Website Background Design Ideas
A website background sets the mood of a page before anyone reads a word. Below are background ideas by type (color and gradient, abstract shapes, pattern, photo, illustration and video), 30 ready-made hero backgrounds to start from, the sizes to export, and how to keep text readable on top.
Every background on this page:
- 1920 x 1080 px, landscape, made for a website hero or landing page
- 100% vector, editable in Adobe Illustrator
- RGB color, organized and grouped layers, free fonts
- Shown with a sample menu, headline and button that you can edit or remove
Contents
- What is a website background?
- Website background ideas by type
- Gradient and soft color backgrounds
- Fluid and wave backgrounds
- Dark website backgrounds
- Pattern, shape and minimal backgrounds
- Illustrated backgrounds
- Website background size and file format
- Readability and contrast tips
- How to add a background to a website
- FAQ
What is a website background?
A website background is whatever sits behind the content of a page: a color, a gradient, a pattern, an image or a video. Most sites have two layers of it: the body background behind the whole page, usually white or a light neutral, and section backgrounds, such as the hero at the top, a colored band for testimonials or a dark footer.
The hero background matters most, because it is the first thing visitors see. A good one fits the brand, leaves room for the headline and button, and never makes the text harder to read.
Website background ideas by type
| Type | Looks like | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solid color | One flat color, often white, off-white or a brand color | Content-heavy pages, blogs, shops | Can feel plain without good type and spacing |
| Gradient | A smooth blend of two or three colors | Tech, SaaS, apps, modern brands | Too many colors or harsh banding |
| Abstract shapes | Fluid blobs, waves, circles, geometric shapes | Hero sections, landing pages, startups | Shapes behind the text |
| Pattern and texture | Repeating dots, lines, Memphis shapes, paper or grain | Creative, kids, food, crafts | Busy patterns that compete with content |
| Photo | A full-width photo, often with a dark overlay | Travel, restaurants, real estate, events | Low contrast and heavy file size |
| Illustration | Drawn scenes, plants, people or objects | Brands with a friendly or themed look | Style that doesn’t match the rest of the site |
| Video | A short, silent looping clip | Hotels, events, product launches | Slow loading and distraction; always add a fallback image |
Most of the ready-made examples below are abstract, gradient, pattern and illustrated hero backgrounds. For a full gallery of geometric styles, see our geometric abstract backgrounds.
Gradient and soft color backgrounds
The safest website background: a smooth color transition with a few light shapes. Text stays readable almost anywhere on it, and a gradient adds depth that a flat color can’t.
1. Modern Gradient Design
A coral-to-pink gradient with faint diagonal shapes and plenty of open space on the left for a headline. Warm and simple for lifestyle, beauty and creative studios.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
2. Modern Geometric Gradients
A turquoise-to-blue gradient with translucent vertical panels and a soft dot pattern. Clean and fresh for tech, health and SaaS homepages.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
3. Shining Green
A lime-to-green gradient with soft waves and a few glossy spheres, with the headline centered. Good for eco, wellness and food brands.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
4. Star Pink
A light pink gradient with flowing waves and small floating bubbles. Soft and friendly for beauty, kids and event pages.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
5. Blue Light
A light-blue gradient with rounded diagonal bars on the right and a left-aligned headline. Calm and corporate, ideal behind a short intro and a button.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
6. Violet Core
A deep violet gradient with thin circles, dotted lines and small triangles. Subtle enough to keep white text readable, good for apps and agencies.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
Fluid and wave backgrounds
Liquid shapes and waves add movement to a hero section without a single photo. Keep the headline over the calmest part of the shapes.
