How to make a picture as a background

With the new Template Designer, it is now very easy to add or change background for your blog. Sign into Blogger.com

Dashboard > Template Designer > Background

and there you can change your background color or image at will without having to directly edit the template.

The first thing you have to do is to choose an image where the color of the image and the text of the blog are compatible and the color doesn't clash. Otherwise the text will be very difficult to read. Another thing is the size of the image. If the image size does not fit the whole background, it will normally repeat itself unless you choose not to do so (see last part of post). If it repeat itself, to make the background pleasant, you will have to ensure the repeated images merge properly. For my demo blog Self Improvements, I chose a cloudy sky with white and light blue as they merge into each other well while the black text on the light background will still be clearly readable.

When you have selected your image and have stored it in your computer, then to make the picture as a background, you first have to post the picture on the web somewhere or host the picture with a photo host like Photobucket. Refer to "Getting Blogger to host your pictures for the profile, etc." if you want Blogger to host the image. Get the url (example http://photo-url.jpg) of the picture, then sign into Dashboard, select the blog, click TEMPLATE tab, and look for this block of CSS code in the template. It will be somewhere in the beginning of the template:

body {
background:#fff;
margin:0;
padding:40px 20px;
font:x-small Georgia,Serif;
text-align:center;
color:#333;
font-size/* */:/**/small;
font-size: /**/small;
}

Then add this line of code
background-image:url("URL of photo");
to the above, as shown below (added code in red)

body {
background:#fff;
background-image:url("URL of photo");
margin:0;
padding:40px 20px;
font:x-small Georgia,Serif;
text-align:center;
color:#333;
font-size/* */:/**/small;
font-size: /**/small;
}

replacing URL of photo with the real url of the picture, for example
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5611/753/1600/sky-19.0.jpg

If you don't want the image to repeat in the background, all you have to do is to add another line to the code: background-repeat:no-repeat;

So your CSS code become:

body {
background:#fff;
background-image:url("http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5611/753/1600/sky-19.0.jpg");
background-repeat:no-repeat;
margin:0;
padding:40px 20px;
font:x-small Georgia,Serif;
text-align:center;
color:#333;
font-size/* */:/**/small;
font-size: /**/small;
}

change background color or image of main blog column

With the new Blogger Template Designer, changing the background is now a breeze. Just sing into
DASHBOARD > DESIGN > TEMPLATE DESIGNER > BACKGROUND
and change the blog background according either color or image. If this option is not offered you will either have to stick the old method of changing background described below or change to a Template Designer template.

Blog reader asked this question and I figure I might as well answer in a post.

ADD/CHANGE BACKGROUND COLOR OF MAIN COLUMN (POSTS)

To change the background color of ONLY the main column (posts), sign into Dashboard, click LAYOUT (now called DESIGN) in the section for the relevant blog, click EDIT HTML sub-tab to open the template editor window. Look for this block of codes in the template:

#main-wrapper {
width: 410px;
float: left;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}

(This is for the standard Blogger Minima template. Wordings may be slightly different for different template but will be mainly similar)

Add any of this to the block of codes:

background:pink;
background:blue;
background:#D4FFFF;
etc.

The last will give you a greater choice of color. For the last example which use HTML color code, you can get much help using the free ColorPic tool. I used it frequently. You can Google for it by typing the search term "colorpic" or "color picker" into the search bar above (tick "Web").

After addition, the block of code may now look something like this:

#main-wrapper {
background:#D4FFFF;
width: 410px;
float: left;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}

ADD BACKGROUND IMAGE TO MAIN COLUMN (POSTS)

Do exactly as above, but this time, upload the image to the web either using the free Photobucket or use Blogger to host the image as described in this post Use New Blogger to host your pictures for the profile photo, sidebar, blog Header, etc.. Get the photo URL.

Then add this line of code into the blocks mentioned above:

background: url(photo URL);

So the block of codes become:

#main-wrapper {
background: url(photo URL);
width: 410px;
float: left;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */ }

If add a background image, you ask yourself if it will increase loading time too much, weather text and other images will be visible or look good with it, etc. Not everyone is on broadband. Some still use dialup

Change blog background color of new blogger sidebar

A blogger commented that he could not find the sidebar color code in the template to change the background color of the sidebar. The CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) of every template is written different and if something is missing, all you need to do is to add the relevant missing part in.

For example, in the standard Blogger Scribe template, this is the section in the CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) for the sidebar:

#sidebar {
width:150px;
float:left;
padding:8px 0;
margin:0;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}

There is nothing mentioned about background. So what I did was to add a single line

background: #FFFFFF;

(#FFFFFF is the hexadecimal color code for white) to that section, so that it became:

#sidebar {
width:150px;
float:left;
padding:8px 0;
margin:0;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
background: #FFFFFF;
} 

Change blog background color

Update: The new Blogger Template Designer has made this task very easy.
Sign into Dashboard (blogger.com) > Design > Template Designer > Background
and change whatever you fancy there easily.

This blog uses Ramani's 3 column Minima template and the background color of the blog is white. To change the blog background, go to LAYOUT, click Edit HTML, look for the outer-wrapper portion of the stylesheet of the template. Add the line

background: chosen color;

For example, in an extract of the template below, a line (in red) has been added:

background: green;


/* Outer-Wrapper
------------------------------------------------ */
#outer-wrapper {
width: 750px;
margin:0 auto;
padding:10px;
text-align:left;
font: $bodyfont;
background: green;
}