- 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
- Developers
- 3 Methods to Set a Background Color with HTML & CSS
- Setting a Solid Background Color
- Creating a Gradient Background
- Creating a Changing Background
- Community Q&A
- Div Background Color – How to Change Background Color in CSS
- How to Set Background Color with Named Colors
- How to Set Background Color with Hexadecimal Colors
- How to Set Background Color with RGB Colors
- How to Set Background Color with HSL Colors
- Conclusion
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?
This page was last modified on Jul 18, 2023 by MDN contributors.
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3 Methods to Set a Background Color with HTML & CSS
This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Darlene Antonelli, MA. Darlene Antonelli is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. Darlene has experience teaching college courses, writing technology-related articles, and working hands-on in the technology field. She earned an MA in Writing from Rowan University in 2012 and wrote her thesis on online communities and the personalities curated in such communities.
This article has been viewed 1,504,216 times.
Did you want to change the background color of that page using HTML? Unfortunately, with HTML 5, this is no longer possible in just HTML coding. Instead, you’ll need to use both HTML and CSS coding, which works even better. This wikiHow teaches you how to change the background color of a web page by editing its HTML and CSS.
- Although the attribute for HTML to manage background color is gone, you can still use HTML with CSS to change your background color easily.
- You’ll need a numeric code for the color you want if you want a specific color. If you don’t need a specific color, you can use words like «orange» or «light blue.»
- When editing a web page with HTML and CSS, you can create a solid background, gradient, or changing background.
Setting a Solid Background Color
body background-color: #d24dff; >
DOCTYPE html> html> head> style> body background-color: #d24dff > style> head> html>
DOCTYPE html> html> head> style> body background-color: #93B874; > h1 background-color: #00b33c; > p background-color: #FFFFFF); > style> head> body> h1>Header with Green Backgroundh1> p>Paragraph with white backgroundp> body> html>
Creating a Gradient Background
Understand the basic syntax of this process. When making a gradient, there are two pieces of information you’ll need: the starting point/angle, and the colors that the gradient will transition between. You can select multiple colors to have the gradient move between all of them, and you can set a direction or angle for the gradient. [2] X Research source
background: linear-gradient(direction/angle, color1, color2, color3, etc);
html min-height: 100%; > body background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#93B874, #C9DCB9); background: -o-linear-gradient(#93B874, #C9DCB9); background: -moz-linear-gradient(#93B874, #C9DCB9); background: linear-gradient(#93B874, #C9DCB9); background-color: #93B874; >
html min-height: 100%;> body background: -webkit-linear-gradient(left, #93B874, #C9DCB9); background: -o-linear-gradient(right, #93B874, #C9DCB9); background: -moz-linear-gradient(right, #93B874, #C9DCB9); background: linear-gradient(to right, #93B874, #C9DCB9); background-color: #93B874; >
- For example, not only can you add more than two colors, you can also put a percentage after each one. This will allow you to set how much spacing you want each color segment to have. Here’s a sample gradient that uses this principle:
background: linear-gradient(#93B874 10%, #C9DCB9 70%, #000000 90%);
background: linear-gradient(to right, rgba(147,184,116,0), rgba(147,184,116,1));
DOCTYPE html> html> head> style> html min-height: 100%; > body background: -webkit-linear-gradient(left, #93B874, #C9DCB9); background: -o-linear-gradient(right, #93B874, #C9DCB9); background: -moz-linear-gradient(right, #93B874, #C9DCB9); background: linear-gradient(to right, #93B874, #C9DCB9); background-color: #93B874; > style> head> body> body> html>
Creating a Changing Background
-webkit-animation: colorchange 60s infinite; animation: colorchange 60s infinite;
@-webkit-keyframes colorchange 0% background: #33FFF3;> 25% background: #78281F;> 50% background: #117A65;> 75% background: #DC7633;> 100% background: #9B59B6;> > @keyframes colorchange 0% background: #33FFF3;> 25% background: #78281F;> 50% background: #117A65;> 75% background: #DC7633;> 100% background: #9B59B6;> >
DOCTYPE html> html> head> style> body -webkit-animation: colorchange 60s infinite; animation: colorchange 60s infinite; > @-webkit-keyframes colorchange 0% background: #33FFF3;> 25% background: #78281F;> 50% background: #117A65;> 75% background: #DC7633;> 100% background: #9B59B6;> > @keyframes colorchange 0% background: #33FFF3;> 25% background: #78281F;> 50% background: #117A65;> 75% background: #DC7633;> 100% background: #9B59B6;> > style> head> body> body> html>
Community Q&A
Use the background-size property inside of the «body» element. For example, «background-size: 300px 150px» makes the background 300 pixels wide and 150 pixels high.
