spectere.net
Site-Related => News => Topic started by: Spectere on November 13, 2008, 01:32:17 PM
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(http://files.spectere.net/pictures/s.net/newtheme01.png)
It's obviously not finished, but how does that color scheme jive with everyone? It's not going to be a simple recolor like Default Purple, it's going to *gasp* actually have some of its own little things (the gradients in the board list is one example).
The theme is for SMF 2.0. I plan to upgrade within a month and wanted to have more than just the default theme in place.
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Me likey!
I really like the dark-red on black scheme.
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Same here. :) Plus, I figured it was time for something a bit less bright. I'll probably post updates on this as I continue to work on it.
As always, the standard theme will still be available for people who are afraid of that dark. ;)
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That's pretty sexy!
Go for it!
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*thumbs up*
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Ugh, I can't stand reading light text on a dark colored back ground, that and red + black has been done before a hundred times.
I suppose grey with white text isn't that bad, but it's still a bit dark.
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Ugh, I can't stand reading light text on a dark colored back ground, that and red + black has been done before a hundred times.
I suppose grey with white text isn't that bad, but it's still a bit dark.
I much prefer reading Light over Dark, since I'm rather light sensitive. I prefer to have a darker overall screen, with text that stands out nicely.
You should see some of my custom programming environment text highlighting settings, you'd have a seizure.
Plus, as he said, the default layout will still be available.
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I like it, yes please
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I like it but I also agree that reading light text on dark background isn't all that appealing...that and my computer has horrible lighting abilities so I'd probably not be able to see half the stuff on the newer one when/if you implement it. Think how the MGD forums look and instead of all the grey and lines turn it all black and that is what I see on my computer...I don't even see boxes, I have to highlight them in order to see the quote words and everything is to dark for me so although I like the new colors I think there should still be an option for the brighter screen.
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I much prefer reading Light over Dark, since I'm rather light sensitive. I prefer to have a darker overall screen, with text that stands out nicely.
This.
Plus, as he said, the default layout will still be available.
And this.
Ugh, I can't stand reading light text on a dark colored back ground
Light on dark is hard to read; that's why everything is pretty much light gray on dark gray with very little light gray on black (mostly with navigational things). I played with the contrast for about a half hour before I found the best balance.
that and red + black has been done before a hundred times.
Name a color scheme that hasn't been done a hundred times. I tried white and purple, which is one of the few ones I can think of that isn't highly used, and people didn't seem to like that.
There's a good reason certain schemes are used often -- they're visually appealing.
Think how the MGD forums look and instead of all the grey and lines turn it all black and that is what I see on my computer...I don't even see boxes, I have to highlight them in order to see the quote words and everything is to dark for me so although I like the new colors I think there should still be an option for the brighter screen.
There will be. Again, the default blue-on-white isn't going away.
Also, might want to toy with your monitor settings. Sounds like the CRT itself is dying (if you have that type of display) or the settings on the display itself need tweaked.
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(http://www.slantmagazine.com/images/dvd/critic.jpg)
I like it, though the blue icons are a bit strange in an otherwise red/grey layout.
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(http://www.slantmagazine.com/images/dvd/critic.jpg)
keke :D
I like it, though the blue icons are a bit strange in an otherwise red/grey layout.
Indeed.
The theme isn't in its final stages. I concentrated on getting most of the CSS work done before I sat down to do the icons and such.
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Name a color scheme that hasn't been done a hundred times. I tried white and purple, which is one of the few ones I can think of that isn't highly used, and people didn't seem to like that.
I enjoyed the purple and white one, also black and red is really, REALLY overused. It's like red and white, or orange and black. I don't know, maybe it's just personal taste.
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Also, might want to toy with your monitor settings. Sounds like the CRT itself is dying (if you have that type of display) or the settings on the display itself need tweaked.
I have...I've gone from 0%-100% on every single setting and every comibination of them...nothing worked...I don't think I have CRT because the comp monitor is meant for the almost non existant windows ME (Millenium Edition) and the comp runs on XP so that may be another thing that makes it suck ass.
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I have...I've gone from 0%-100% on every single setting and every comibination of them...nothing worked...I don't think I have CRT because the comp monitor is meant for the almost non existant windows ME (Millenium Edition) and the comp runs on XP so that may be another thing that makes it suck ass.
I had problems with a monitor that was becoming too dark. It was a CRT, and it was dieing (and later did actually die).
CRT:
(http://www.sz-wholesale.com/uploadFiles/17%20CRT%20Monitor_558.jpg)
LCD
(http://www.lcd-monitor-reviews.com/lcd-monitor-reviews/acer-al-1931-lcd-computer-monitor-review.jpg)
I enjoyed the purple and white one, also black and red is really, REALLY overused. It's like red and white, or orange and black. I don't know, maybe it's just personal taste.
