You can use background images for :-
1) A whole page...
<BODY BACKGROUND="images/background.jpg">
2) A cell of a table...
<TD BACKGROUND="images/background.gif"
Example 1 will tile (repeat) over the whole page, so the actual size of the image is important.
Example 2 will be constrained by the size of the table cell, but will repeat itself, if smaller than the table cell it is in.
You can also use CSS to show a background only once, like this...
background-image:url(images/bkground.gif); background-repeat:no-repeat;
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