how'd they do that background

[tableforglasses]

I am looking at a site and I am wondering how they did the background. I have been trying to take the site apart to understand how it was put together, and I didn't know if it was done with an image background (which I can't find) or how it was done? I know this might be a simplistic question, but anybody with thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
www.trbc.org/singles
Sean

[abz]

CSS tile. They have used this image:http://www.trbc.org/singles/templates/main_template/images/main_background.gif

and linked in the stylesheet like this:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.trbc.org/singles/templates/main_template/css/template_css.css" type="text/css"/>

They have a few stylesheets on that page so you have to hunt for it

[tableforglasses]

thanks ABZ...is it better to save your background images as gifs or as jpgs?
Sean

[WebJoel]

*gif or *jpg for background image? Totally depends upon the image. If the image is like a photograph, then *jpg as *gif is more for web-graphics (256 colors or fewer), whereas *jpg goes upwards of several million colors.

The background image used by the web site you cited could have easily been done using a background-color instead of a background-image, but what they have works and the image is small.

You can use 'tiling background images' to create a mosaic of matching-edges images, thus creating the illusion of a continous, un-broken background.
I made a little site some time back that I created small, tiling background images to demonstrate this technique and to use as a repository of ready-made images, free for use.

http://joelburdick.awardspace.com/tiling_background_images/

A little javascript background-tiling script makes the example images 'tile' the same page on-click.

[abz]

Yes, it is dependant on the image itself. the way that gif's save teh information means that it is a better format for anything with solid lines and blocks of colour, such as text, or catoons. jpgs are much better at getting smooth gradients and changes in colour, so are better for photographic images