How to Change the Paragraph Background Color on Any Website

Learn how to use Helperbird to add a background color to paragraphs on any website. Make text easier to read by highlighting paragraph blocks with color.

What is Paragraph Background Color?

The Paragraph Background Color feature adds a colored background behind each paragraph on a webpage. This makes it easier to visually separate blocks of text and helps you keep your place while reading.

It works differently from the text highlighter — instead of highlighting selected words, it automatically shades entire paragraphs across the page.


Who is This For?

This feature is helpful for:

  • People with dyslexia who lose their place between paragraphs
  • Students reading long articles or textbooks online
  • Anyone who finds walls of text hard to follow
  • People with visual processing difficulties
  • Anyone who wants clearer visual separation between paragraphs

Step 1: Open Helperbird

Click the Helperbird icon in your browser toolbar. It looks like a small owl and is usually in the top-right corner of your browser.

This will open the Helperbird menu.


Step 2: Go to the All Features Section

Scroll down to the bottom of the Helperbird menu. You will see a section called All Features.

Click the arrow next to All Features to expand it and show all available features.


Step 3: Find Paragraph Background

Look through the list of features until you see Paragraph Background or Paragraph Color.


Step 4: Turn It On

Click the toggle switch next to the feature to turn it on. The toggle will turn green when it is enabled.

Every paragraph on the current page will now have a colored background applied to it.


Step 5: Choose a Color

Click on the color picker next to the feature to change the background color. Choose any color that works best for your reading comfort.

Lighter colors like pale yellow, light blue, or soft green tend to work well for reading without straining your eyes.

Tip: Try combining this with the Paragraph Border feature for even clearer paragraph separation. You can also use it alongside custom fonts and line height adjustments for the most comfortable reading experience.


Video Tutorial

Coming soon


Need Additional Help?

If you have any questions or run into any issues, please contact the Helperbird support team. You can reach us at Helperbird support. We are happy to help you get the most out of Helperbird.

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I have ADHD and yesterday Helperbird and the text-to-speech function (available in free version) turned a 28-page reading assignment from a two-day task to roughly two hours, maybe three at the absolute most. It helped tremendously! And I loved that the text-to-speech has such a fluid voice compared to a lot of others I've used! Honestly, the fact that this was created by someone who knows the struggles is something I love, because then it has neurodivergency in mind. I've tried too many things in the past that were created by neurotypical folk trying to be helpful to us and I do appreciate it, but it doesn't work as well because our brains work different. Highly recommend!

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I am getting such great support from Robert. I enjoy working with him. He answers my questions very quickly. Thanks so much for your great support and a great product.

Terry Martin

Terry Martin

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Have an amazing collection of assistive tools that have benefits for everyone. For me, the combination of Microsoft's Immersive Reader and Apple's reading machine voice (US Alex) makes Helperbird my first choice for processing web content.

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Assistive technology specialist

Works a treat. This is brill!

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Helperbird user

I've been meaning to write this review for a while now. My daughter is newly diagnosed with dyslexia and I heard an interview with Robert on a Newstalk podcast and sought it out. I wasn't sure if I had it installed correctly on her laptop and Robert was on straight away to help. He was amazing. This app has changed everything for my daughter. Everything is accessible to her and everyday tasks and schoolwork are so much easier. She also has visual stress so the coloured overlay feature is a game changer for her. I would highly recommend this app to anyone, she couldn't be without it now!

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Fantastic! Helperbird is very easy to use, and yet, so powerful!

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