You've probably already guessed what background does; it changes the field upon which the content of an HTML element resides in.
Let's go ahead and grab a cool picture to use as a background. Go here and save the image in your 4-assets folder, with the rest of your resources.
Sample Code
Let's add this sample code to your background.html file:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Backgrounds</title>
<!--1-->
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="05-background.css">
</head>
<body>
<div class="wrapper">
<!--2-->
<h1>Background</h1>
<p>You can set the background of your webpage to a simple color, or you can use an image. The background you set can be for the entire page and/or certain divs. </p>
<hr>
<!--4-->
<div class="background1">
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod
tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam,
quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo
consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse
cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non
proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p>
</div>
<hr>
<!--5-->
<div class="background2">
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod
tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam,
quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo
consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse
cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non
proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod
tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam,
quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo
consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse
cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non
proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p>
<!--6-->
<table>
<tr>
<th>First Name</th>
<th>Last Name</th>
<th>Occupation</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sherlock</td>
<td>Holmes</td>
<td>Consulting Detective</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>John</td>
<td>Watson</td>
<td>Doctor</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</body>
</html>
CSS Sample Code
Let's add this sample code to your background.css file:
.wrapper{margin:5px;}/* 3 */h1{text-align:center;}/*this sets the background color of the entire body*/body{background-color:lightgray;}/* 4 */.background1{background-color:lightblue;}/* 5 */.background2{background-image:url("../4-assets/upfeathers.png");}/* 7 */table,th,td{border:1px solid black;}
Discussion
Much like fonts, backgrounds are another aspect of an application that can make or break the user experience. You can see that implementing background isn't as challenging as many other properties, however, consider carefully what the result will be. Neutral colors, grayscales and blurred backgrounds tend to be more accessible to the average user.
It's important to note how the file path works here: ../4-assets/upfeathers.png. When we use ../, that means back up one level from the current directory, then, go look for the 4-assets folder. Inside there, look for upfeathers.png. If we wanted to look two directories above, we could say ../../.
Challenge
Find an image you like, and try using it as a background. Explore other options like gradients as backgrounds.
