Best phpBB styles: my top ten

[Tannin]

Best:

1. Vereor Lord of the Rings Simply excellent. Index pages are not bad but the actual forums are the best by a mile: good looking and easy to read.
2. Black Soul Another very good one.
3. Darkside Laid-back, restrained, surprisingly clear given the colours.
4. SubBlack
5. SubGreen Prissy but practical
6. Vereor Men in Black
7. Haloween A little busy, not as nice as Darkside but the "new post" and "quote" buttons are neat.
8. Milennium Falcon Ugly but practical.
9. Play Poor and hard to read index, but the actual forums are good.
10. SubTrail A little messy-looking but very practical.

Worst: Not in any particular order.

• 
  Appalacia: http://www.phpbb.com/styles/styles_demo/index.php?s=43 No contrast, hard to read
  Bman1Blue: http://www.phpbb.com/styles/styles_demo/index.php?s=28 No contrast, hard to read
  Chronicles: http://www.phpbb.com/styles/styles_demo/index.php?s=28 Just plain bad taste.
  dvdfuture: http://www.phpbb.com/styles/styles_demo/index.php?s=14 Tacky.
  Darkness: http://www.phpbb.com/styles/styles_demo/index.php?s=52 Very hard to read
  Icicle: http://www.phpbb.com/styles/styles_demo/index.php?s=7 Very hard to read.
  Mission Impossible: http://www.phpbb.com/styles/styles_demo/index.php?s=33 Yuk!
  The XiT: http://www.phpbb.com/styles/styles_demo/index.php?s=46 Very hard to read.

 

[Buck]

Although I'm not particularly fond of our present color scheme, the ones listed by Tannin as "Best" don't strike me as being any better. Vereor Lord of the Rings has too much green, or at least some of the wrong shades of green.

 

[Tannin]

How hard is it to design a theme? Maybe we could make our own?

 

[Tea]

There iz no zuch thing az too much green!

 

[Buck]

How hard is it to design a theme? Maybe we could make our own?

I've thought of that too Tannin, but it is a huge task. We would need to establish some guidelines based on the consensus of our fellow members. Personally, I think the layout of our present forum is good, we could just change a few of the colors.

 

[Buck]

There iz no zuch thing az too much green!

Yez there iz . . . argh, now you have me uzing a normally unuzed key.

 

[i]

Best:

• Play Nice contrast while still being easy on the eyes.
• Appalacia Clean look, and very easy to read - a definite winner.
• Icicle Not my favorite, but still a good design and easy to read.
• The XiT Easy on the eyes. Another excellent choice ... if the red text were a different color.

Interesting that many of the ones I like the most are the ones Tannin dislikes the most. If you couldn't have guessed already, I'd say it's going to be hard finding a theme everyone likes.

 

[Handruin]

So far I don't believe there is a theme everyone has agreed on. I would say the default subsilver received the least amount of flack, but there are a few who don't care for it.

 

[Tannin]

I always disliked subsilver. I just stayed quiet in the interest of keeping the peace. Light blue on whitishgreyishsomething is a recipe for eyestrain.

 

[i]

Light blue on whitishgreyishsomething is a recipe for eyestrain.

Do you mean light blue text on a whitishgreyishsomething background? Or the text background areas?

 

[Tannin]

Yes.

 

[Tea]

Tannin isn't being helpful. He didn't really understand the question: light blue on anything light coloured = eyestrain. While I don't like the glaring white of the current zcheme, at least it'z got good contrast between the black and the white. But zeriously, no-one in their right mind can possibly suggest that a bright background (white iz worst of all) is easy on the eye. Computer eyestrain comez from two zources:

a: Excessive photons bashing your retina - this causes physical damage in exactly the same way that looking directly at the sun does, only more slowly. Rule One is uze dark backgroundz, the darker the better.

b: Difficulty in making out the text. This can be caused by zeveral things: too-small a font, poor contrast between the text and the background, or badly-chosen fontz, zuch az Gothic or Zcript.

 

[Buck]

The background needs more of color #3D6FAE which is specified in the sfstyle.css file.

 

[Cliptin]

So far I don't believe there is a theme everyone has agreed on. I would say the default subsilver received the least amount of flack, but there are a few who don't care for it.

How about subsilver but about 5 shades darker. We could have a weekly rotation with voting.

 

[Handruin]

How hard is it to design a theme? Maybe we could make our own?

It is fairly involved to design a theme. Just editing the existing ones is a PITA!

Here are the instructions on how to desing your own theme.

http://www.phpbb.com/mods/downloads/uploads/new_template_1.0.0.txt

 

[Tannin]

A darker sub-silver has merit, Cliptin. The subsilver scheme looks good, it just doesn't deliver enough contrast to stop me coing cross-eyed.

But doesn't phpBB allow for a user-selected scheme? Is that difficult to implement? Then we could have three or four of the most popular ones and those of you that actually like glare and eyestrain can have as much of it as you like, while those of us who like to preserve our retinas can do so. And, yes, the ones who like green can have as much green as they want, Tea.

 

[Handruin]

A darker sub-silver has merit, Cliptin. The subsilver scheme looks good, it just doesn't deliver enough contrast to stop me coing cross-eyed.

But doesn't phpBB allow for a user-selected scheme? Is that difficult to implement? Then we could have three or four of the most popular ones and those of you that actually like glare and eyestrain can have as much of it as you like, while those of us who like to preserve our retinas can do so. And, yes, the ones who like green can have as much green as they want, Tea.

Yes, it does allow for a user selected theme, however I need to edit every theme we make available so that it matches the site header.

I can install a bunch without editing and let people judge them.

 

[Cliptin]

A darker sub-silver has merit, Cliptin. The subsilver scheme looks good, it just doesn't deliver enough contrast to stop me coing cross-eyed.

Sounds like at least we are comming to some sort of agreement. Although I have to say that too-high contrast makes my eyes hurt.

 

[timwhit]

I like Black Soul the best of the ones that Tannin posted. My vote is for that one to be a choice.

 

[Handruin]

Everyone go to your profile and chose subsilver if you would like the default phpBB theme. Don't use digitaltwilight because I am working on it. You can use it if you are curious, but it won't look right until I fix it.

 

[timwhit]

Thanks Doug! Just wondering if you could add 'Black Soul'? I will be forever grateful...

One problem I see with the lord of the rings theme is that all the button's text is black and the buttons are black so I can't see what the buttons say. Is there anyways to fix this easily?

 

[Handruin]

Thanks Doug! Just wondering if you could add 'Black Soul'? I will be forever grateful...

One problem I see with the lord of the rings theme is that all the button's text is black and the buttons are black so I can't see what the buttons say. Is there anyways to fix this easily?

I think I fixed it. Let me know!

 

[Handruin]

Thanks Doug! Just wondering if you could add 'Black Soul'? I will be forever grateful...

One problem I see with the lord of the rings theme is that all the button's text is black and the buttons are black so I can't see what the buttons say. Is there anyways to fix this easily?

Blacksoul installed...but it isn't perfect.

 

[timwhit]

Thanks Doug, Black Soul is much better than any of the other ones at least in my NHO.

 

[timwhit]

Thanks Doug! Just wondering if you could add 'Black Soul'? I will be forever grateful...

One problem I see with the lord of the rings theme is that all the button's text is black and the buttons are black so I can't see what the buttons say. Is there anyways to fix this easily?

I think I fixed it. Let me know!

Looks fine to me. I also don't see any problems with Black Soul either. Both look good now. Thanks!