Is there a way to set background-image as a base64 encoded image?

Question

I tried to do the same as you, but apparently the backgroundImage doesn't work with encoded data. As an alternative, I suggest to use CSS classes and the change between those classes.

If you are generating the data "on the fly" you can load the CSS files dynamically.

function change() {
  if (document.getElementById("test").className == "backgroundA") {
    document.getElementById("test").className = "backgroundB";
    document.getElementById("test2").className = "backgroundA";
  } else {
    document.getElementById("test").className = "backgroundA";
    document.getElementById("test2").className = "backgroundB";
  }
}

btn.onclick = change;

.backgroundA {
  background-image: url("data:image/png;base64,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");
}

.backgroundB {
  background-image: url("data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhUAAPAKIAAAsLav///88PD9WqsYmApmZmZtZfYmdakyH5BAQUAP8ALAAAAABQAA8AAAPbWLrc/jDKSVe4OOvNu/9gqARDSRBHegyGMahqO4R0bQcjIQ8E4BMCQc930JluyGRmdAAcdiigMLVrApTYWy5FKM1IQe+Mp+L4rphz+qIOBAUYeCY4p2tGrJZeH9y79mZsawFoaIRxF3JyiYxuHiMGb5KTkpFvZj4ZbYeCiXaOiKBwnxh4fnt9e3ktgZyHhrChinONs3cFAShFF2JhvCZlG5uchYNun5eedRxMAF15XEFRXgZWWdciuM8GCmdSQ84lLQfY5R14wDB5Lyon4ubwS7jx9NcV9/j5+g4JADs=");
}

<div id="test" height="20px" class="backgroundA">
  div test 1
</div>
<div id="test2" name="test2" height="20px" class="backgroundB">
  div test2
</div>
<input type="button" id="btn" />

I fiddled it here, press the button and it will switch the divs' backgrounds: http://jsfiddle.net/egorbatik/fFQC6/

Had the same problem with base64. For anyone in the future with the same problem:

url = "data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAAAAAAyCAYAAAAUYybjAAAgAElE...";

This would work executed from console, but not from within a script:

$img.css("background-image", "url('" + url + "')");

But after playing with it a bit, I came up with this:

var img = new Image();
img.src = url;
$img.css("background-image", "url('" + img.src + "')");

No idea why it works with a proxy image, but it does. Tested on Firefox Dev 37 and Chrome 40.

Hope it helps someone.

EDIT

Investigated a little bit further. It appears that sometimes base64 encoding (at least in my case) breaks with CSS because of line breaks present in the encoded value (in my case value was generated dynamically by ActionScript).

Simply using e.g.:

$img.css("background-image", "url('" + url.replace(/(\r\n|\n|\r)/gm, "") + "')");

works too, and even seems to be faster by a few ms than using a proxy image.

Try this, I have got success response ..it's working

$("#divId").css("background-image", "url('data:image/png;base64," + base64String + "')");

Adding this trick to gabriel garcia's following solution -

var img = 'data:image/png;base64, ...'; //place ur base64 encoded img here
document.body.style.backgroundImage = 'url(' + img + ')';

However, in my case this wasn't working. Moving url into the img variable did the trick. SO the final code looked like this

var img = "url('data:image/png;base64, "+base64Data + "')";
document.body.style.backgroundImage = img; 

I tried this (and worked for me):

var img = 'data:image/png;base64, ...'; //place ur base64 encoded img here
document.body.style.backgroundImage = 'url(\'' + img + '\')';

ES6 syntax:

let img = 'data:image/png;base64, ...'
document.body.style.backgroundImage = `url('${img}')`

A bit better:

let setBackground = src => {
    this.style.backgroundImage = `url('${src}')`
};

let node = nodeIGotFromDOM, img = imageBase64EncodedFromMyGF;
setBackground.call(node, img);

This is the correct way to make a pure call. No CSS.

<div style='background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABwAAAAFCAYAAABW1IzHAAAAHklEQVQokWNgGPaAkZHxPyMj439sYrSQo51PBgsAALa0ECF30JSdAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC)repeat-x center;'></div>