Image Backgrounds

Background images are inserted as a property of the <body> tag.  For example the following tag will set as a background image the jpg file named coins_bg.jpg that is stored in the folder images one level up from  the current directory.

<body background="../images/coins_bg.jpg"  text="#FFFFFF">

When an image does not completely fill the screen, it is repeated both horizontally and vertically by default.

Considerations when selecting background images:

  • Background that is esthetically pleasing, but problematic, in that the very large image may take a long time to load for someone with a slow modem connection.  This image is width="460" height="460"  and 39157 bytes
     
  • Background too busy, text difficult to read.  The single image is 150 by 150 and 12403 bytes in size
      
  • Using a relatively small image, taking advantage of default tiling to create an attractive background with an image of size:  width="1600" height="32"  and only 463 bytes.
     
  • Repeating patterns in backgrounds, can be bothersome or attractive.  Here's another example.

 

        

Last updated on 02/13/2003  by L.M. Hicks