Background Styles in CSS

CSS Backgrounds

The CSS background properties are used to define the background effects for elements.

In this chapter, you will learn about the following CSS background properties:

·        background-color

·        background-image

·        background-repeat

·        background-attachment

·        background-position

CSS background-color

The background-color property specifies the background color of an element.

Example

The background color of a page is set like this:

body {
  background-color: lightblue;
}

With CSS, a color is most often specified by:

• a valid color name - like "red"
• a HEX value - like "#ff0000"
• an RGB value - like "rgb(255,0,0)"

Other Elements

You can also set the background color for other elements:

Example

h1 {
  background-color: green;
}

div {
  background-color: lightblue;
}

p {
  background-color: yellow;
}

CSS Background Image

The background-image property specifies an image to use as the background of an element.

By default, the image is repeated so it covers the entire element.

Example

The background image for a page can be set like this: 

body {
  background-image: url("paper.gif");
}

Example

We should not have  bad combination of text and background image where text is hardly readable: 

body {
  background-image: url("bgdesert.jpg");
}

Note: When using a background image, use an image that does not disturb the text.

CSS background-repeat

By default, the background-image property repeats an image both horizontally and vertically.

Some images should be repeated only horizontally or vertically.

Example

body {
  background-image: url("gradient_bg.png");
  background-repeat: repeat-x;
}

Note: To repeat an image vertically, set background-repeat: repeat-y;

CSS background-repeat: no-repeat

Showing the background image only once is also specified by the background-repeat property:

Example

Show the background image only once:

body {
  background-image: url("img_tree.png");
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
}

In the example above, the background image is placed in the same place as the text. We want to change the position of the image, so that it does not disturb the text too much.

CSS background-position

The background-position property is used to specify the position of the background image.

Example

Position the background image in the top-right corner: 

body {
  background-image: url("img_tree.png");
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-position: right top;
}

CSS Background Attachment

The background-attachment property specifies whether the background image should scroll or be fixed (will not scroll with the rest of the page):

Example

Specify that the background image should be fixed:

body {
  background-image: url("img_tree.png");
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-position: right top;
  background-attachment: fixed;
}

Example

Specify that the background image should scroll with the rest of the page:

body {
  background-image: url("img_tree.png");
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-position: right top;
  background-attachment: scroll;
}

CSS background - Shorthand property

To shorten the code, it is also possible to specify all the background properties in one single property. This is called a shorthand property.

Instead of writing:

body {
  background: #ffffff;
  background-image: url("img_tree.png");
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-position: right top;
}

You can use the shorthand property background:

Example

Use the shorthand property to set the background properties in one declaration:

body {
  background: #ffffff url("img_tree.png") no-repeat right top;
}

When using the shorthand property the order of the property values is:

• background-color
• background-image
• background-repeat
• background-attachment
• background-position

It does not matter if one of the property values is missing, as long as the other ones are in this order. Note that we do not use the background-attachment property in the examples above, as it does not have a value.