- How to Set Background Color with HTML and CSS
- Add the style attribute to the element
- Example of setting a background color with the style attribute:
- Result
- Add the CSS background-color property to the element
- Example of setting a background color with the CSS background-color property:
- Example of adding a background color to specific elements:
- Example of setting background colors with different color types:
- Create a background with gradients
- Example of setting a linear-gradient background:
- Example of setting a radial-gradient background:
- Create a changing background
- Example of creating a changing background:
- background-color
- Try it
- Syntax
- Values
- Accessibility concerns
- Formal definition
- Formal syntax
- Examples
- HTML
- CSS
- Result
- Specifications
- Browser compatibility
- See also
- Found a content problem with this page?
- MDN
- Support
- Our communities
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- background
- Try it
- Constituent properties
- Syntax
- Values
- Accessibility concerns
- Formal definition
- Formal syntax
- Examples
- Setting backgrounds with color keywords and images
- HTML
- CSS
- Result
- Specifications
- Browser compatibility
- See also
- Found a content problem with this page?
- MDN
- Support
- Our communities
- Developers
How to Set Background Color with HTML and CSS
First thing you should know is that there are different types of HTML colors, such as Hex color codes, HTML color names, RGB and RGBa values, HSL colors, etc. To choose your preferred color use our Color Tools.
In this snippet, you can find many different ways of adding a background color. Let’s start from the easiest one.
Add the style attribute to the element
You can set a background color for an HTML document by adding style=»background-color:» to the element.
Example of setting a background color with the style attribute:
html> html> head> title>Title of the document title> head> body style="background-color:#1c87c9;"> h1>Some heading h1> p>Some paragraph for example. p> body> html>
Result
Some paragraph for example.
Add the CSS background-color property to the element
The background-color property is used to change the background color. Inserting it to the element you will have a full colored cover of the page.
Example of setting a background color with the CSS background-color property:
html> html> head> title>Title of the document title> style> body < background-color: #1c87c9; > style> head> body> body> html>
You can also add a background color to specific elements in your document. For example, let’s see how to change the color of the heading and paragraphs.
Example of adding a background color to specific elements:
html> html> head> title>Title of the document title> style> body < background-color: #e6ebef; > h2 < background-color: #8ebf42; > p < background-color: #1c87c9; > style> head> body> h2>Some heading with green background. h2> p>Some paragraph with blue background. p> body> html>
Let’s see another example, where we add a background color with a color name value to the element. We specify a RGB value for the , HSL for the , and RGBa value for the element.
Example of setting background colors with different color types:
html> html> head> title>Title of the document title> style> h1 < background-color: lightblue; > h2 < background-color: rgb(142, 191, 66); > p < background-color: hsl(300, 100%, 25%); > span < background-color: rgba(255, 127, 80, 0.58); > style> head> body> h1>Example h1> h2>Some heading with green background. h2> p>Some paragraph with blue background. p> span>Some paragraph for span> body> html>
Create a background with gradients
Gradient backgrounds let you create smooth transitions between two or more specified colors.
There are two types of gradient backgrounds: linear-gradient and radial-gradient.
In linear-gradient backgrounds, you can set a starting point for the colors. If you don’t mention a starting point, it will automatically set «top to bottom» by default.
Example of setting a linear-gradient background:
html> html> head> title>Title of the document title> style> #grad < height: 500px; background-color: blue;/* For browsers that do not support gradients */ background-image: linear-gradient(to right, #1c87c9, #8ebf42); > style> head> body> h1>Right to Left Linear Gradient background h1> div id="grad"> div> body> html>
The given example shows a linear gradient that starts from the left. It starts from blue, transitioning to green. Change it according to your requirements.
In radial gradient backgrounds, the starting point is defined by its center.
Example of setting a radial-gradient background:
html> html> head> title>Title of the document title> style> #grad < height: 500px; background-color: grey;/* For browsers that do not support gradients */ background-image: radial-gradient(#e6ebef, #1c87c9, #8ebf42); > style> head> body> h1>Radial Gradient Background h1> div id="grad"> div> body> html>
Create a changing background
You can create a background which will change its colors in the mentioned time. For that, add the animation property to the element. Use the @keyframes rule to set the background colors through which you’ll flow, as well as the length of time each color will appear on the page.
Example of creating a changing background:
html> html> head> title>Title of the document title> style> body < -webkit-animation: colorchange 20s infinite; animation: colorchange 20s infinite; > @-webkit-keyframes colorchange < 0% < background: #8ebf42; > 25% < background: #e6ebef; > 50% < background: #1c87c9; > 75% < background: #095484; > 100% < background: #d0e2bc; > > @keyframes colorchange < 0% < background: #8ebf42; > 25% < background: #e6ebef; > 50% < background: #1c87c9; > 75% < background: #095484; > 100% < background: #d0e2bc; > > style> head> body> h1>Changing Background h1> body> html>
The percentages specify the animation length mentioned in «colorchange» (e.g. 20s).
background-color
The background-color CSS property sets the background color of an element.
