>I agree. If you really, really want to have a different background, a BMP file allows you to be more expressive than words could ever be. (A picture is worth a 1000 words...)

I have never once seen a picture that says to me "Edit", but the word is fairly easy to understand. Why would you want to say a 1000 words to a user when you want to say "Add"? Its kindof silly/overkill. IMO, the only good pictures are for is to take up less space and still have something recognizable after the user learns its meaning. Especially within data-centric apps where you often need words to reflect "Commit Changes", "Revert", "Filter", and "Edit". This opinion comes from working with a lot of very dumb users that you would normally have to teach watch each "purdy picture" means too.