NEW THEME! for the Spectrum Computing Forums

[1024MAK]

You need to run this:

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10 BRIGHT 0 : CLS

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ZX Spectrum 128 is the faster BASIC ever

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Mark

[PeterJ]

Thanks for the constructive feedback @dfzx. When @druellan originally posted he didn't get any feedback, so in that respect it's worked. However I do appreciate that some don't like change 'forced' upon them (even for a short period).

The site will return to normal this evening and users will be able to choose between the themes as described in the first post. I couldn't change the default theme without turning off the switching option.

I think @1024MAK may have spent to long in the sunshine, or been sniffing flux!

[Arcachnar]

Uh...yes ..it is indeed a "bit" white and bright. Maybe (I know. I am a bit new here, so just an idea) it could use a dash of the ZX spectrum colors and all. The topic buttons does look a bit empty. Maybe making it look like zx spectrum buttons to brighten them up? If you know what I mean.

[Ralf]

Yes, it's modern and stylish but it's too bright and having too much contrast for me too.

I'm using desktop monitor if that matters. Maybe it will work different on mobile phones.

So being able to choose yourself your theme seems a perfect solution for me

[1024MAK]

I think @1024MAK may have spent to long in the sunshine, or been sniffing flux!

Hi Peter

Apart from the comment about the white being a bit BRIGHT, the rest of that post was copied from here

Yeah, I was out in the heat and sunshine on Monday and Tuesday, that’s what happens when the failed equipment is outside! Although none of the faults were directly heat related (unless the power blips that were causing the problems were).

Alas, no soldering recently, . I’ve been too busy in the garden trying to prevent a hedge becoming multiple tall trees, cutting the grass and clearing gutters…

Mark

[Stu]

Only visited on my phone so far but looks good! The topic icons are nice too. One small issue though, some icons have a corner missing — I assume this is where the locked topic icon is meant to be showing?

I've checked this on my laptop now and opening the individual icon images, I can see it's just that the white padlock of the icon isn't showing up against the white background. Changing the icons to have a black padlock should be all that's needed, I did a quick mockup and it looks okay to me.

[Stu]

On a hunch I looked at the unread icon (blue square) and I can see they also have white elements that don't show up, in this case lines in the middle. So they could maybe be recoloured to show up, eg:



Looks like a few other icons have white elements too so it may be worth just running through them all and recolouring bits if needed.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

I also find it too bright, but I love the font, though. Very close to the font in some Sinclair manuals.

Why not the opposite? I mean: white font & black background, as in the Plus/128k manual, for example. Bright issues would dissapear.

But it is just a suggestion, I appreciate the effort for improving the forum!

[JMcGibbitts]

The update is very slightly better for me, in that the out-of-focus Spectrum in the background is an improvement on the bright white glare of the previous theme, but I suspect it shall still prove too bright to look at in a dark room at night.

I want to echo the thoughts of some of the others here about implementing a darker background. I enjoy some "dark mode" anywhere I can get one, specifically meaning some very dark gray or black background, either with basic colors or some nice pastel shades for text. Please consider all the apps / sites that are listed over at https://darkmodelist.com/ as to how important this is for your users. Perhaps take a look at https://arstechnica.com/ for inspiration around how that site offers both a light and a dark mode (via the hamburger menu in the top-right). Similarly, Facebook users can click their profile button, select 'Display and accessibility' then hit the 'Dark mode' button if that's something they prefer. Thanks for reading.

[Arcachnar]

Or the topic icons look like this?



And if there is a new post there will be the red exclamation mark. (like it is on the ZX Spectrum keyboard) Maybe something like this:



Edit: Yeah the red exclamation mark should be a bit bigger.

[ketmar]

please, can i get back the old style? there is noting in "User Control Panel -> Board preferences -> Edit global settings", and this new contrast style is hurting my eyes.

[redballoon]

I like it so will certainly be switching to it permanently when it becomes available.
Are the main topic icons editable? They're the ones that look slightly out of place with the rest of the new styling.

[4thRock]

Check this post:
viewtopic.php?p=97355#p97355

[ketmar]

oh, so it's not permanent. thank you!

[4thRock]

I don't think the layout is too white. But for the benefit of those who do , perhaps the post and forum background colours could be swapped.

On the new layout, the post background is white and the forum background is slightly gray.
It was the other way around on the original layout,

Playing with CSS and swapping the colours gives me something like this:

Looks very nice I think. Just trying to help

[Nitrowing]

White on black would be better for me.
I can't see a Spectrum background on my mobile
*edit*
There it is...

[druellan]

On the new layout, the post background is white and the forum background is slightly gray.
It was the other way around on the original layout,

Implemented! Also removed some transparency effects to help improve the performance, and I believe that *might* solve the problem on the fonts on Firefox.

[druellan]

I've checked this on my laptop now and opening the individual icon images, I can see it's just that the white padlock of the icon isn't showing up against the white background. Changing the icons to have a black padlock should be all that's needed, I did a quick mockup and it looks okay to me.

Thanks for this! I'll try and fix it.

[PeterJ]

@druellan,

I'm using Chrome in Android mobile and when I refresh the page by dragging down, on the redraw all the text in the posts becomes bold just for a fraction of a second, before returning to normal.

[druellan]

I also find it too bright, but I love the font, though. Very close to the font in some Sinclair manuals.

I'm so glad you mention that, because it was the intention. The font is not exactly the same (this is a Humanist font, and Sinclair I believe used a Helvetica one), but it is close enough, a modern and elegant font.

Why not the opposite? I mean: white font & black background, as in the Plus/128k manual, for example. Bright issues would dissapear.

That is planned! To be fair, I started kind of that way, but quickly realized it was a very drastic change, and I was doing a mess, so, I decided to fall back to a more conservative change (have the spacing, the fonts and the layout right), and then attempt the "dark" version.

[druellan]

@druellan,

I'm using Chrome in Android mobile and when I refresh the page by dragging down, on the redraw all the text in the posts becomes bold just for a fraction of a second, before returning to normal.

Try again with the last changes to see if that improves. I'm going to try on mine.

[druellan]

White on black would be better for me.
I can't see a Spectrum background on my mobile

Thanks! Also checking this, the background is not supposed to be there on mobile, it is a waste of resources.

[PeterJ]

Thanks @druellan,

I cleared cache and still seem to see it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YAkeAL ... sp=sharing

As a bonus, I did learn how to record my screen on Android. Result!

[1024MAK]

I’ve only looked at the site on a mobile device so far. I’ve not seen any background pictures, photos or images…

But if there are such things, read what I put in the spoiler.

Spoiler

I’m definitely not a fan of background pictures, photos or images…
They increase loading times and have no upside or benefit IMHO.

Once you’ve seen the picture/photo/image once… you don’t need to see it ever again.

If I want to look at a Speccy, I can look at one of mine, look at one of my own photos or search the web for a photo.

And plain backgrounds mean my old eyes find it easier to read the text on the screen.

Stupid backgrounds were controversial back when the computer magazines started doing this nonsense. We don’t need it now.

<end of rant>

Mark

[druellan]

Thanks @druellan,
I cleared cache and still seem to see it.

Looks like the font having a late load on the styles. Cloudflare tends to do some "crazy things" when it detects changes on the styling, so I'm going to wait a bit and I'll ping back to you to see if improved.