7. Liquid Wave Theme
A white background with orange and purple liquid waves on the right only, leaving the left side clean for a red headline. One of the easiest layouts here for readable text.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
8. Fluid Water Color
Overlapping pink, teal, blue and orange fluid shapes behind a centered Fluid Design title. Bright and playful for creative and youth brands.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
9. Colorful Fluid
Pink, teal and orange liquid splashes on a blue gradient with an Abstract Fluid headline. Energetic for music, events and gaming.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
10. Green Fluid
A dark teal background with one glowing tube shape winding through it and dotted accents. A moody, modern hero for tech and product launches.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
11. Liquid Blue Design
A magenta-purple background with blue and mint liquid shapes in the corners and thin line patterns, headline centered. Works well for app and startup landing pages.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
12. Purple World
Layered magenta and purple waves with small squiggles and dot grids. A bold, single-color look that keeps the page cohesive.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
Dark website backgrounds
Dark backgrounds make light text, glowing lines and product shots stand out. They suit tech, gaming, music and luxury sites, and look at home next to a dark mode.
13. Blue Stardust
A navy background with a faint ring of glowing particles around a centered headline. Minimal and premium for tech, crypto and AI pages.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
14. Colorful Particles
A purple background with a twisted ribbon of gold and pink particles behind an Abstract Particles title. Futuristic and eye-catching.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
15. Genetic Style
A navy-to-magenta gradient with a flowing dotted particle wave and glowing circles, headline on the left. Good for science, data and events.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
16. Meteornoid
A dark navy background with diagonal pink and blue rounded streaks like falling meteors. Dynamic for gaming, sport and tech launches.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
17. Lunar Space
A dark charcoal background with bright cyan shapes, thin contour lines and small arrows. Strong contrast for startups and portfolios.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
18. Minimalist Luxury
A navy background with gold art deco lines, diamonds and a gold corner shape, with the headline in spaced capitals. Elegant for hotels, jewelry and real estate.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
Pattern, shape and minimal backgrounds
Light backgrounds with shapes kept to the edges. They give a page personality while the center stays white or cream for content.
19. Geometric Style
A white background with blue, pink and black shapes, lines and grids pushed to the corners and a centered headline. Clean and modern for agencies.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
20. Simple Shape Elements
A cream background with soft peach and blue blobs, dot patterns and a thin circle outline. Gentle and readable for coaches, clinics and blogs.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
21. Flawless Geometric
A speckled cream background with hand-painted watercolor shapes and brush strokes along the bottom and right. Artsy and warm for studios and shops.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
22. Handmade Geometric
A peach background with watercolor shapes around the edges and two brushy lines framing the headline. Handmade feel for crafts, cafes and creatives.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
23. Memphis Seamless Pattern
Bright Memphis triangles, zigzags and dots around a white content area. Fun and loud for kids, events and youth brands.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
24. Unique Shape
A white background with one navy and red geometric composition on the right and a left-aligned headline. Minimal and confident for consultancies.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
Illustrated backgrounds
Leaves, fruit, flowers and animals give a site a theme at a glance. The best ones keep the illustrations around a plain box or open area for text.
25. Leaf Style
Red, yellow and peach shapes with tropical leaves around a light center and a serif headline. Natural and stylish for beauty, fashion and travel.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
26. Tropical Design
Peach and green shapes with lemons, watermelon and line-drawn plants around a white text box. Fresh for juice bars, food and summer campaigns.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
27. Ocean Life
A teal background with lemon slices, leaves and flowers around a white text box. Bright and cheerful for drinks, food and seasonal sales.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
28. Save Our Forest
A cream background with painted leaves and a flamingo, plus a Save our Forest headline. Made for environmental causes, nonprofits and nature brands.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
29. Paradise Flower
Large purple, red and teal flowers on a soft pink background with a centered serif title. Romantic for florists, weddings and spas.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
30. Modern Japanese Art
A white background with a red sun, thin line waves and small circle patterns. Calm and cultural for restaurants, travel and art pages.
