Gray out image with CSS?

Does it have to be gray? You could just set the opacity of the image lower (to dull it). Alternatively, you could create a <div> overlay and set that to be gray (change the alpha to get the effect).

• html:

  <div id="wrapper">
      <img id="myImage" src="something.jpg" />
  </div>
  

• css:

  #myImage {
      opacity: 0.4;
      filter: alpha(opacity=40); /* msie */
  }
  
  /* or */
  
  #wrapper {
      opacity: 0.4;
      filter: alpha(opacity=40); /* msie */
      background-color: #000;
  }
  

Use the CSS3 filter property:

img {
    -webkit-filter: grayscale(100%);
       -moz-filter: grayscale(100%);
         -o-filter: grayscale(100%);
        -ms-filter: grayscale(100%);
            filter: grayscale(100%); 
}

The browser support is pretty decent, https://caniuse.com/css-filters.

Your here:

<a href="#"><img src="img.jpg" /></a>

Css Gray:

img{
    filter: url("data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg xmlns=\'http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\'><filter id=\'grayscale\'><feColorMatrix type=\'matrix\' values=\'0.3333 0.3333 0.3333 0 0 0.3333 0.3333 0.3333 0 0 0.3333 0.3333 0.3333 0 0 0 0 0 1 0\'/></filter></svg>#grayscale"); /* Firefox 10+, Firefox on Android */
    filter: grayscale(100%);
    -moz-filter: grayscale(100%);
    -ms-filter: grayscale(100%);
    -o-filter: grayscale(100%);
    filter: gray; /* IE6-9 */
    -webkit-filter: grayscale(100%); /* Chrome 19+, Safari 6+, Safari 6+ iOS */}

Ungray:

a:hover img{
    filter: url("data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg xmlns=\'http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\'><filter id=\'grayscale\'><feColorMatrix type=\'matrix\' values=\'1 0 0 0 0, 0 1 0 0 0, 0 0 1 0 0, 0 0 0 1 0\'/></filter></svg>#grayscale");
    filter: grayscale(0%);
    -moz-filter: grayscale(0%);
    -ms-filter: grayscale(0%);
    -o-filter: grayscale(0%);
    filter: none ; /* IE6-9 */
    zoom:1; /* needed to trigger "hasLayout" in IE if no width or height is set */
    -webkit-filter: grayscale(0%); /* Chrome 19+, Safari 6+, Safari 6+ iOS */
    }

I found it at: http://zkiwi.com/topic/chuyen-hinh-mau-thanh-trang-den-bang-css-nhu-the-nao

Edit: IE10+ does not support DX filters as IE9 and earlier have done, nor does it support a prefixed version of the greyscale filter. You can fix it, use one in two solutions below:

1. Set IE10+ to render using IE9 standards mode using the following meta element in the head: <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=9">
2. Use an SVG overlay in IE10 to accomplish the greyscaling internet explorer 10 - howto apply grayscale filter?

If you don't mind using a bit of JavaScript, jQuery's fadeTo() works nicely in every browser I've tried.

jQuery(selector).fadeTo(speed, opacity);