DocumentationOpen the editor

Shade an area with a background

A background places a light tint behind part of the chart, such as one side of the family, and can carry a title. This article explains how to draw, title, move and resize one.

1 min readChecked 16 October 2026Open in the editor

A background is not part of the genogram notation. It is drawn behind people and lines, and it is used to set apart a region of the chart, such as the maternal and paternal sides. A household should be drawn with the lasso, because McGoldrick, Gerson and Petry (2020) outline households rather than shade them.

Demonstration in the editor
This demonstration runs in the editor on a copy of a sample family. It does not change your own chart.

Procedure

  1. 1

    Press R, or click Background on the tool rail.

  2. 2

    Select a tint, such as Sand or Sky, in the options beside the tool.

  3. 3

    Drag across the canvas to draw the area, or click once to place a background of a standard size. The background is selected, and its toolbar appears above it.

  4. 4

    Click Add title in the toolbar, type a title such as “Father’s side”, and press ↵ Enter.

  5. 5

    While the background is selected, drag it to move it, or drag one of its handles to change its size.

Tip

To select a background later, click an empty part of it while nothing else is selected. Its toolbar offers the six tints, Any colour… and a button that deletes the background.