Way back in the days of Compuserve, background graphics on Web pages were of limited use. Browsers allowed them to be displayed only as a background to an entire HTML document and by default they tiled into infinity, filling the user’s screen to match the width and height of the client computer’s browser. An interesting feature, but not one that was exactly welcomed with open arms as the World Wide Web made the transition from hobbyist obscurity to corporate mass communication tool.

Thanks to CSS, though, those days are long gone.