This example uses three textures to incorporate margin decoration. It can require careful measurement when you first lay out your table and you must have some content in each cell.

The page background is the dark purple graphic. On it is one table with one row and two columns. The cell background graphic in the left column is the medium-blue wool texture, the right cell contains the page contents and a light, papery texture as its background.

In this case, the left vertical band is decorative, so a transparent graphic called "spacer.gif" is inserted in it. It's invisible to the visitor but gives the computer what it needs to hold the cell open and display the page as you want it.

You could choose to use the left column for a navigation bar. In that case, the buttons in the column could serve to make sure the cell and its background texture display. If instead you are using text for navigation links, it doesn't hurt to include the spacer.gif in the bottom of the left column anyway, sizing it so that the column never collapses more than you want it to, no matter how small a window the visitor chooses.

You can choose to use proportional spacing with this style, but I find it much safer to set absolute table and cell widths, as the layout will behave consistently on most browsers that way.

Font used on this page is Verdana, 12 pt.