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# backgroundView

The background view placed behind all items and supplementary views.

```
var backgroundView: NSView? { get set }
```

## Discussion

The view you assign to this property is positioned underneath all other content and sized automatically to match the enclosing clip view’s frame. The view itself does not scroll with the rest of the collection view content. The view’s layer redraw policy is also changed to [`NSView.LayerContentsRedrawPolicy.never`](/documentation/AppKit/NSView/LayerContentsRedrawPolicy-swift.enum/never).

In macOS 10.12 and later, a collection view that sets both [`backgroundView`](/documentation/AppKit/NSCollectionView/backgroundView) and [`backgroundColors`](/documentation/AppKit/NSCollectionView/backgroundColors) shows `backgroundColors[0]` through all areas that are not opaquely covered by the [`backgroundView`](/documentation/AppKit/NSCollectionView/backgroundView).

---

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