Section B.2. Adding Colors and Backgrounds
The < body > tag lets you create a background for your auction description using a color or a photograph. Here's how to use it:
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To specify a background color , use bgcolor and one of these methods :
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A color name . Specify a background color by name like this: <body bgcolor="yellow"> or <body bgcolor="blue"> . There are 140 colors you can specify by name. To see a chart of them, go to www.learningwebdesign.com/colornames.html.
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A hexadecimal number . These six-digit combinations of numbers and letters specify colors precisely: #000000 is black, and #FFFFFF is white. In between, you get combinations like #9900FF ( violet ), #9999FF (periwinkle), #FFFF00 (yellow), #999999 (gray), and so on. (The advantage of hexadecimal colors is that they give you more precise control over the shade .) So, if you want a yellow background, for example, your < body > tag looks like this: <body bgcolor="#FFFF00"> .
Tip: If you don't habitually speak hexadecimal (and who does?), you can find a handy chart of colors and the codes that go with them at http://auctioninsights.com/colors.html or at http://xample.net/htmlcolors.htm. -
To use a picture as your background , type < body background="http://www.yourimagehost.com/picture.gif" >, replacing yourimagehost with the name of the Web site that hosts your photos and picture.gif with the name of your picture (which could end with .gif or with .jpg ). If your picture is smaller than the browser window, the picture repeats itself to fill the window, as shown in Figure B-2.
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Tip: Don't go overboard with background colors and pictures. Either of these can make your listing harder to read. If there's not enough contrast between text color and background color, for example, the words don't show up. And a background picture can make your auction take too long to loadencouraging buyers to zoom off to other auctions rather than wait.
B.2.1. Coloring Text
If you want to change the color of your text, use the < font color > tag and the hexadecimal number for the color you want, like this:
<font color=:"#00ff00">I want this text to be green.</font>
Note: You can also choose a text color by using plain-English color names (red, green, blue, etc.), but doing so gives you less control of how the color will look. Using a color name, the example code looks like this: <font color="green"> I want this text to be green. </font>.
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