This blog is part of my series Making Data Tell a Story With SSRS Properties.

Property: Background Image

The purpose of this property is to allow you to show an image in the background of a report, table, list, and more.

To access the property, go to Report, Body, Table, or Matrix properties and select Background Image.

The options are Source, Value, MIMEType, and BackgroundRepeat.

Source:

External – an image that can be accessed via a URL.

Embedded – an image that is part of the report definition.

Database – an image stored in a database, which is accessed through a dataset.

Value:

If External – the image URL.

If Embedded – the image name.

If Database – the dataset field that contains the image.

MIMEType: the image type – bmp, jpeg, gif, png, or x-png.

Background Repeat:

Repeat: both horizontal and vertical.

RepeatX: horizontal.

RepeatY: vertical.

Clip: image appears once, anchored in top left corner.

Example: I want to add my company logo as the background to a report.

Choose the Body properties. I select an embedded JPEG, set to clip.

This is how the background image appears in Design mode:

This is how the background image appears in Preview mode:

Other use cases for this have been putting the words "DRAFT" or "CONFIDENTIAL" as a watermark on reports.

Further Reading:

Images (Report Builder and SSRS)

Add a Background Image (Report Builder and SSRS)