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Thanks! We’re glad this was helpful.
Thank you for your feedback.
As a small thank you, we’d like to offer you a $30 gift card (valid at GoNift.com). Use it to try out great new products and services nationwide without paying full price—wine, food delivery, clothing and more. Enjoy! Claim Your Gift If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow
Thanks! We’re glad this was helpful.
Thank you for your feedback.
As a small thank you, we’d like to offer you a $30 gift card (valid at GoNift.com). Use it to try out great new products and services nationwide without paying full price—wine, food delivery, clothing and more. Enjoy! Claim Your Gift If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow
Div Background Color – How to Change Background Color in CSS
Kolade Chris
If you’re working on a web development project, setting a nice background color can give the website a more enticing look.
To set a background color for a div or related element in CSS, you use the background-color property.
While setting this background color, your creativity is your limit as to how far you want to go.
So in this article, I’m going to show you how you can set this background color.
How to Set Background Color with Named Colors
With named colors, you can set the background color by bringing in the background-color property and assigning it a value expressed in a color name like red , green , blue , and so on.
You can use the following styles to make the web page look better. Just set a width and height for the div , so the background-color can take effect:
Modern browsers recognize around 147 colors, so you’re still limited a little.
How to Set Background Color with Hexadecimal Colors
With Hexadecimal values, you can set a background color for a div or any other element with a total of 6 characters.
Hex colors start with the hash sign (#), any number from 0 to 9, and finally any letter from A to F.
The first 2 values stand for red, the next two stand for green, and the last 2 represent blue.
With hex values, you can dive deep into the color wheel and even use colors no one has ever used.
How to Set Background Color with RGB Colors
RGB stands for Red Green, and Blue.
To set the background color with RGB, you specify the amount of red, green, and blue you want with numbers between 0 and 255.
RGB also has a variation called RGBA. The last A means alpha and it lets you determine how opaque you want the color to be.
The alpha takes a value from 0.0 to 1.0. 0.0 means 0% opacity, 0.5 means 50% opacity, and 1.0 means 100% opacity.
How to Set Background Color with HSL Colors
HSL stands for Hue, Saturation, and Lightness. It is the most dynamic within the ways you can specify a background color for a div or other elements.
- Hue represents the color wheel in 360°. 0° is red, 120° is green and 240° is blue
- Saturation is the amount of gray in the color expressed in percentages. 0% is the shade of gray and 100% is the color itself.
- As the name implies, lightness is the amount of darkness and lightness in the color expressed as a percentage. 0% is black and 100% is white.
Conclusion
Since you can apply colors in 4 different ways, you must be wondering which one you should use.
When you use named colors, you’re kind of limited in how far you can go in applying different shades of colors.
Each color like red, green, blue, yellow, or any other color has a lot of variations you won’t get access to with named colors.
You can only access about 147 predefined colors recognized by browsers.
Hexadecimal colors, on the other hand, are very dynamic. They are mostly used among developers, and creativity is the limit. These hex colors allow you to use different shades of the same color.
RGB colors are as dynamic as hexadecimal colors. You can specify the amount of red, green, and blue from 0 to 255, and you can also use the added alpha value to specify the transparency of the color.
HSL is the most dynamic of all of them. You can specify exactly the color from 0 to 360 degrees in the color wheel, set the saturation and darkness as a percentage, and set the opacity to any value between 0.0 and 1.0.
So deciding which to use between named, hex, RGB and HSL colors depends on you and how creative you want to be and what your project’s needs are.