How to Use the Custom Backgrounds Theme Feature

Are you looking for a way to use the custom backgrounds theme feature? While there’s probably a plugin for this, we have created a quick code snippet that you can use to add the custom backgrounds theme feature in WordPress.

Custom backgrounds have been around for a while, but the add_theme_support() function has been around since WordPress 3.4. The cool thing about using this feature for your themes is that it will give users the ability to change the custom background screen in the administrator’s Appearance menu. When using it, you must also make sure you have added the body_class() and wp_head() template tags correctly to provide feature compatibility.

Instructions:

All you have to do is add this code to your theme’s functions.php file or in a site-specific plugin:

    $args = array(
        'default-color' => '000000',
        'default-image' => get_template_directory_uri() . '/images/background.png',
    );
    add_theme_support('custom-background',$args);

You can see the list of arguments available for the add_theme_support() function in this code below.

$defaults = array(
	'default-color'          => '',
	'default-image'          => '',
	'default-repeat'         => '',
	'default-position-x'     => '',
	'default-attachment'     => '',
	'wp-head-callback'       => '_custom_background_cb',
	'admin-head-callback'    => '',
	'admin-preview-callback' => ''
);
add_theme_support( 'custom-background', $defaults );

Note: If this is your first time adding code snippets in WordPress, then please refer to our guide on how to properly add code snippets in WordPress, so you don’t accidentally break your site.

If you liked this code snippet, please consider checking out our other articles on the site like: 27 best WordPress themes for travel blogs and how to use Google optimize in WordPress.