LaTeX Background Color: Pages, Text, Table Cells, Boxes and Watermarks

Background color in LaTeX can mean the color of the page, a highlight behind a few words, a shaded table row, or a box around a paragraph. They all start with the xcolor package.

Page background

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\definecolor{paleblue}{RGB}{230,240,255}
\begin{document}
\pagecolor{paleblue}
This page has a pale blue background.
\newpage
\nopagecolor
This page is white again.
\end{document}

\pagecolor applies from the current page on; \nopagecolor switches it off. Colors can be named (red, gray), defined with \definecolor in RGB, HTML or CMYK, or mixed: blue!10 is 10% blue and 90% white, and red!50!black is a dark red.

Highlight text

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\begin{document}
Some \colorbox{yellow}{highlighted text},
\fcolorbox{red}{yellow!30}{a framed box},
and \textcolor{red}{red text}.
\end{document}

\colorbox cannot break across lines. For highlighting that wraps, use the soul package with \hl{...}, or lua-ul if you compile with LuaLaTeX.

Table rows and cells

Load xcolor with the table option (it must be the first time xcolor is loaded, or pass the option with \PassOptionsToPackage before the class). Then \rowcolor shades a row, \cellcolor a cell, and \rowcolors alternates colors automatically:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{ll}
\rowcolor{gray!25} Group & Mean \\
A & \cellcolor{green!20} 3.2 \\
B & 4.1 \\
\end{tabular}

\bigskip
\rowcolors{2}{gray!10}{white}
\begin{tabular}{ll}
A & 1 \\
B & 2 \\
C & 3 \\
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

\rowcolors{2}{gray!10}{white} starts at row 2 and alternates the two colors. Many journals print tables in black and white, so check the author guidelines before shading a submitted table.

A colored box around a paragraph

tcolorbox gives a box with a background, frame and optional title, and it can break across pages with the breakable library:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tcolorbox}
\begin{document}
\begin{tcolorbox}[colback=yellow!10, colframe=orange!80!black, title=Note]
A shaded paragraph with an orange frame and a title.
\end{tcolorbox}
\end{document}

Code listings

With the listings package, set the background in \lstset:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{listings}
\lstset{backgroundcolor=\color{gray!10}, basicstyle=\ttfamily\small}
\begin{document}
\begin{lstlisting}
print("hello")
\end{lstlisting}
\end{document}

A watermark or background image

The eso-pic package draws behind every page, which is how you add a DRAFT watermark or a background image:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{eso-pic}
\AddToShipoutPictureBG{%
  \AtPageCenter{\makebox[0pt]{\rotatebox{45}{%
    \scalebox{6}{\textcolor{gray!20}{DRAFT}}}}}}
\begin{document}
Text above the watermark.
\end{document}

For a full-page image, replace the text with \includegraphics[width=\paperwidth,height=\paperheight]{file} and use \AddToShipoutPictureBG with \AtPageLowerLeft. In Beamer slides, use \setbeamercolor{background canvas}{bg=blue!5} instead.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I change the background color of a page in LaTeX?

Load xcolor and use \pagecolor{colorname}. Use \nopagecolor to go back to white.

How do I color a table cell in LaTeX?

Load \usepackage[table]{xcolor} and put \cellcolor{color} at the start of the cell, or \rowcolor{color} at the start of a row.

How do I highlight text in LaTeX?

Use \colorbox{yellow}{text} from xcolor for short phrases, or \hl{text} from the soul package for highlighting that wraps across lines.

More LaTeX Guides