• Registered: 2006-02-28
  • Posts: 7

Topic: Fangorn

It's been up for some time now, since I haven't changed anything to the layout in a while I thought that it should be 'ready' to post it here. I present to you (with a modest deal of pride);

http://forum.fangorn.be/

Totally going along with the 'fight against bloat' wink. A very minimalistic, black/grey style, in total (read: as 'total' as I could get it) harmony with the website itself. Using a banner instead of some text took me a while, especially to get it XHTML compliant (ánd in 'coherence' with the banner on the website). The only visual 'distinctions' of the forum's index are the grey menu- and category-bars, the rest should be obvious by some sort of optical 'illusion' caused by the layout of the text itself. Imo it looked better than when I was playing around with border- and background colors. Minimalistic, as I said earlier. But I surely had my work with it...

Btw; you may notice that there isn't much activity in the public section, but the private section is doing véry well atm smile. So no, the layout isn't scaring any visitors, as far as I know wink.

Goofy666's Website

  • From: -8 GMT
  • Registered: 2004-05-04
  • Posts: 1,396

Re: Fangorn

it's hard to read as i'm sure you know. looks nice otherwise.

~James
FluxBB - Less is more

3 Reply by hsl

  • hsl
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  • Registered: 2006-08-11
  • Posts: 27

Re: Fangorn

I'm getting head aches from de grey-on-black, if you make the color of the text #999999 or #EEEEEE it will be a lot better to read.

smile

hsl's Website

4 Reply by Goofy666 (edited by Goofy666 2006-12-01 15:42)

  • Registered: 2006-02-28
  • Posts: 7

Re: Fangorn

Dr.Jeckyl wrote:

it's hard to read as i'm sure you know.

Well, yes and no; indeed, the colours are something I was doubting about in the past (and even now, still), as I noticed that on some badly configured monitors it is hardly readable. I try to take everybody into account by keeping myself to the web standards and tweaking the design to be decent in all browsers (PunBB is already compliant and decent in every browser, yay! smile), but what I will nót do, is changing the colours because some people don't know how to configure their monitor... The forum is *perfectly* readable on every monitor I have here (from ~11 years old CRT's to my 1 year old TFT), with modest brightness etc.

Btw, if I really was sure that the combination of colours was not visible on most monitors, I just wouldn't use it, don't you think? I'll keep it in mind, though I find it a bit odd that you guys are the first to complain about it.

Goofy666's Website

  • Registered: 2006-11-20
  • Posts: 14

Re: Fangorn

Assuming that all people like the same color lvl's, brithness and contrast is just wrong .... *Some''Most* people just like there screen settings to be what you call *Badly configured*. (lets be a bit silly ... you are saying: I order everyone to where a uniform, have blue eye's and blond hear ... If they don't ... *Bang* ...)

I don't like lights around me so when its dark out my screen settings go way down (realy hard to read your site), during the day I set my screen a bit brighter ( then its readable but still ...). And don't get me wrong I love low contrast layouts, one of the reasons I stoped desinging is becouse *Most People* disliked the low contrast stuff I made  ... and I was unable to make annything look good using high contrast

Personly I love the color setup, in general I'm sure *Most People* will dislike it ...

6 Reply by hsl (edited by hsl 2006-12-01 19:56)

  • hsl
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  • Registered: 2006-08-11
  • Posts: 27

Re: Fangorn

I'm watching the site on a freshly calibrated Apple Cinema Display and well it's too damn dark, it fits the metal music style, but so would a red or green font color smile

on the index.php and the viewforum.php it's more disturbing than in viewtopic.php, there you added a border, that makes the whole feel a lot lighter if you know what I mean.

this is the punbb config of a friend of mine, it also has a dark cloud hanging over it, but it's a whole lot better to read.

smile

My own punbb board is completly different, but it's for a total different purpose.

hsl's Website

7 Reply by Goofy666 (edited by Goofy666 2006-12-02 10:25)

  • Registered: 2006-02-28
  • Posts: 7

Re: Fangorn

Bodram wrote:

Assuming that all people like the same color lvl's, brithness and contrast is just wrong .... *Some''Most* people just like there screen settings to be what you call *Badly configured*. (lets be a bit silly ... you are saying: I order everyone to where a uniform, have blue eye's and blond hear ... If they don't ... *Bang* ...)

Well, I'm flattered with the comparison, really... You say it yourself, by the way; "during the day I set my screen a *bit* brighter". With 'badly configured', as you name it, I mean that things are set up in such a way that my website isn't the only one with which you'll have problems reading it. You can't expect éverybody to use only black on white, because it is readably on évery monitor?

Bodram wrote:

Personly I love the color setup, in general I'm sure *Most People* will dislike it ...

Could be, but the thing is that the style is now how the band likes it. "v1.0" of the layout was múch lighter, and had better readability, but it was not dark enough for a certain person in that band (yay!). After mány changes, nothing is left from the original, and I'm trying to make the best I can from the black/grey combination.

hsl wrote:

this is the punbb config of a friend of mine, it also has a dark cloud hanging over it, but it's a whole lot better to read.

The only problem is that I still don't have access to any of the header development files. As for now, I'm obliged to use the one you see now. Maybe if I can get my hands on the original scan of the logo that I can do something with it, but for now I  ceased asking for it, as I just don't get any response... Thanks for the link though, it shows indeed what a 'lighter' header can do to the layout smile.

Goofy666's Website