It is personal taste, because as spec said, every combination that looks good, has been done a million times over. There are only so many color combinations possible, and most of the ones that look good have been used somewhere, so unless you can come up with a color combination that looks good and HASN'T been used, this is the best we're gonna get.
Light on dark is hard to read; that's why everything is pretty much light gray on dark gray with very little light gray on black (mostly with navigational things). I played with the contrast for about a half hour before I found the best balance.
Quite true. Though my IDE settings for assembly programming were generally something like medium gray over black, with highlights in bright green, blues, purples reds, maroons and such for making things very separated, I would definitely not set my entire system to that.
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CRT monitors are the big ones with the picture tubes. When the displays get old they sometimes have a tendency to get dimmer.
LCD displays as the flat panel monitors. Generally, if those are dim it's because the backlight is either failing or the display is cheap. Cheaper LCD displays tend to have poor contrast ratios and generally aren't very bright.
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CRT monitors are the big ones with the picture tubes. When the displays get old they sometimes have a tendency to get dimmer.
LCD displays as the flat panel monitors. Generally, if those are dim it's because the backlight is either failing or the display is cheap. Cheaper LCD displays tend to have poor contrast ratios and generally aren't very bright.
Well, last I checked most LCDs had better contrast ratios than CRTs did period, even the cheap ones.
And CRTs do have a nasty habit of getting darker. My old CRT was so dark that with all settings maxed, ingame and on the monitor, the dark areas in Diablo 2 (say, the unlit areas inside a cave) were literally BLACK. It died shortly thereafter.
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what
There was a builtin theme that looked exactly like that for my school's computer club board
also it was the best of the available so I ended up using it, and it totally kicked ass
instead of red & black, could there be an indigo/purple & black option? :o
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Well, last I checked most LCDs had better contrast ratios than CRTs did period, even the cheap ones.
Oh god no. If you are ever given the choice between a cheap LCD and a cheap CRT and can't actually look at the merchandise always pick the CRT. The cheap LCDs I've seen are literally half as bright as a cheap CRT. I've sure cheap LCDs have drastically improved since the one I saw that was like that was made, but still.
instead of red & black, could there be an indigo/purple & black option? :o
I played with black and purple and I didn't care for it much. It doesn't really look very striking or stylish.
Black and pink is a definite possibility. That color combination looks pretty sweet.
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Yeah, blank and pink, as much as I hate pink, works really well.
I'm also a fan of bright green on black (like #00FF00 or like #33CC33 over #000000, lol)
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CRT monitors are the big ones with the picture tubes. When the displays get old they sometimes have a tendency to get dimmer.
Ok, yeah, It's a CRT then because it is one of the bigger monitors, thanks...but anyway, back on topic to the new theme, The shading and gradients look really well and blend into a great look.
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Yeah, blank and pink, as much as I hate pink, works really well.
I'm also a fan of bright green on black (like #00FF00 or like #33CC33 over #000000, lol)
Yeah, bright colors tend to work very well on dark backgrounds. If I continue to do this, the next one I do will probably be pink on black.
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Haven't had much of a chance to work on it this past few days (because of the wedding and all) but this is the result of staying up far too late tonight:
(http://files.spectere.net/pictures/s.net/newtheme02.png)
(http://files.spectere.net/pictures/s.net/newtheme03.png)
Changes
- Replaced the blue menu tabs (and mirror tabs) with reddish, uncurved counterparts.
- Made the "profile updated" div actually look nice.
- Added a few selectors that really should be in the default theme (like the aforementioned "profile updated" style, which because successbg.
- Changed many elements in the profile pages to use the darker windowbg rather than the lighter windowbg2 because it looks better. :D
- Darkened the background behind the avatar on the collapsable information bar on top.
- Condensed the SMF logo in the upper-right corner.
- Finally named the theme -- Charred Rose.
I doubt this is going to matter to anyone here, but this theme is going to look like complete and utter shit on IE6 due to its heavy-ish use of *gasp* PNG alpha channel translucency. For example, I highly doubt that there's a single opaque section in the new SMF logo, and the anti-aliasing for the menu tab graphics is all alpha translucency. It looks perfectly fine on IE7 and up, of course, as well as Firefox.
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Holy shit. That looks awesome.
I love the diagonal lines and such in some of the menu thingies.
How do those gradients work, anyway? I've kinda wondered what they are made with.
Also, requesting IE6 mangled screenshots.
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How do those gradients work, anyway? I've kinda wondered what they are made with.
Basically, what I did was make a quick gradient image in Photoshop (I generally used red to grey for the color values) then set them up with the background-image property on that particular class's entry in the CSS file. To be more specific, I set them up to appear on the bottom, repeating on the X axis.
Also, requesting IE6 mangled screenshots.
