NEW FORUM FEATURE: Custom themes

digitalscream

Since so many people felt that we'd do well to have some custom(-ish) theme options, I've done exactly that. Click the cog under your name over in the left column, click "Edit Profile" and you should see a dropdown box at the bottom.

You now have four options:

Standard (the normal theme)
Dark (a darker version)
Faded (a bit washed out - not as dark as Dark, but with a bit less contrast)
Inverted (try it and see...)

I can fiddle with these a bit, so feedback is appreciated; however, they're mostly filters applied to the entire page, so there's a limit to how much customisation I can realistically do with what little spare time I have available.

It's also worth saying that Dark and Faded will also affect images and videos displayed within threads. Inverted won't, because it's really bloody weird.

digitalscream

For what it's worth, I find that Faded is a nice compromise and fairly easy-on-the-eyes.

EricTheWeary

Does what I'd assumed on the mobile site - nothing. Not a problem, but assuming it's not just me being stupid might be worth pointing out.
I shall look forward to inverting stuff later  

Roland

Nothing happening on my iPad. Do I need to sign out and in again to activate?

digitalscream

EricTheWeary said:

Does what I'd assumed on the mobile site - nothing. Not a problem, but assuming it's not just me being stupid might be worth pointing out.
I shall look forward to inverting stuff later  

Sorry, I should've said - this doesn't affect the mobile site (mainly because I haven't had a chance to 100% test it yet).

Roland said:

Nothing happening on my iPad. Do I need to sign out and in again to activate?

Are you using the full version of the site or the mobile version? If mobile...see above. If full...try refreshing a couple of times, Apple's mobile browser can be quite crappy about picking these things up.

stickyfiddle

Ooh, sounds good to me! Faded looks good. The same but just a little easier on the eyes. Presumably it doesn't impact any embeded images?

digitalscream

stickyfiddle said:

Ooh, sounds good to me! Faded looks good. The same but just a little easier on the eyes. Presumably it doesn't impact any embeded images?

See the first post Faded and Dark both affect the images (to prevent particularly bright images bursting your eyeballs), but Inverted doesn't.

Fretwired

Standard for me .. the others look weird on my monitor.

digitalscream

Fretwired said:

Standard for me .. the others look weird on my monitor.

That's cool...it's why I made it optional.

However...what do you mean by "weird"? And what browser are you using?

Handsome_Chris

digitalscream said:

For what it's worth, I find that Faded is a nice compromise and fairly easy-on-the-eyes.

I find you easy on the eyes.

DiscoStu

Don't see much difference - if any - between standard, dark and faded on my Android phone using the full site.
Inverted certainly does something and would be good at Halloween!

I'll stick with standard.

digitalscream

DiscoStu said:

Don't see much difference - if any - between standard, dark and faded on my Android phone using the full site.
Inverted certainly does something and would be good at Halloween!

I'll stick with standard.

The difference would be quite subtle on mobile phones. It's mainly for desktop users (since mobile devices generate less light anyway, and most have automatic brightness adjustment relative to the ambient light).

For some reason, desktop users appear not to be interested in this thread...

Myranda

I like this change!

The difference even on IPS screens between faded and Dark is subtle

The pallet for the Inverted is (as Stu mentioned a little halloween) perhaps Notepad++'s themes could be a good guide. I'm partial to things like "Black Board", "Ruby Blue", or "Solarized" 

Or sites like https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?91272 where the colour (red for them) is used as an accent more than a prime colour choice. A little busy on their homepage, but greys/blue https://www.hackthissite.org/ ;

I certainly think I'd like to see something with black background, dark great post bars (or whatever they're called), light grey/white body text, mid-grey post information... and some shade of blue as an accent here and there.

Those would be my tuppence worth

I'm a fan of colour pallets like these for "Dark" themes 

Emp_Fab

I AM !!  I AM !!  Thankyou for your efforts.


..cough


..howevvvvvver....


Is it possible to offer options that are less similar to each other ?  At the moment I would summarise the four themes as;
1. Forum staring into the sun
2. Forum on a foggy day
3. Forum on a slightly misty day
4. Forum on acid.

Even if you can't, I'm very grateful as "Forum on acid" is ideal for my sensitive little peepers, especially when I'm tucked up in bed at night in my jim-jams and typing a frothy-mouthed rant about something trivial.

digitalscream

Thanks, @Myranda and @Emp_Fab - these are really just a starter-for-10 to gauge what people are after.

I've cheated a little bit - instead of changing the colour schemes, I've just used CSS3 filters to alter the overall output. As a result, there's not a lot of wiggle-room (eg the Inverted one is literally just the colour scheme, inverted). However, I will be expanding it bit-by-bit to have more pronounced changes such that it works nicely...with the caveat that we most certainly don't want to change the overall branding of the site. The thing is...the ones we have now are 10 minutes of work. The work that'd go into tuning the colours individually is probably 10-20 times that.

Anyway, the feedback is definitely appreciated. I'll have a fiddle with it over the next few days, and see what I can come up with.

Myranda

digitalscream said:

Thanks, @Myranda and @Emp_Fab - these are really just a starter-for-10 to gauge what people are after.

I've cheated a little bit - instead of changing the colour schemes, I've just used CSS3 filters to alter the overall output. As a result, there's not a lot of wiggle-room (eg the Inverted one is literally just the colour scheme, inverted). However, I will be expanding it bit-by-bit to have more pronounced changes such that it works nicely...with the caveat that we most certainly don't want to change the overall branding of the site. The thing is...the ones we have now are 10 minutes of work. The work that'd go into tuning the colours individually is probably 10-20 times that.

Anyway, the feedback is definitely appreciated. I'll have a fiddle with it over the next few days, and see what I can come up with.

That's why I suggested blues as a pallet ... predominantly white and blue, a darker version would be greys and blues or blacks and blues... without throwing baby out with the dish-water

And remember not to knock yourself out over this, some people said it might be a nice feature, but no one will die if it takes as long as it takes - we're not going anywhere  

mart

Are you sure that invert doesn't change embedded images?
My avatar sure looks more psychedelic than usual.

mart

Ok, now I am confused - it's all back to normal.
Anyway, I do like the invert scheme.

not_the_dj

Has anyone made the Top Gun joke yet?

Bridgehouse

not_the_dj said:

Has anyone made the Top Gun joke yet?

"You can be my fretboard chum any day.."

"Bullshit - you think the earth is flat"

No?

Bidley

This is awesome. The standard theme always makes my eyes burn on my home monitor.