1920 x 1080 px · 100% vector · Adobe Illustrator · RGB
Website background size and file format
There is no single required size, because screens vary, but these are the common rules of thumb:
| Use | Typical size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Full-width hero | 1920 x 1080 px | Covers most desktop screens; the backgrounds above use this size |
| Large or retina screens | 2560 x 1440 px | Only if the image is sharp detail; otherwise 1920 px is enough |
| Mobile hero | About 750 x 1334 px or a crop of the desktop image | Keep the key area in the center so it survives the crop |
| Tiling pattern | A small square tile, e.g. 200 x 200 px | Repeated by CSS, so the file stays tiny |
- Keep the file light. Aim for roughly 200 to 500 KB for a hero image. Large backgrounds are a common reason pages load slowly.
- Use WebP for photos and complex art. It is usually much smaller than JPG at the same quality. JPG is the fallback, PNG only when you need transparency.
- Use SVG or CSS for simple shapes and gradients. A CSS gradient weighs almost nothing and stays sharp at any size.
- Export from the vector file. With vector backgrounds like the ones above, export at the exact size you need instead of scaling a small image up.
- Check the crop on mobile. A wide 16:9 image is cut off at the sides on a phone, so keep the important part in the middle.
Readability and contrast tips
- Check contrast first. Body text should reach a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background (WCAG AA); large headlines need at least 3:1. Free contrast checkers test this in seconds.
- Leave a calm area for text. Put the headline over the plainest part of the background, or choose a design with shapes at the edges, like Liquid Wave Theme or Unique Shape above.
- Add an overlay on photos. A semi-transparent dark or light layer between the photo and the text fixes most readability problems.
- Limit the palette. Two or three colors that match your brand look more professional than every color at once. Very loud, clashing or flashing backgrounds can also be uncomfortable for some visitors.
- Keep it consistent. Use the same background style across pages, and save the boldest background for the hero.
- Choose a font that holds up. Bold, simple letterforms survive busy backgrounds better than thin ones. See our best fonts for websites.
What is the best background color for a website? For most sites, white or a very light neutral (off-white, light grey, cream) is the best body background, because it keeps text readable and lets images and buttons stand out. Use your brand color, a gradient or a dark background for sections such as the hero, and pick a dark theme when the content is mostly images, video or code.
How to add a background to a website
With CSS: set a color or image on the page or on a section. For example, background: #f6f6f9; for a solid color, background: linear-gradient(135deg, #6a5cff, #ff6ab0); for a gradient, or background: url(hero.webp) center / cover no-repeat; for an image that fills a hero section. Add a background-color as a fallback in case the image doesn’t load.
With a website builder: WordPress (Cover or Group block), Wix, Squarespace, Webflow and Shopify all let you select a section and choose a color, gradient, image or video as its background. Upload the image at the size you exported, then check the page on a phone.
Video backgrounds: keep the clip short, muted and compressed, and always set a still image as a poster or fallback for slow connections.
Need the whole page, not just the background? Browse our landing page inspiration or read how to choose a website template. For phone-sized backgrounds, see our aesthetic Instagram story backgrounds.
Frequently asked questions
What are good website background ideas?
Soft gradients, fluid or wave shapes, light geometric patterns, dark backgrounds with glowing details, illustrated themes and photos with an overlay. Choose the one that fits your brand and leaves room for the headline.
What is the best background for a website?
One that supports the content: usually a white or light body background, with a brand-colored, gradient or image background in the hero. Readability and contrast matter more than the style.
What size should a website background image be?
1920 x 1080 px covers most desktop screens. Compress it to a few hundred KB, use WebP where possible and check how it crops on mobile.
How do I make a website background?
Start from a ready-made template or design one in a tool such as Illustrator or Figma, export it at 1920 x 1080 px, then set it as the background of a section with CSS or your website builder’s background settings.
Can I edit the backgrounds on this page?
Yes. They are vector files for Adobe Illustrator, so you can change colors, move shapes, edit or delete the sample text, and export the size you need.
Find your website background
Browse the full collection of abstract, gradient and illustrated website backgrounds.