I don't think we have a system here that has IE6 on it, so I don't know if I'll be able to deliver on that one. Basically, just imagine all of the images that have translucency being on top of a medium-gray background. Quite fugly.
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Ahh, no other problems with IE6 fucking things up? Since I know there are tons of layout things in IE6 that can easily end up mangling a page in it.
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Nah, SMF has a style sheet dedicated to dealing with IE6's "eccentricities." The only thing it'll choke on are the images, and given the number of PNGs with alpha translucency, it'll probably look kind of bad.
Now that I think about it, I think our HTPC laptop might still have IE6. If it does, I'll try to remember to grab a screenshot of its, uh, magnificent rendering.
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wares mah neon pink on blak? :o
ps: Charred Rose looks quite sexy
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Oh, and how do you go about getting some cool AA using alpha blending? I've been wondering because I'd kinda like to update some of my icons for games that look like ass by making a vectorized version and alpha blending the edges to get nicer AA. I found a program that will insert large (ex. 256x256) icons into programs (since no resource hackers support that, and it's practically impossible to force even the visual studios to use icons that size, not to mention they are usually compressed as well now.
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wares mah neon pink on blak? :o
I'm not even done with this one, nigga! <3
ps: Charred Rose looks quite sexy
Danke. ;D
Oh, and how do you go about getting some cool AA using alpha blending?
I do it the lazy way. Basically, I start a new RGB Photoshop document with a transparent background, draw a line, and make sure it's set up to use anti-aliasing. Nothing too fancy. :P
The SMF logo was done by taking the small logo from the GIF that SMF comes with (see the upper-right corner of this theme) pasting it in a new image with a transparent background, setting the fill of that layer to 0% and giving it an light red inner and outer glow.
Most vector programs will automatically anti-alias the images when it exports them, so if you redraw the icons with a vector drawing program you should be all set.
Also, there really isn't a need to insert the icons into programs. Just dump an ICO file somewhere and link the shortcut to that.
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Yeah, except if you are using the program itself, not a shortcut, or you have multiple shortcuts all using the internal icon.
I'm not sure exactly how to replace the normal icon yet, but once I figure that out, I'll be replacing the icon itself so that the program will be pointing to the right icon right off the bat.
Basically, I'm sick of seeing things like (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v227/Bobbias/crap.png).
I swear that has to be one of the ugliest damn icons I've ever seen. And being scaled up to 48x48 or whatever vista's default size is makes it just that much uglier. If I replace the Icon in a program itself, even the program will have the proper vista style icon.
But yes, I might end up just linking the shortcuts anyway, if I get lazy, lol.
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While you're at it, you should make a Spectere.net logo :o
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That would be cool.
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Yeah, except if you are using the program itself
Not an issue, since unless the application designer is an idiot it cannot use an icon larger than a given size. The ALT-TAB screen only uses the 32x32 icon.
not a shortcut or you have multiple shortcuts all using the internal icon.
All you have to do is update the shortcuts in the area that you're going to use.
I'm not sure exactly how to replace the normal icon yet, but once I figure that out, I'll be replacing the icon itself so that the program will be pointing to the right icon right off the bat.
If you update the icon in the executable you'll have to do it every time you update the program. It's really not worth the time.
While you're at it, you should make a Spectere.net logo :o
Maybe.
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Maybe.
I could if you aren't :o
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Thanks, but I already have a logo in mind. One of them simple but effective things I've used for years.
It's just a matter of getting it smushed down into a crappy-looking 16x16 icon for the favicon or a whatever by whatever one for the site itself.
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Absolutely sexy..I likes it!
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Starting to change some of the icons now:
(http://files.spectere.net/pictures/s.net/newtheme04.png)
It's coming together, slowly but surely. I love how the anti-aliased everything looks. Hot damn. Screw GIFs, alpha-blended PNGs is where it's at.
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I like the buttons...makes want to push 'em :P
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Very sexy. Awesome work!
Any idea on how complete the theme is so far?
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The core CSS is done, as are a little over half of the icons on the main page. The help page is kinda broken (it seems to have its own set of CSS selectors that I need to update) and the administration page is usable but needs work. I have run into a few hangups due to some things being hard-coded (like the collapse and expand buttons in various places). This has proven to be kind of annoying, requiring me to rewrite some of the image selection code in the various templates. I could just replace the GIFs and call it a day, but I'd rather do the extra work and keep everything anti-aliased. It's amazing how much better everything looks just with that.
Drawing the icons is probably the most tedious thing for me at the moment. In order to maintain a consistent look I want to redraw everything so that everything is nicely alpha-blended and fancy-looking. I don't consider myself particularly artistic with this kind of stuff. Even though the icons are fairly simple it's hard to say how many of them I'll be able to stand working on in a day. So, I dunno, we'll see.
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Yeah, it sounds like that would be rather tedious. Mind you, I wouldn't even know where to start for something like that.