Try it
Syntax
/* Keyword values */ background-color: red; background-color: indigo; /* Hexadecimal value */ background-color: #bbff00; /* Fully opaque */ background-color: #bf0; /* Fully opaque shorthand */ background-color: #11ffee00; /* Fully transparent */ background-color: #1fe0; /* Fully transparent shorthand */ background-color: #11ffeeff; /* Fully opaque */ background-color: #1fef; /* Fully opaque shorthand */ /* RGB value */ background-color: rgb(255 255 128); /* Fully opaque */ background-color: rgb(117 190 218 / 0.5); /* 50% transparent */ /* HSL value */ background-color: hsl(50 33% 25%); /* Fully opaque */ background-color: hsl(50 33% 25% / 0.75); /* 75% opaque, i.e. 25% transparent */ /* Special keyword values */ background-color: currentcolor; background-color: transparent; /* Global values */ background-color: inherit; background-color: initial; background-color: revert; background-color: revert-layer; background-color: unset;
The background-color property is specified as a single value.
Values
The uniform color of the background. It is rendered behind any background-image that is specified, although the color will still be visible through any transparency in the image.
Accessibility concerns
It is important to ensure that the contrast ratio between the background color and the color of the text placed over it is high enough that people experiencing low vision conditions will be able to read the content of the page.
Color contrast ratio is determined by comparing the luminance of the text and background color values. In order to meet current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), a ratio of 4.5:1 is required for text content and 3:1 for larger text such as headings. Large text is defined as 18.66px and bold or larger, or 24px or larger.
Formal definition
Formal syntax
Examples
HTML
div class="exampleone">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuerdiv> div class="exampletwo">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuerdiv> div class="examplethree">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuerdiv>
CSS
.exampleone background-color: transparent; > .exampletwo background-color: rgb(153, 102, 153); color: rgb(255, 255, 204); > .examplethree background-color: #777799; color: #ffffff; >
Result
Specifications
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser
See also
Found a content problem with this page?
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background
The background shorthand CSS property sets all background style properties at once, such as color, image, origin and size, or repeat method. Component properties not set in the background shorthand property value declaration are set to their default values.
Try it
Constituent properties
This property is a shorthand for the following CSS properties:
Syntax
/* Using a */ background: green; /* Using a and */ background: url("test.jpg") repeat-y; /* Using a and */ background: border-box red; /* A single image, centered and scaled */ background: no-repeat center/80% url("../img/image.png"); /* Global values */ background: inherit; background: initial; background: revert; background: revert-layer; background: unset;
The background property is specified as one or more background layers, separated by commas.
The syntax of each layer is as follows:
- Each layer may include zero or one occurrences of any of the following values:
- The value may only be included immediately after , separated with the ‘/’ character, like this: » center/80% «.
- The value may be included zero, one, or two times. If included once, it sets both background-origin and background-clip . If it is included twice, the first occurrence sets background-origin , and the second sets background-clip .
- The value may only be included in the last layer specified.
Values
See background-clip and background-origin . Default: border-box and padding-box respectively.
See background-color . Default: transparent .
The following three lines of CSS are equivalent:
background: none; background: transparent; background: repeat scroll 0% 0% / auto padding-box border-box none transparent;
Accessibility concerns
Browsers do not provide any special information on background images to assistive technology. This is important primarily for screen readers, as a screen reader will not announce its presence and therefore convey nothing to its users. If the image contains information critical to understanding the page’s overall purpose, it is better to describe it semantically in the document.
Formal definition
- background-image : none
- background-position : 0% 0%
- background-size : auto auto
- background-repeat : repeat
- background-origin : padding-box
- background-clip : border-box
- background-attachment : scroll
- background-color : transparent
- background-position : refer to the size of the background positioning area minus size of background image; size refers to the width for horizontal offsets and to the height for vertical offsets
- background-size : relative to the background positioning area
- background-image : as specified, but with url() values made absolute
- background-position : as each of the properties of the shorthand:
- background-position-x : A list, each item consisting of: an offset given as a combination of an absolute length and a percentage, plus an origin keyword
- background-position-y : A list, each item consisting of: an offset given as a combination of an absolute length and a percentage, plus an origin keyword
- background-color : a color
- background-image : discrete
- background-clip : a repeatable list of
- background-position : a repeatable list of
- background-size : a repeatable list of
- background-repeat : discrete
- background-attachment : discrete
Formal syntax
background =
[ # , ]?=
||
[ / ]? ||
||
||
||
=
||
||
[ / ]? ||
||
||
||
=
|
none=
[ left | center | right | top | bottom | ] |
[ left | center | right | ] [ top | center | bottom | ] |
[ center | [ left | right ] ? ] && [ center | [ top | bottom ] ? ]=
[ | auto ] |
cover |
contain=
repeat-x |
repeat-y |
[ repeat | space | round | no-repeat ]=
scroll |
fixed |
local=
border-box |
padding-box |
content-box=
|=
|=
url( * ) |
src( * )Examples
Setting backgrounds with color keywords and images
HTML
p class="topbanner"> Starry skybr /> Twinkle twinklebr /> Starry sky p> p class="warning">Here is a paragraphp> p>p>
CSS
.warning background: pink; > .topbanner background: url("starsolid.gif") #99f repeat-y fixed; >
Result
Specifications
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser
See also
Found a content problem with this page?
This page was last modified on Jul 18, 2023 by MDN contributors.
Your blueprint for a better internet.
MDN
Support
Our communities
Developers
Visit Mozilla Corporation’s not-for-profit parent, the Mozilla Foundation.
Portions of this content are ©1998– 2023 by individual mozilla.org contributors. Content available under a Creative Commons license.