NEW THEME! for the Spectrum Computing Forums

[Pegaz]

It's not pleasing to my eyes and I simply can't get used to it.
Someone here, has a signature - If it's working, don't touch it, at all...
Maybe it's not a bad thing, to stick to it in this case as well.

[PQR]

As others have already mentioned, the contrast in the new theme is way too high for my liking.

• The white background is too bright and strains my eyes.
• The black/dark gray buttons and black borders are too heavy. They draw too much attention as a result.
• I’m not against Open Sans as a typeface but the running text is a) too small and b) too heavy in weight.

[PeterJ]

Thanks for all the constructive comments for @druellan.

You can switch to the new alternative theme following the instructions on the opening post of this topic.

Please continue to feedback.

[druellan]

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 you have the chance to see the desktop version, I pretty much want to hear your opinion!

• The white background is too bright and strains my eyes.

We changed it slightly, is still a problem?

• The black/dark gray buttons and black borders are too heavy. They draw too much attention as a result.

Now that we have a gray background, I was thinking on changing the ones inside the topics as something plain (like ZX81 ), but I must be honest, I like the ZX Spectrum ones.

• I’m not against Open Sans as a typeface but the running text is a) too small and b) too heavy in weight.

I also thought that, but on a side by side comparison turns out the Open Sans is a bigger, more readable font that the Trebuchet MS originally used by the forum. But I only tested it on Windows + cleartype.

[firelord]

I mostly like the old colors. The contrast is more pleasing to the eyes ( mine at least).
Maybe a dark theme would be better.

[spider]

Much appreciated! Let me know how the fixes look, specially the search bar.

Thank you.

Yes appreciate the work / effort into it. As I've said I do understand how long it takes to get it right, having done this myself.

The button spacing for drafts under the posting window look the same in FF at least, the search too. I did hard refresh to be sure with CTRL+F5 and CTRL+R but FF has a strange habit sometimes of keeping it.

The other bits now look good!

[PQR]

First of all @druellan I want to say that I appreciate the effort to make a custom theme. Because I know it is bloody hard and you will get a lot of negative feedback if you change something that people are so familiar with. I also appreciate that @PeterJ is giving room to these kinds of initiatives.

I also thought that, but on a side by side comparison turns out the Open Sans is a bigger, more readable font that the Trebuchet MS originally used by the forum. But I only tested it on Windows + cleartype.

Please have a look below at two screenshots of the same post in the original and the new theme.
On my machine (MacBook Pro, 13" retina screen, macOS Mojave) the original theme is using Lucida Grande, which is also small but because of the lighter weight and more generous spacing is more readable. Open Sans renders a lot heavier, and has slightly less whitespace between the lines as well.

[1024MAK]

If you have the chance to see the desktop version, I pretty much want to hear your opinion!

So I have just tried the following:

• Firefox on an iPad mini - the only part of the background picture is a very thin border, making it completely pointless.
• Firefox on a PC running Linux - like on the iPad mini, except you can see a little bit more of the picture, but only just enough to make out a thin slice of the 4 and E keys of a rubber key Speccy keyboard, on the sides, the width is about the same width as a forum page number icon.
• Firefox on a Laptop running Windows 10 - This time it's possible to see a bit more of the picture. I still can't see the whole 4 or E key though.

I don't use other browsers at home much, so won't be trying any others.

So my conclusion: I still think such background pictures are a waste of time, effort and bandwidth. At least it does not affect the readability of the text and other content.

I can grab some screenshots if you want.

Mark

[druellan]

First of all @druellan I want to say that I appreciate the effort to make a custom theme. Because I know it is bloody hard and you will get a lot of negative feedback.

I appreciate ANY feedback and specially the negative ones. I was fully expecting for people to have different opinions, and I'm not here to impose anything to anyone. Said that, my intention is to leave this theme as usable as possible

Please have a look below at two screenshots of the same post in the original and the new theme.

