Suggestion New Site Colours

[Art Andrews]

Only two styles... primarily, the oldest and most outdated had a light text on dark background look to it, and honestly, you neon sign analogy applies very well to that look. Light text on a dark background is exactly like a neon sign... great for catching your eye and drawing attention to itself, but a number of studies have shown (you can easily look this up with Google-fu) that light text on a dark background is actually MORE of a strain on your eyes than the reverse.

Let me demonstrate.


With that being said, I can't dictate your preference, but I can easily argue that your analogy is backwards.

Doesn't seem like a contradiction to me. In the old site, it was light text against a dark background. Meaning the brightness wasn't overwhelming. On top of that, all the fonts and borders are different shades of grey, meaning that the text kind of fades into it.
Bright text against dark naturally pops out more than dark text against light, and brightening up the text makes it even worse.

Its like trying to read a neon sign while someone shines a flashlight in your face.

 

[dbuck]

Are you finding the darker, larger text, here in the posts to be easier on the eyes? At this point we are only two shades above solid black so the only solution from here would be to increase the brightness of the background, which is going to make your counterparts howl all the more.

Yes. It is much better. The eyes don't have to try quite so hard to differentiate between the tones. The quotes as they are currently was more like what I was previously seeing in every post and it caused me massive headache quite quickly, much to my surprise.
Everyone's eyes are different, it's kind of like arguing prop colors from pictures, or set lighting versus room, sun versus artificial and so on. The trick is finding that happy medium for the majority.
Try not staying up until four again, okay? The world won't end if its not perfect within a couple of days. We just like bitching. It also shows how much we care.

 

[Clutch]

Okay friends and folks. I've been busy this whole day trying to use an add-on for my browser to get rid of some things the bugged me using the new design of the RPF. I basically tried to keep the new design the way it is and just improve whats needs to be improved. That means I mainly cranked up the conrast between the text and the background, changed the font-size here and there, changed the background of the website by using what has been already there and decided to add some borders to seperate the different topics and threads.

Looks like batsheep made a dark one that is nice. I prefer the black on white, so I might try my hand at this.

 

[Room8]

It is low on the list as an overhaul of the junkyard is coming shortly after we finish with this upgrade.

Thanks! Also, thank you for all of the hard work you put into this site; it is appreciated.

 

[Art Andrews]

Excellent. I am very glad to hear that. As I mentioned, now that we have this one color/size nailed, I think we can use that as a starting point to adjust the other text colors (like the quote area)to make them easily visible.

This is a really tough process as we are trying to accommodate not only a plethora of different equipment and software, but also with different eyes. As long as people will be patient with us, I think you will see that we will keep at it until the masses are satisfied (can't promise that we will be able to accommodate every preference, but if the site is unusable, we might as well shut it down.

Yes. It is much better. The eyes don't have to try quite so hard to differentiate between the tones. The quotes as they are currently was more like what I was previously seeing in every post and it caused me massive headache quite quickly, much to my surprise.
Everyone's eyes are different, it's kind of like arguing prop colors from pictures, or set lighting versus room, sun versus artificial and so on. The trick is finding that happy medium for the majority.
Try not staying up until four again, okay? The world won't end if its not perfect within a couple of days. We just like bitching. It also shows how much we care.

 

[Angelus Lupus]

Yup, colours (well, contrast really) is much better now, although after messing around with some coding with the stylish addon I quite like the colours I came up with:


Also, liking the new image upload system.

 

[Edwardowan]

the larger text has made a big difference... my eyes can actually focus on the text now. I still don't like the grey text although it is better than it was. this all grey format is doing weird things with my brain... its like I'm on the cusp of vertigo when I try to read the threads!

 

[ob1al]

Suddenly looking much better! Some more colour has been introduced and more constrast - thanks for the continued work, I'm sure it'll be brilliant once the creases are ironed out.

 

[blastmaster]

the larger text has made a big difference... my eyes can actually focus on the text now. I still don't like the grey text although it is better than it was. this all grey format is doing weird things with my brain... its like I'm on the cusp of vertigo when I try to read the threads!

