Beach Background Generator
Make a beach background: a tropical beach with palms, white sand and turquoise water, or a northern beach with grassy dunes and a grey-green sea, with lines of wave foam that follow the shore, headlands fading into the haze, and the light you want: sunrise, midday, golden afternoon, sunset, a moonlit night with the moon’s path on the water, or a grey day. Pick a preset or set your own: how many palms and striped umbrellas, how many foam lines, how the shore slants, the dune and its grass, how much the far headlands fade, sea mist, the clouds and the stars. Every picture comes from a seed number: the same seed and size always give the same beach, and New seed gives you a new one. Choose desktop, 4K, phone, a 16:9 video-call background (for Zoom, Teams or Meet), tablet, square, banner or your own size up to 4096 pixels. It is artwork drawn by our code, not a photograph and not any real beach. Download a PNG or JPG, or a PDF to print. Nothing is uploaded.
100% private — everything runs in your browser. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
The preview is the same picture drawn smaller. PNG and JPG download at the full size; the PDF fits the picture on one page.
Picture
Beach
Sky
Finish
Runs in your browser with our own code: nothing you type is uploaded or saved. Every wave line, palm, dune, umbrella and headland is drawn by our own code from the seed; it is artwork, not a photograph and not any real beach. You may use what you make here, including commercially, with no credit needed.
How to make a beach background
- Pick a preset: tropical midday, sunrise, sunset, night, umbrellas, a calm lagoon, northern dunes, a grey day and more.
- Choose a tropical or a northern beach and the light.
- Set the wave foam lines and how the shore slants.
- Set the palms and umbrellas, the dune and its grass; press New seed for a new beach.
- Set the haze, the sea mist, the clouds and the stars.
- Choose a size and download the PNG or JPG, or the print PDF.
What you can use it for
- Desktop and phone wallpapers
- Video-call backgrounds
- Summer party invitations and posters
- Travel and holiday slides
- Social posts and banners
- Classroom displays and story settings
The 15 presets
| Preset | Beach | Light | What is in it | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tropical beach at midday, palms | Tropical beach | Midday | 4 land layers, 4 foam lines, 3 palms | 1920 × 1080 |
| Tropical sunrise with palms | Tropical beach | Sunrise | 4 land layers, 4 foam lines, 2 palms | 1920 × 1080 |
| Palm beach in golden afternoon light | Tropical beach | Golden afternoon | 4 land layers, 3 foam lines, 4 palms | 1920 × 1080 |
| Palm beach at sunset | Tropical beach | Sunset | 5 land layers, 4 foam lines, 3 palms | 1920 × 1080 |
| Tropical beach at night, moon path | Tropical beach | Night with the moon | 4 land layers, 3 foam lines, 2 palms, 900 stars | 1920 × 1080 |
| Sunny beach with striped umbrellas | Tropical beach | Midday | 4 land layers, 4 foam lines, 1 palms, 4 umbrellas | 1920 × 1080 |
| Calm lagoon, no waves | Tropical beach | Midday | 5 land layers, 1 foam lines, 2 palms | 1920 × 1080 |
| Northern beach with dunes | Northern beach | Midday | 5 land layers, 5 foam lines, dune | 1920 × 1080 |
| Northern beach at sunrise | Northern beach | Sunrise | 5 land layers, 5 foam lines, dune | 1920 × 1080 |
| Grey day on a northern beach | Northern beach | Grey day | 5 land layers, 6 foam lines, dune | 1920 × 1080 |
| Dunes at sunset | Northern beach | Sunset | 5 land layers, 5 foam lines, dune | 1920 × 1080 |
| Northern beach at night, moon path | Northern beach | Night with the moon | 5 land layers, 4 foam lines, dune, 1,100 stars | 1920 × 1080 |
| Video call: calm tropical beach | Tropical beach | Midday | 4 land layers, 2 foam lines, 2 palms | 1920 × 1080 |
| Phone wallpaper: palm beach at sunset | Tropical beach | Sunset | 4 land layers, 4 foam lines, 1 palms | 1170 × 2532 |
| 4K tropical beach at golden hour | Tropical beach | Golden afternoon | 5 land layers, 4 foam lines, 3 palms, 2 umbrellas | 3840 × 2160 |
Worked out by the tool.
Sizes
| Size | Pixels | Width ÷ height |
|---|---|---|
| Phone | 1170 × 2532 | 0.462 |
| Desktop | 1920 × 1080 | 1.778 |
| 4K | 3840 × 2160 | 1.778 |
| Video call background | 1920 × 1080 | 1.778 |
| Tablet | 2048 × 2732 | 0.750 |
| Square | 2048 × 2048 | 1.000 |
| Banner | 1500 × 500 | 3.000 |
Every size is drawn at its own pixels, not stretched.
How the waves follow the shore
| Foam line | Distance out (seen at the bottom edge) | Height above the shore at the middle | Height in the picture at the middle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Line 1 | 20.4 px | 5.8 px | 801.8 px |
| Line 2 | 50.3 px | 14.3 px | 793.4 px |
| Line 3 | 85.1 px | 24.2 px | 783.5 px |
| Line 4 | 123.8 px | 35.2 px | 772.5 px |
Worked out by the tool for the first preset (desktop): the horizon is at 496.8 px and the shore at the middle of the picture at 807.6 px, 0.533 of the way from the horizon to the bottom. Each line sits at the shore minus its distance × that share squared, at every point along the shore, so the lines bend with it.
