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HTML Coding

Colors and Backgrounds

Note: The HTML pages are out-of-date and will not be updated.

This document provides a brief description of the HTML codes used to apply colors and background images to Web documents. More information on selecting and applying colors and background images is provided in the Web Publishing Series document on Colors and Backgrounds.

return to topColor Codes

The color codes below are used within the BODY code and are applied to the entire document. The following example shows the placement of color codes within the BODY tag (order is not important):

<BODY BGCOLOR="color#" TEXT="color#" LINK="color#" ALINK="color#" VLINK="color#">

On Purpose/Explanation
BGCOLOR="color#" Defines the background color for the page
TEXT="color#" Defines the color for the main text on the page
LINK="color#" Defines the color for the text of unvisited links
VLINK="color#" Defines the color for the text of visited links
ALINK="color#" Defines the color for active links (the split-second color of the text as you click on it)

You can also change the color of a portion of text within the document by using the <FONT> code:

On Off Purpose/Explanation
<FONT COLOR="color#"> </FONT> Adjusts the color of the text only within the specified section

Within tables, you can adjust the background color of the entire table, selected rows, or single cells:

On Off Purpose/Explanation
<TABLE BGCOLOR="color#"> </TABLE> Adjusts the background color of the entire table
<TR BGCOLOR="color#"> </TR> Adjusts the background color only within the cells of the specified row
<TD BGCOLOR="color#"> </TD> Adjusts the background color only within the specified cell

return to topBackground Images

The color codes above allow you to define what your background will look like by using the BGCOLOR tag. This is different from the BACKGROUND code, which tiles an image across the screen and then lays text over it. An explanation of the difference between BGCOLOR and BACKGROUND and instructions for using the BACKGROUND code are provided in the Backgrounds section of the Web Publishing Series document on Colors and Backgrounds. The BACKGROUND code is also used within the BODY code of the document.

On Purpose/Explanation
BACKGROUND="url" The image at the designated URL will be tiled across the background of the page
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