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Piratey forum theme

Armada

Armada

Sea Dog
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Ahoy mates, I've been busy over the past couple of hours setting up a new pirate theme (or "style") for the forum.
It's not perfect and is far from finished, but I'd like some feedback on how it currently looks before I continue.

If you're feeling adventurous, go to the Style Chooser at the bottom of the screen and choose "Aurora Pirate" to test the theme. :aar

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions of their own, please let me know. This is our chance to make the forum truly unique! :dance
 
That's pretty cool! Unfortunately, it does limit the widescreen appearance again. Anything that can be done about that?
 
I'm working on the fixed width version first, and then I'll add a "fluid" version which covers the whole screen width.
Some people prefer the fixed layout, and it's used with the forum default (Aurora Blue), so I'm catering for both preferences. ;)
 
The Pirate theme looks good so far, should be a big improvement on the old version.

Personally, I would prefer a clean white background in the message area -- straightforward black text on white background is always best for legibility.

Also it's hard to read the "search", "what's new" etc links between the main menu bar and the breadcrumb links. I think the background texture there is too strong.

hmmm -- that logo I did looks a bit "fuzzy" against the new colour background. So I've made a toned-down version which should look better, also made the capitals a bit brighter.

PA-forum-logo-02.png
 
That does feel much less harsh than the white and blue theme, nice work mate! :onya

I do agree with jaco about that texture though, it does need a bit of tweaking, or perhaps a text color change?

**EDIT**
Yeah, after reading a few things, I think that text color really needs adjusted.
 
jaco said:
The Pirate theme looks good so far, should be a big improvement on the old version.

Personally, I would prefer a clean white background in the message area -- straightforward black text on white background is always best for legibility.

Also it's hard to read the "search", "what's new" etc links between the main menu bar and the breadcrumb links. I think the background texture there is too strong.

hmmm -- that logo I did looks a bit "fuzzy" against the new colour background. So I've made a toned-down version which should look better, also made the capitals a bit brighter.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I really wasn't happy with that background texture for the sub-links. I thought it would look good, and tried various font colours, but nothing seemed to work.
Oh well, how about a nice dark oak texture instead? :wp

You're right about the logo; I agree your revised version looks better against the background.

As for the message background, personally I think it looks OK. Meant to resemble parchment, which I thought might be a nice touch. If people don't like it so much, I can change it back to white easily enough.
 
Not bad. This version is easy to read and easy on the eyes. I had trouble with the first version.
 
That dark Oak is much better, makes the text much easier to read! :onya

I do like the look of parchment much better than plain white, that is really quite harsh in my opinion.
 
Thagarr said:
That dark Oak is much better, makes the text much easier to read! :onya
Click to expand...
Also a subtle reference to our new game's working title, don't you think? :cheeky

Anyway, I've just reworked the navigation bar (Home, Forums, etc.) to do away with the blue and black. What do you think?
 
Yup, I caught the subtlety! xD

I think that will do just fine mate, really a great improvement!
 
Aye the colour scheme looks excellent now. I really like the skull n bones in the top right too.

Mind you, I'd still vote for a white text background, but I won't go stirring up a mutiny about it. :cheeky
 
Whether one likes the white text background or not might depend on one's monitor. My last one was quite harsh and tiresome but the current one is pretty easy on the eyes. They are both 23".

I would prefer more colors instead of different shades of brown. The wood grain is nice.
 
That's a good point about monitors Hylie, I have an LCD now, but I used a CRT's up to a couple of years ago and wish I had made the switch long before I did. There is just no substitute for a good monitor, it's worth spending the extra money to get one that actually represents color properly.

Setting the colors on a good CRT was much easier and more accurate than a lot of today's cheap LCD's. There are some really good LED's out there, but a lot are just cheap crap. The new IPS panels are even more accurate, the price on them is ridicules though, unless you want to take a chance on cheap Korean panels on Ebay.
 
Hylie Pistof said:
I would prefer more colors instead of different shades of brown. The wood grain is nice.
Click to expand...
Any specific ideas for more colours? The beauty of the styles is that most of the forum can be recoloured very quickly, by changing a simple set of predefined colours. However, some things are images that need to be edited in Photoshop etc, like some components of the navigation bar at the top.
 
Oh. It is the top bar that could use some color to make some of the words stand out more.
 
I've made a few finishing touches now, particularly to the login bar at the top of the page, as well as the forum index page.
I've also set up a 'fluid' version which stretches to the width of your screen (select "Aurora Pirate Fluid" in the Style Chooser).

Any comments on the updates? I was thinking about setting Aurora Pirate to the new forum default once we're happy with it.

Hylie: I wasn't quite sure what to do with a colour change. Did you want a brighter text colour for the navigation bar (Home, Forums, Wiki etc), or a different background for the text?
Maybe a sort-of gold colour would look nice for the text?
 
My problems stem from these old wore out eyeballs and the small texts like "home" "forums" etc. The top line is fine.
 
Pieter says: "DEFAULT, DEFAULT, DEFAULT" and "Wide = Good"! ;)

"Down to the depths with the standard, boring 'blue' stuff!" :whipa
 
Yup, I agree, time for default! Although I do think that the default should be just regular Aurora Pirate. Although Fluid does help quite a bit with multiple pictures or big pictures, it is a bit disorienting with the rest of the forum layout.
 
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