Use CSS3 transitions with gradient backgrounds

Question

I'm trying to transition on hover with css over a thumbnail so that on hover, the background gradient fades in. The transition isn't working, but if I simply change it to an rgba() value, it works fine. Are gradients not supported? I tried using an image too, it won't transition the image either.

I know it's possible, as in another post someone did it, but I can't figure out how exactly. Any help> Here's some CSS to work with:

#container div a {
  -webkit-transition: background 0.2s linear;
  -moz-transition: background 0.2s linear;
  -o-transition: background 0.2s linear;
  transition: background 0.2s linear;
  position: absolute;
  width: 200px;
  height: 150px;
  border: 1px #000 solid;
  margin: 30px;
  z-index: 2
}

#container div a:hover {
  background: -webkit-gradient(radial, 100 75, 100, 100 75, 0, from(rgba(0, 0, 0, .7)), to(rgba(0, 0, 0, .4)))
}

Answer 1

Gradients don't support transitions yet (although the current spec says they should support like gradient to like gradient transitions via interpolation.).

If you want a fade-in effect with a background gradient, you have to set an opacity on a container element and 'transition` the opacity.

(There have been some browser releases that supported transitions on gradients (e.g IE10. I tested gradient transitions in 2016 in IE and they seemed to work at the time, but my test code no longer works.)

Update: October 2018 Gradient transitions with un-prefixed new syntax [e.g. radial-gradient(...)]now confirmed to work (again?) on Microsoft Edge 17.17134. I don't know when this was added. Still not working on latest Firefox & Chrome / Windows 10.