pixijs-blend-modes

name	pixijs-blend-modes
description	Use this skill when compositing display objects with blend modes in PixiJS v8. Covers standard modes (normal, add, multiply, screen, erase, min, max), advanced modes via pixi.js/advanced-blend-modes (color-burn, overlay, hard-light, etc.), batch-friendly ordering. Triggers on: blendMode, additive, multiply, screen, overlay, color-burn, color-dodge, advanced-blend-modes, glow, erase.
license	MIT

Set container.blendMode to composite display objects with GPU blend equations (standard modes) or filter-based advanced modes. Blend-mode transitions break render batches, so group like-mode siblings together.

Quick Start

const light = new Sprite(await Assets.load("light.png"));
light.blendMode = "add";
app.stage.addChild(light);

const shadow = new Sprite(await Assets.load("shadow.png"));
shadow.blendMode = "multiply";
app.stage.addChild(shadow);

import "pixi.js/advanced-blend-modes";
const overlay = new Sprite(await Assets.load("overlay.png"));
overlay.blendMode = "color-burn";
app.stage.addChild(overlay);

Related skills: pixijs-filters (advanced modes use the filter pipeline), pixijs-performance (batching with blend modes), pixijs-color (color manipulation).

Core Patterns

Standard blend modes

Standard modes are built in and use GPU blend equations directly:

import { Sprite } from "pixi.js";

sprite.blendMode = "normal"; // standard alpha compositing (effective default at root)
sprite.blendMode = "add"; // additive (lighten, glow effects)
sprite.blendMode = "multiply"; // multiply (darken, shadow effects)
sprite.blendMode = "screen"; // screen (lighten, dodge effects)
sprite.blendMode = "erase"; // erase pixels from render target
sprite.blendMode = "none"; // no blending, overwrites destination
sprite.blendMode = "inherit"; // inherit from parent (this is the actual default value)
sprite.blendMode = "min"; // keeps minimum of source and destination (WebGL2+ only)
sprite.blendMode = "max"; // keeps maximum of source and destination (WebGL2+ only)

These are hardware-accelerated and cheap. They do not require filters.

Advanced blend modes

Advanced modes require an explicit import to register the extensions. On the WebGL renderer they also require useBackBuffer: true at init time, or PixiJS logs a warning and the blend silently falls back:

import "pixi.js/advanced-blend-modes";
import { Application, Sprite, Assets } from "pixi.js";

const app = new Application();
await app.init({ useBackBuffer: true }); // required for advanced modes on WebGL

const texture = await Assets.load("overlay.png");
const overlay = new Sprite(texture);
overlay.blendMode = "color-burn";

Available advanced modes:

Mode	Effect
color-burn	Darkens by increasing contrast
color-dodge	Brightens by decreasing contrast
darken	Keeps darker of two layers
difference	Absolute difference
divide	Divides bottom by top
exclusion	Similar to difference, lower contrast
hard-light	Multiply or screen based on top layer
hard-mix	High contrast threshold blend
lighten	Keeps lighter of two layers
linear-burn	Adds and subtracts to darken
linear-dodge	Adds layers together
linear-light	Linear burn or dodge based on top layer
luminosity	Luminosity of top, hue/saturation of bottom
negation	Inverted difference
overlay	Multiply or screen based on bottom layer
pin-light	Replaces based on lightness comparison
saturation	Saturation of top, hue/luminosity of bottom
soft-light	Gentle overlay effect
subtract	Subtracts top from bottom
vivid-light	Color burn or dodge based on top layer
color	Hue and saturation of top, luminosity of bottom

You set advanced blend modes the same way as standard ones, via the blendMode property. They use filters internally, so they cost more than standard modes.

Batch-friendly ordering

Different blend modes break the rendering batch. Order objects to minimize transitions:

import { Container, Sprite } from "pixi.js";

const scene = new Container();
scene.addChild(screenSprite1); // 'screen'
scene.addChild(screenSprite2); // 'screen'
scene.addChild(normalSprite1); // 'normal'
scene.addChild(normalSprite2); // 'normal'

2 draw calls. Alternating order (screen, normal, screen, normal) would produce 4.

Common Mistakes

[HIGH] Not importing advanced-blend-modes extension

Wrong:

import { Sprite } from "pixi.js";

sprite.blendMode = "color-burn"; // silently falls back to normal

Correct:

import "pixi.js/advanced-blend-modes";
import { Sprite } from "pixi.js";

sprite.blendMode = "color-burn";

Advanced blend modes (color-burn, overlay, etc.) require the extension import. Without it, only standard modes (normal, add, multiply, screen) are available. The invalid mode silently falls back.

[MEDIUM] Mixing blend modes across adjacent objects

Different blend modes break the render batch. screen / normal / screen / normal produces 4 draw calls, while screen / screen / normal / normal produces 2. Sort children so objects with the same blend mode are adjacent.

[HIGH] Using the v7 BLEND_MODES enum

Wrong:

import { BLEND_MODES } from "pixi.js";

sprite.blendMode = BLEND_MODES.ADD; // runtime error: BLEND_MODES is undefined

Correct:

sprite.blendMode = "add";

In v8, BLEND_MODES is a TypeScript type only (a union of string literals). There is no runtime enum export, so BLEND_MODES.ADD evaluates to accessing a property on undefined. Use the string form.

[HIGH] Advanced blend modes without useBackBuffer

Wrong:

import "pixi.js/advanced-blend-modes";
await app.init({
  /* no useBackBuffer */
});
sprite.blendMode = "color-burn"; // logs a warning, falls back

Correct:

import "pixi.js/advanced-blend-modes";
await app.init({ useBackBuffer: true });
sprite.blendMode = "color-burn";

Advanced modes read from the back buffer. On WebGL, the blend silently falls back if the back buffer is not enabled. WebGPU enables the back buffer unconditionally.

API Reference

• Container.blendMode
• OverlayBlend
• ColorBurnBlend
• ColorDodgeBlend
• HardLightBlend
• SoftLightBlend
• DifferenceBlend