Oh, I see it now, and yeah, the Lucida Grande is not a font usually found installed on Windows, so, on this platform is going back to "Trebuchet MS" that has a very similar size, or even smaller than Open Sans. The original theme is using in fact 3 or 4 different fonts, my hope was to simplify this and use overall 1 or 2 fonts (Open Sans and Verdana/Arial). I'm also using the semibold variant, that's why you see it bolder, again, looks nice on Windows.
I'm thinking that perhaps I can switch to Lucida Grande for Mac users or just increase a bit the font size. I'm not good at fonts, but let's see if I can find a good compromise. Thanks!

[1024MAK]

The brightness of this theme does not seem as bad on a PC or laptop.

Anyway, here are some screenshots:

iPad mini:








Firefox on Linux PC


Firefox on Laptop running Windows:


Firefox on Linux PC with me having changed the background colours


The background colours used for this are:
Quoted text background; cacaca
Post entry text background: e3e3e3
Rest of page background: f0f0f0

Despite my reservations, I appreciate the effort that has been put into this.

Mark

[Spud]

This new theme excellent, but my old eyes can't cope with the brightness. If I was 20 years younger I'd be all over it like a rash.

[hikoki]

I'd like to see a theme based on Sinclair font
To save paper I use the smallest size and Verdana which I find most readable.
If you want to improve usability on small devices, you may find ways to get more padding between buttons.

[Mpk]

To save paper

Are you printing out the forums?

[hikoki]

Are you printing out the forums?

Yes, I like to read the forums this way. I make double sided documents and choose 8 point Verdana in bold. Saving ink is not a problem as I go to a copy shop but one could choose Century Gothic in grayscale if readability is secondary.Lol

[druellan]

The brightness of this theme does not seem as bad on a PC or laptop.
Anyway, here are some screenshots:

Thanks Mark. It was not my intention to make you take screenshorts of everything at your hand, but I really appreciate the effort, this is handy for sure.

[clebin]

Yes, I like to read the forums this way. I make double sided documents and choose 8 point Verdana in bold. Saving ink is not a problem as I go to a copy shop but one could choose Century Gothic in grayscale if readability is secondary.Lol

I'm going to have to make better jokes now I know they have a carbon footprint!

[PeterJ]

I go to a copy shop

This is fascinating. It would be excellent to see a photo of you at the copy shop with your Spectrum Computing printouts.

[RMartins]

Just took a peak at the "ZX prosilver" style.

Nothing to point out at first sight, except that it has too much BRIGHT 7.

If someone, is actually printing the forum (sometimes, it might be handy to print), the CSS can have specific rules for printing, that can make the pages just white paper with black text, and remove all unnecessary items, like buttons and the like.

[hikoki]

If someone, is actually printing the forum (sometimes, it might be handy to print), the CSS can have specific rules for printing, that can make the pages just white paper with black text, and remove all unnecessary items, like buttons and the like.

The forum already has a wrench button to send the current page of a thread to the print view style.
By the way, there is an extension called " Print all posts in a topic"

[Stu]

Small tweak requested to the new theme -- all text is currently in bold:

Test
Test

Code: Select all

[b]Test[/b]
Test

Looks like this currently:

[druellan]

Just took a peak at the "ZX prosilver" style.
Nothing to point out at first sight, except that it has too much BRIGHT 7.

I reduced the contrast a bit more. Also, removed the photo background, so performance is going to be better.
I'm playing with some backgrounds. Darker ones look really nice, I'm probably going to settle on one of those.

The forum already has a wrench button to send the current page of a thread to the print view style.
By the way, there is an extension called " Print all posts in a topic"

I have control over the print styles, in case they need some tweaking.

[druellan]

Small tweak requested to the new theme -- all text is currently in bold:

Are you on a Mac or Linux system, stu?

[Stu]

Are you on a Mac or Linux system, stu?

A Mac, this happens in both Edge and Safari. I checked the font it's displaying and it's Lucida Grande 600, if that's any help.

[druellan]

Thanks, Stu, and yeah, I was kind of expecting some shenanigans with the fonts, I'm using an Open Sans 600 that looks really nice, but on Mac is kind of small, and replacing it with Lucida Grande makes everything bold. I'm going to apply a fix for that.

[1024MAK]

Is it possible to change the colour of the text when the CODE tags are used?

Only

Code: Select all

LIGHT GREEN

on a white background is not the easiest to read…

Mark