Reporting - Add a background image to a report page

*** Please note, this article refers to Reporting and Analytics with Power BI. View the FAQ for more details. ***

In this article, we’ll show how to add a background image to a user-created report in Power BI. 

A background image can be used to add color or, more likely, an image - for example, an organisation's logo - to a Power BI report. Microsoft recommends the quickest way to achieve this is to create the image as a slide in PowerPoint and export the slide as an image to add to your report, so that's the method we'll show in the video. 

Note that:

• Microsoft recommend that the image should be in png format 
• Images must be added individually to any pages in the report where required

You may wish to create an image from scratch, instead of using a PowerPoint slide with the default aspect ratio. View steps to adjust the canvas size here. 

Steps to add a background image (from PowerPoint) to a report page

For the below steps, we assume you already have your image ready to add to the report background.

1. Start a new User-created report or open an existing report
2. Open the Visualisations panel
3. Select Format page (if you don't see this option, make sure that no visualisations are selected on the report page):
4. Select Canvas background option
5. Select Browse, and browse to find your background image:
6. Set the transparency to zero. This is slightly counter intuitive - you'd think that 100% transparency would be the correct option here:
7. Select Save to keep the changes

How to adjust the canvas size 

The above steps assume you're using an image created in PowerPoint using the default aspect ratio of 16:9 with a minimum size of 1280x720. If you're creating an image from scratch, or wish to change the canvas size, the settings can be found here:

1. Select the Visualisations panel
2. Select Format the page
3. Select Canvas settings
4. Adjust as required 

Discover more about User-created reports

For a hands-on learning experience, explore our Deep dive courses in The Academy, and watch as Gary builds reports from scratch to meet specific briefs. 

If you prefer to start at the beginning, check out Get Started: Reporting and Analytics with Power BI. You'll begin with Power BI’s top five features, then dive deeper into each one with step-by-step guidance.

Need quick answers? Check out our FAQ, Reporting and Analytics with Power BI, packed with 100+ common questions and in-depth resources. You can also join our regular Ask Me Anything: Reporting live events, to ask your question directly to a Power BI expert. Search PWRFAQ in The Academy for real-world use cases, examples, and scenarios with User-created reports.

Don't have your Academy account yet? Contact your Customer Experience Manager or the Support Team to sign up today.