The palm, part by part
| Part | How it is built |
|---|---|
| Trunk | 14 segments along a curved spine, each joined to the next; 43.4 px wide at the base, 23.9 px at the top |
| Height | 434.3 px = 1.08 × the base’s 403.1 px below the horizon (0.85–1.35 ×, so nearer palms are taller) |
| Fronds | 10 curved midribs, all starting at the trunk top |
| Leaflets | 36 on the first frond, half on each side, shorter towards the tip |
| Nuts | 3 under the crown |
Worked out by the tool for the first palm of the first preset (desktop). Every part is a polygon worked out by our code; there are no image files.
How the far headlands fade
| Layer | Shape | Mixed towards the haze | Colour | Brightness (0–255) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (farthest) | Headland | 85 % | #bed2d4 | 206 |
| 2 | Headland | 53 % | #9ab19d | 171 |
| 3 | Headland | 24 % | #78936a | 138 |
| 4 (nearest) | Headland | 0 % | #5d7a40 | 112 |
Worked out by the tool for the first preset (4 land layers, desktop): the farther the layer, the more haze and the lighter the colour. Each layer’s haze share is the haze setting × (1 − its place from the back ÷ (layers − 1))^1.15.
The 6 lights
| Light | Sun or moon | Haze colour |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | Low sun just above the sea, sun path | #f0cdbf |
| Midday | Sun high, faint glints | #cfe1ee |
| Golden afternoon | Sun high, faint glints | #f1dcae |
| Sunset | Low sun just above the sea, sun path | #e7a99a |
| Night with the moon | Moon and its path on the water | #3d4f80 |
| Grey day | No sun | #d5dbdf |
The sky for each light comes from the same painted-sky code as our sky backgrounds; the sea, sand and land are lit to match.
Tropical or northern
| Beach | Sand | Shallow water | Deep water | In front |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tropical beach | #f1e2c2 | #5fd6cf | #1f7fa8 | Palms; dune optional |
| Northern beach | #ddd3bd | #7fa7a2 | #3e6670 | Dune with grass tufts always; no palms |
Colours at midday; the other lights tint them.
What downloads
| Download | What is in it |
|---|---|
| PNG | The still picture at the full size you chose, every pixel exactly as drawn |
| JPG | The same picture as a smaller JPG (quality 92) |
| One Letter or A4 page with the picture fitted inside 10 mm margins |
| Paper | A 4K picture prints at | Sharpness |
|---|---|---|
| Letter (landscape) | 259.4 × 145.9 mm | 376 px per inch |
| A4 (landscape) | 277.0 × 155.8 mm | 352 px per inch |
To fit a picture of your own to a screen, use the Phone Wallpaper Maker; to change the size of a picture afterwards, the Image Resizer.
Which tool to use
| You want | Use |
|---|---|
| A beach scene with sea, sand, waves, palms or dunes | Beach Background Generator (this page) |
| A sky only, with a flat sea line | Sky Background |
| A scene under the water | Underwater Background |
| A seamless sand surface | Sand Texture |
| A farm scene | Farm Background Generator |
Other tools: a seamless Sand Texture or Water Texture for a surface, and the Postcard Template to send your beach as a card.
More free tools
More beach, sea and summer art?
Picture and print tools that run privately in your browser, with no sign-up and no watermark.
Frequently asked questions
Is this a photo of a real beach?
No. Every wave line, palm, dune, umbrella and headland is drawn by our own code from the seed: it is artwork, not a photograph, and it is not any real beach or place.
How do the waves follow the shore?
Each line of foam is a fixed distance out to sea from the shore you see. Farther away the same distance looks smaller, so each line is the shore line lifted by that distance times the square of how far down the picture the shore is. The table below gives the numbers.
How is a palm drawn?
From parts: a trunk of stacked segments along a curved spine, narrowing towards the top, and a crown of seven to eleven fronds, each a curved midrib with leaflets on both sides. Nearer palms are taller.
Tropical or northern: what is the difference?
Tropical has white sand, turquoise shallows and palms. Northern has paler sand, a grey-green sea and a dune with grass tufts in front, and no palms.
Can I have a sunset or a night beach?
Yes. Sunset puts a low sun just above the sea with its path on the water; night shows the moon, stars and the moon’s path.
Can I use it as a video-call background?
Yes. Choose Video call background (16:9, 1920 × 1080), download the PNG or JPG and pick it as a virtual background in your video-call app. The calm tropical beach preset keeps it quiet.
What does the seed do?
It fixes the shore line, the headlands, where the palms and umbrellas stand, the foam breaks and the clouds. The same seed and size give exactly the same picture, pixel for pixel.
How big does the PDF print?
The picture is fitted on one Letter or A4 page inside 10 mm margins, turned to suit its shape. The table below gives the printed size of a 4K picture.
Is it free?
Yes. There is no sign-up, no watermark and no limit.
Is anything uploaded?
No. Every pixel is worked out by JavaScript in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere or saved when you close the page.