t a long-term fix for end users.
- Instead, avoid composition-heavy interactions in Webflow using too many blurred/fixed/animated elements.
7. Use Safari or Firefox Where Possible
- Chrome has more prominent
backdrop-filterissues. If your app or site allows it, Safari/WebKit handles these filters better. - Warn users or detect browsers to adjust UI if necessary.
Summary
To reduce flickering caused by backdrop-filter in Chrome within Webflow, minimize blur size, avoid animations, and isolate the filter layer using will-change. Substitute filter effects with visual overlays when possible, and avoid stacking multiple GPU-intensive layers.