The CSS Filter Pipeline
The CSS filter property applies a sequence of graphical operations to an element before it is composited to the screen. Each primitive is a function; the pipeline is a composition. The order matters: invert followed by hue-rotate produces a different result than hue-rotate followed by invert, because each operation transforms the color space the next one receives. In the You On AI Wiki's illustration system, this pipeline is the mechanism by which a single black-ink stipple on transparent background is conditioned for dark mode, light mode, sepia themes, and the various ambient palettes the reader may inhabit. The filter string is a small program; the image is its runtime.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The pipeline originated in SVG filter effects and was ported to CSS in 2012, giving ordinary web authors access to operations that had previously required image editors or canvas scripting. Its primitives are deliberately narrow — a dozen