The CSS Background Color

Choosing CSS background color

The CSS background-color property lets you change the background color for the selected element:

body {
    background-color: blue;
}

CSS background color is applied to the padding, but not the margin of the element. It is an animatable property, introduced in CSS1:

.example {
  max-width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  margin: 10px;
  padding: 10px;
  background-color: #333;
}

Theory is great, but we recommend digging deeper!

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CSS background-color property syntax

To apply a CSS background color, you need to follow the syntax example below:

background-color: value;

The default value for this property is transparent. You can change it using the name, RGB or HEX value of the color you choose:

body {
  background-color: rgb(0, 255, 0);
}

p {
  background-color: red;
}

.example {
  background-color: #102296;
}

Tip: to get the value for the exact color tone you need, use the Pickeristic color picker.

Browser support

Chrome

1+

Edge

12+

Firefox

1+

IE

4+

Opera

3.5+

Safari

1+

Mobile browser support

Chrome

18+

Firefox

4+

Opera

All

Safari

All