Backgrounds

Background images can be applied from the template designer.  They can be anything that you want, but for the benefit of faster page loading I like to use image slices.  To create these I Print Screen the image of my blog after the header and navigation is already in place and then paste it into a new Photoshop file.  This will allow you to overlay images to replace the existing background and make them visible or invisible to play around with colors, textures or whatever you like.  If you don't have Photoshop (which is relatively expensive) you can use GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program which is a free alternative to Photoshop.  If you like you can try some of the images that I have created (or found free versions) to get an idea of what you may like, or use them if you can work them into the design of your blog.  Just lift the images by copying and pasting into your favorite editor or save directly from this page with right-click.  The background image will also lay in behind the blogger bar at the top of the page so you can color this section of the background image (like some of the images below) and select a semi-transparent blogger bar to further enhance the design of your new blog.  You will also probably want to set the background image to repeat only horizontally so that if your blog runs farther down the page it will not repeat below the image, but rather transition seamlessly into the preset background color.