Cell background color is specific, because background colors are used by TreeGrid to show row’s or cell’s state. So background colors cannot be changed by CSS style classes. a) Globally you can change predefined state background colors in input XML (or in Defaults.xml) in tag . b) You can define alternate colors for odd rows to improve table lucidity. The alternate colors are ideal in pure table. But the alternate colors can slow down sorting and filtering in table. Set Alternate attribute in tag. You can also set AlternateRepeat attribute to change spaces between alternate colored rows. c) You can define specific color for row or cell by row Color or cell Color attribute. This color is used instead of Default color and is modified by state color modifiers. d) You can change background color dynamically by JavaScript API events OnGetColor and OnGetDefaultColor. Pay attention to the two events differnce.