Does page background color matter?

Thinking before redsigning

[akhater]

I was wondering if a white background is better or no matter the background color as long as they blend it is ok

thanks for sharing your experience

[Lipik]

I think the most important for background color, it must look good for your eyes. No screaming colors, soft and a good combination with the text color.
Of course blending the ads with the background color is good (and matching ad-text-color with normal text color). But my experience is that rotating the ads-color (one time totally blendet and next time a bit more contrast) isn't bad, becouse visitors are very fast 'used' to the ads, and that way you atract their eyes again to the ads.

[Hobbs]

If there was one answer for this question all web sites covering all topics would look the same.

Find out who your target audience is (young vs. old, men vs. women, see successful competition, be creative and different, apply or buy good taste, use common sense..

If you are just asking for suggestions for background: Purple

[gibbergibber]

It does depend on the context, if you were doing a site about Gothic Horror costumes you'd probably want to go for dark colours, while a medical site would probably avoid dark colours.

One thing I'd steer clear of though are bright backgrounds that are neither pale nor dark, because they'll distract from the text colour (and they look cheap anyway). You need stark contrasts so that the text stands out from the background or border.

[trannack]

Try to only use about three compatable colours to a page. Agree with other comments re type of site and colours - target your audience mood.