Chapter 8: Creating Web Backgrounds

Overview

In real life, most people “tune out” what’s in the background, but a background plays a huge part (even if it’s just on a subconscious level) of the impressions you get from something.

Your favorite TV shows use certain backgrounds to help suggest a mood. For example, what mood would you get from The Sopranos if every scene took place in neon pink and green painted rooms? Chances are you wouldn’t think the show was about the mob.

Web page backgrounds are no different. The background of a web page has a huge impact on the look and feel of your site.

When web page backgrounds were first used, people went crazy. You’d find web pages with loud, colorful, busy designs that made it almost impossible to read the text on the page, as shown in Figure 8-1.

Figure 8-1: Using busy backgrounds for web pages is a no-no

In this chapter, you’ll learn to create web backgrounds that won’t have your viewers screaming.