HTML: A Guide to Hard-Coding
Backgrounds
Instead of using a color for your background, you can use an image. We talked about the code for a background color in the body section. That code was:
<body bgcolor="white">
If you want to use an image for a background, the code is:
<body background="name.gif"> OR <body background="name.jpg">
You need to put in the name of the image plus it's three letter extension, either gif or jpg.
Something to remember is that all images will work as backgrounds, but not all images will look good. The reason is that the browser takes your image and tiles it horizontally and vertically. This is similar to putting up wallpaper. You have to match up the seams to make it look good, but not all images have seams that match up.
Look at these examples:
The image on the left is the worst for a background. First of all, it has text on it so it will be very difficult to read any text you put over it. Also, when the image gets tiled, it will repeat over and over again and drown out everything else on the page.
The image in the middle isn't bad and may work. However, you are going to need light colored text and place it carefully so that it doesn't run over the highlights.
The image on the right is the best one. It is subtle and almost seamless. When tiled, it will run together nicely.
In my opinion, the best background is a plain white one ("#000000") unless you have a specific reason to change the color. I sometimes use a black background as well. However, I rarely use backgrounds I find on the internet. They just don't seem to work very well. Definitely stay away from bright colors. They will jump out at your viewer.
