CSS: Creating textured backgrounds

Question

I am currently struggling with setting an image background for my site that will load fast enough. I have used data url image and even optomized images but its taking to long wh

Answer 1

You should try slicing the image if possible into a smaller piece which could be repeated. I have sliced that image to a 101x101px image.

CSS:

body{
  background-image: url(SO_texture_bg.jpg);
  background-repeat:repeat;
}

But in some cases, we wouldn't be able to slice the image to a smaller one. In that case, I would use the whole image. But you could also use the CSS3 methods like what Mustafa Kamal had mentioned.

Wish you good luck.

Answer 2

If you search for an image base-64 converter, you can embed some small image texture files as code into your @import url('') section of code. It will look like a lot of code; but at least all your data is now stored locally - rather than having to call a separate resource to load the image.

Example link: http://www.base64-image.de/

When I take a file from my own inventory of a simple icon in PNG format, and convert it to base-64, it looks like this in my CSS:

url('data:image/png;base64,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')

With your texture images, you'll want to employ a similar process.

Answer 3

Use an image editor to cut out a portion of the background, then apply CSS's background-repeat property to make the small image fill the area where it is used.

In some cases, background-repeat creates seams where the image repeats. A solution is to use an image editor as follows: starting with the background image, copy the image, flip (mirror, not rotate) the copy left-to-right, and paste it to the right edge of the original, overlapping 1 pixel. Crop to remove 1 pixel from the right edge of the combined image. Now repeat for the vertical: copy the combined image, flip the copy top-to-bottom, paste it to the bottom of the combined, overlapping one pixel. Crop to remove 1 pixel from the bottom. The resulting image should be seam-free.

Answer 4

with latest CSS3 technology, it is possible to create textured background. Check this out: http://lea.verou.me/css3patterns/#

but it still limited on so many aspect. And browser support is also not so ready.

your best bet is using small texture image and make repeat to that background. you could get some nice ready to use texture image here:

http://subtlepatterns.com