What is the reason behind the body element's background styling impacting the entire screen?

Why does styling the background of the body element affect the entire screen instead of just the body itself? For example, consider this CSS rule:

body {
  width: 700px;
  height:200px;
  border: 5px dotted red;
  background-color: blue;
}

While the border appears as expected at 700px wide, the background color fills the entire browser viewport. What is the reason for this behavior?

Answer №1

Extracted from http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/colors.html

The backdrop of the primary element transforms into the background of the canvas, covering its entirety and anchored (for 'background-position') at the same spot as it would if solely painted for the root element exclusively. The root element refrains from reapplying this backdrop.

The body element signifies the primary element, thus, obeying CSS regulations by relinquishing its backdrop style to have it applied to the encompassing canvas (the webpage area within the browser), hence rendering the entire screen in blue. Nonetheless, other attributes remain intact with the element (e.g., the border).

Answer №2

Extracted from the pages of CSS Mastery by Andy Budd

In the realm of CSS, values do not travel upwards in a hierarchy; each element keeps its styles to itself without passing them on to its ancestors. However, there is a loophole in this rule within HTML: background styles designated for the body element can be inherited by the html element, which serves as the ultimate root element defining the canvas.

To witness this phenomenon firsthand, apply the background-color: blue; declaration to the body element, and observe how it extends to the html element (root). Follow along with this code snippet:

html {
    background-color: grey;
}

Answer №3

By defining the background color of the <body> element, you are essentially specifying the color for the entire viewing window in a web browser. This remains true even if you have adjusted the size of the <body> using CSS. Without this specified color, what would be the default color for the exterior of the <body> tag?

Answer №4

One effective method is to utilize containers, like shown below:

<body>
    <div id="container">

    </div>
</body>

Check out an example here.

Answer №5

Trying to apply a width directly to the <body> tag won't work as intended, resulting in the entire page being tinted blue instead of just a specified 700px portion.

Answer №6

To achieve the desired effect, it is necessary to apply the background styling to the whole page as specific parts cannot be targeted except for the body section.

Answer №7

It's just one of those enigmas of CSS, I suppose.

Instead of attempting to style the entire <body> tag, a more effective approach is to wrap your content in a <div> element and apply styles to that instead.

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