Is there a website that generates solid-color backgrounds?

October 13, 2009 10:30 AM

Does anyone know of a website that generates full-screen, solid-color backgrounds?

I have a PC with a Microsoft OS, and oddly enough, I find the "blue screen of death" a very soothing light to read by, and I am trying to find a website that will just generate a solid background of that color (or any color that I choose). Up until now I have been making solid-color jpgs in paint, and just full-screening the image, but I was wondering if there is a website that lets me simply click on a color to fill the screen with that color.

posted by aftermarketradio to Computers & Internet (14 answers total)

Put this in notepad.exe and save as whatever.html:


body
{
background-color:blue;
}



then open it in IE or Firefox and F11 for full-screen.
posted by nitsuj at 10:34 AM on October 13, 2009

Colour Lovers.com
Click on a color for more information about it. It lets you download an image of the color in a variety of sizes.
If you get bored with plain colors, they also have patterns and color palettes.
(I linked you to a search of some soft blues)
posted by amethysts at 10:34 AM on October 13, 2009

Why not make on of these all-blue jpegs your desktop background?
posted by orme at 10:35 AM on October 13, 2009

I don't know of a particular site, but you could create an HTML file with that background color, load that in your browser and bookmark it. Then just click any time and voila!
posted by katillathehun at 10:35 AM on October 13, 2009

Can't you just choose the desktop background as "none" and pick the color via Display Properties - Desktop Tab and then minimize everything?
posted by ghharr at 10:36 AM on October 13, 2009

You don't need an image to do that. Go to your desktop, right-click and select Properties. Then click the Desktop tab. At the bottom right is a field for color; use the drop-down select and click Other. From there, you will be able to select any color available on your monitor.
posted by rahnefan at 10:36 AM on October 13, 2009

Best answer: On preview, others have suggested--here's the code below if you don't know how to make html files.

You can do it yourself. Create an html page with the following code (replacing [] with <>:


[html]
[head]

[title]Soothing Color[/title]
[/head]

[body style="background-color:#3333CC;"]
[/body]
[/html]


Save it somewhere easily accessible like your desktop and then open the file in your browser. You can change colors by putting in the new hex code for the color in the html file.


posted by Kimberly at 10:37 AM on October 13, 2009

Why not just set your desktop to have no wallpaper and then choose the background color you like?

Display Properties > Desktop tab, under Background choose "(None)" and then there is a Color dropdown in the lower right that has some basic options or you can select Other and choose any color you like.
posted by Lokheed at 10:40 AM on October 13, 2009

Best answer: I would use nitsuj's technique: make a few colorname.html files in the colors of your choice, then bookmark them so you can jump to them at any time from your browser. I'd use the color codes rather than names, since the named color choices are rather limited.

background-color: #0000f0;

(BSOD blue is actually #0000f0, not #0000ff, from what I can tell. Maybe it's just my screenshot.)

Here's a handy picker/tester: Color picker. There are thousands on the Internet. Heck, one of them probably has a full-screen preview, even, but I couldn't find one.
posted by rokusan at 10:41 AM on October 13, 2009

How do you write the html so that it cycles through several colors slowly?
posted by at the crossroads at 11:39 AM on October 13, 2009

Response by poster: Thanks for all the answers. I hadn't even considered changing my background, but in attempting to access Properties to do so, my system crashed and got the actual BSOD, so...it worked perfectly!

The html/bookmark solution works well I wanted, I just didn't know how to do it. The only code I know gives me 30 lives in Contra.

Thanks, rokusan, for the list of colors and names.
posted by aftermarketradio at 11:44 AM on October 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

There's also the BSOD screensaver, just for fun. Simulates a BSOD and resulting reboot.
posted by caution live frogs at 12:43 PM on October 13, 2009

Here, I have created the HTML file above and hosted it.

It will be there as long as there is an internet.
posted by davey_darling at 1:53 PM on October 13, 2009

http://sometimesredsometimesblue.com/

You might have to refresh a few times, as the site is sometimes red and sometimes blue.
posted by cybertaur1 at 5:51 PM on October 14, 2009