Fade
fade
The fade parameter softens the picture’s edges to transparent, on every side at once. It is how you let an image dissolve into the page rather than ending at a hard rectangle.
A whole number is the edge width in pixels, multiplied by dpr. A decimal from 0 to 1 is a fraction of that side’s axis, so fade=0.2 fades the outer fifth of each edge regardless of output size.
Override any single side with fade-top, fade-bottom, fade-left or fade-right.
Transparency and Format
“The faded area is white, not transparent” is the usual question. On JPEG output, which has no alpha, the fade blends into bg — white by default — and bg=ffffff then appears in X-Imgix-Params. Under auto=format a JPEG source stays JPEG and fades to white.
Use fm=png, fm=webp or fm=avif for a real transparent fade, or set bg to the page’s background color so the result matches anyway.
With pad, the fade blends into the pad’s color rather than past it.
Interaction with Masks
With mask=corners or mask=ellipse, a bare fade feathers the mask’s edge instead, blending into mask-bg. The per-side parameters still fade the picture’s own edges.
Two opposing fades wider than the picture shrink to fit, so the middle is never faded away entirely.
A negative or non-numeric value is ignored. fade=0 is no fade.
On Video
Video draws fade too, with two differences: video fades to black by default rather than to transparent, and with fit=fill the fade covers the picture rather than the fill bars. With mask=corners or mask=ellipse, a bare fade draws nothing on video. AVIF stills from a video fade to white.