background-color

This is an experimental page.

Summary

The background-color CSS property sets the background color of an element, either through a color value or the keyword transparent.

Initial valuetransparent
Applies toall elements. It also applies to ::first-letter and ::first-line.
Inheritedno
Mediavisual
Computed valuecomputed color
Animation typea color
Canonical orderthe unique non-ambiguous order defined by the formal grammar

Syntax

/* Keyword values */
background-color: red;

/* Hexadecimal value */
background-color: #bbff00;
background-color: #bbff0077;

/* RGB value */
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 128);

/* HSLA value */
background-color: hsla(50, 33%, 25%, 0.75);

/* Special keyword values */
background-color: currentColor;
background-color: transparent;

/* Global values */
background-color: inherit;
background-color: initial;
background-color: unset;

The background-color property is specified as a single <color> value.

Values

<color>
Is a CSS <color> that describes the uniform color of the background. Even if one or several background-image are defined, this color can be affect the rendering, by transparency if the images aren't opaque. In CSS, transparent is a color.

Formal syntax

<color>

where
<color> = <rgb()> | <rgba()> | <hsl()> | <hsla()> | <hex-color> | <named-color> | currentcolor | <deprecated-system-color>

where
<rgb()> = rgb( [ [ <percentage>{3} | <number>{3} ] [ / <alpha-value> ]? ] | [ [ <percentage>#{3} | <number>#{3} ] , <alpha-value>? ] )
<rgba()> = rgba( [ [ <percentage>{3} | <number>{3} ] [ / <alpha-value> ]? ] | [ [ <percentage>#{3} | <number>#{3} ] , <alpha-value>? ] )
<hsl()> = hsl( [ <hue> <percentage> <percentage> [ / <alpha-value> ]? ] | [ <hue>, <percentage>, <percentage>, <alpha-value>? ] )
<hsla()> = hsla( [ <hue> <percentage> <percentage> [ / <alpha-value> ]? ] | [ <hue>, <percentage>, <percentage>, <alpha-value>? ] )

where
<alpha-value> = <number> | <percentage>
<hue> = <number> | <angle>

Examples

HTML

<div class="exampleone">
 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer
</div>

<div class="exampletwo">
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer
</div>

<div class="examplethree">
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer
</div>

CSS

.exampleone {
  background-color: teal;
  color: white;
}

.exampletwo {
  background-color: rgb(153,102,153);
  color: rgb(255,255,204);
}

.examplethree {
  background-color: #777799;
  color: #FFFFFF;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
CSS Backgrounds and Borders Module Level 3
The definition of 'background-color' in that specification.
Candidate Recommendation Though technically removing the transparent keyword, this doesn't change anything as it has been incorporated as a true <color>
CSS Level 2 (Revision 1)
The definition of 'background-color' in that specification.
Recommendation No change
CSS Level 1
The definition of 'background-color' in that specification.
Recommendation Initial definition

Browser compatibility

No compatibility data found. Please contribute data for "css/properties/background-color" (depth: background-color) to the MDN compatibility data repository.

See also

Document Tags and Contributors

 Contributors to this page: wbamberg
 Last updated by: wbamberg,