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Backgrounds/textures stock photos

Multi-purpose royalty-free background images and textures

Background images are the backbone of any effective design. Whether you’re preparing a product photo or creating a social media post, your choice of background can make or break the visual. Virtually any image can serve as a background. But will it be the perfect one for your project? Let’s look at a few simple guidelines for finding the right match from our diverse collection of background photos and illustrations.

Background images for websites

  • Websites are probably the most popular use case for background images. A website, unlike a social media page, tells your visitors everything about you, your brand, or your project. You may need a background image as a header on your homepage or for the entire page layout.

  • When choosing a background image for your website, keep the user experience you’d like to communicate in mind. Do you want a serious or laid-back mood? Do you have creative branding, or is your identity more traditional? Are there colors you need to follow from your brand guidelines? These are considerations that will guide your choice of backgrounds.

  • If you plan to layer your background image with design elements or text, pick an image that’s not too intrusive or bold. Choose a minimalistic but interesting image that leaves room for the important stuff, like a headline or button.

  • If you want to pair your site’s logo with a matching background image, color palettes will help create comforting contrasts. Try a complementary or analogous colored background to make your logo stand out.

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Choosing the right background image

From Instagram posts to banner images to a website homepage, every visual you work with needs a background. Some background images are understated and soft, blending perfectly with your other visual elements. Others are high-contrast, using bold patterns and saturated colors add interest. The right background will not distract your viewer from the focal point of your creative project. Instead, it should highlight and enhance the main features of your visual, whether that’s a headline or a button.

Questions about background images


What is a background image?

A background is any visual that serves as a secondary or supporting image. Put simply, it’s the image that goes behind the main visual. You encounter backgrounds everywhere, from social media and websites, to slideshows and product packaging. While backgrounds are secondary in a composition, their role in design is critical. Background images establish a mood that prepares your viewer for the experience of your primary design elements. They also aid in visual comprehension, guiding your viewers to important messages laid out in the foreground. The best background images are high-quality and attention-grabbing, but not overwhelming.


Where to find background images for websites?

You can easily find background images on the internet. But there are risks associated with using images directly from search engines or random sites. Even if the background image you find is high quality, you probably don’t have permission to use it. The owner of the image may track down the visual and ask you to remove it from your site, social media channel, or project. The safer alternative is to license an image. When you license an image from Shutterstock, you are protected for a variety of use cases, both digital and in print. Moreso, our curated library of background photos and texture images is full of modern, high-quality, royalty free images that you can use in any project.


What size image is best for a background?

The size of your background image will depend on your project. If you need a background image for a website, check the requirements of your hosting platform. If you prepare an image for social media, check the recommendations of the social media site where you’re planning to post it. If you are working on a for-print project, get the dimensions from your printer. Images in our image library are available at print resolution and several standard size layouts. If you need more sizes, you can use Shutterstock Editor to resize any image before you download.


How to set a background image in HTML?

Most website builders allow you to quickly and easily set an image as the background of your web page. Check the customization settings of your platform for a background image upload button. Certain platforms like Wordpress or Shopify have this option in the customization area of their themes. If you need to set your image as a background in an HTML element manually, you can do so with a bit of in-line code. You can set your background image to repeat, meaning it will tile repeatedly if a web browser is bigger than your image. If you set it to not repeat, it will stay fixed in place.


What are virtual backgrounds?

Virtual backgrounds are images you can use in your video conferencing applications to change the background behind you. Virtual backgrounds are useful if your actual background is cluttered or distracting for those you're conferencing with. Video conferencing applications like Microsoft Teams or Zoom use technology similar to green screen to automatically replace your actual background with a background image of your choice, while preserving the image of your face. The rule of thumb for virtual backgrounds is the same as any other background — they should not be distracting. Some popular choices are landscapes, offices, or libraries.

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