I wish that the way the top of the Sight looks continued through out, My eyes actually hurt after I'm on the sight now, They never did that before, I find myself wanting to come over and cruise around like I usually would do, but find myself avoiding it all together, I came over earlier to answer a PM, and then went to post over on Arts thread but didn't because I know it really doesn't matter what I say the look won't be changing, I'm only replying to Edwardo's post because I started a thread discussing it over at Astromech because My EYES feel better over there.
Everything on the top of the Page looks great, good job. The rest is horrible. Got to go now and get Eye lubricant.
Oh Great now even my Premium Membership logo is grey, THIS SUCKS!!!!!!!!!

 

[Art Andrews]

Suddenly looking much better! Some more colour has been introduced and more constrast - thanks for the continued work, I'm sure it'll be brilliant once the creases are ironed out.

We will definitely keep at it until we have something that is workable.

 

[Nwerke]

but a number of studies have shown (you can easily look this up with Google-fu) that light text on a dark background is actually MORE of a strain on your eyes than the reverse./// I can easily argue that your analogy is backwards.

All I can say is there must be an awfully large number of people out there who are unable to read a newspaper. If only the New York Times had realised this years ago! They could have put out a white-on-black edition and reached a whole second market. :lol

We will definitely keep at it until we have something that is workable.

It was *workable* from the beginning; it's definitely better now - but there is no chance of you pleasing everybody, as you know. Great job trying, so far, though! :thumbsup

 

[Amazing DJ]

My thoughts on the site redesign: I don't have a large monitor right now. And I have to set the website to be magnified a couple steps to read the text. So I'm really not liking the big tall graphics on the headers. And the big tall graphics at the beginning of each page/section cause too much scrolling. This site should be more like a utility item, something that helps you quickly read (slice) through posts. And make it less like a graphical show.

When I use the site, I just want to hit down-down-page number-page number down-down done. I don't want to pause and admire the window-blind style headers. I've been using a Firefox add-on called AdBlock Plus to selectively kill off the giant headers and logos. But I leave the ads turned ON. I do like seeing the ads, knowing what neat new products are being marketed to us proppers. Thanks to the admin for the effort on that. I really hope you do financially prosper for your efforts.

 

[blastmaster]

OK..... Thanks you so much to Alan Castillo, for the Advice to get Fire Fox, and the "Nosquint" Add on, I am now all good, with this you can make the Background any color you want and the Font any size you want and the letters any color you want, SO SICK, I can't thank you enough, So ART you won't need to hear me Complaining anymore about the color scheme. I am now in all Black Background with Blue letters, I am in Heaven!!!!!! Sweet !!!! and my eyes already feel great, SO COOL!!!!!!!!! So now just make My PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP Banner Gold again!!! HA HA

 

[Alan Castillo]

OK..... Thanks you so much to Alan Castillo, for the Advice to get Fire Fox, and the "Nosquint" Add on,

It. Wasn't. Me.

robn1 suggested it first.

I just yelled it out to the 4 winds

I am so happy that most of those who were unhappy, are now so happy

(That sounded so Teletubbies

)

 

[KrokoHunter]

Great improvement on the contrast/legibility ... I like it way better .. now I just need to get rid of that big ad-bar (I'll find a solution myself ) and all is bliss

Well .. I'm still not a fan of the new logo ... but you know that

 

[Art Andrews]

Great improvement on the contrast/legibility ... I like it way better .. now I just need to get rid of that big ad-bar (I'll find a solution myself ) and all is bliss

Well .. I'm still not a fan of the new logo ... but you know that

We still have a lot of tweaks to go, but glad it is getting better for you.

 

[KrokoHunter]

I've used Stylish to hide the big ad-bar ... I know ads are important for the site .. but I'm using a 13" laptop .. so screenspace is also important to me

Know I just need to hide that big horizontal "ad bar" ... Art hasn't made it easy for me ..... I'll take the challenge LOL

 

[ThatPhoenixGuy]

Know I just need to hide that big horizontal "ad bar" ... Art hasn't made it easy for me ..... I'll take the challenge LOL

You mean by implementing the css directly into the HTML element? Having the same trouble here^^

 

[KrokoHunter]

Problem solved

 

[Alan Castillo]

To all who are trying left right and center to circumvent the ads on the site.

If you take the time it is taking you to go into web codes etc etc, and translate that into your per hour working rate, you would have been able to get rid of the ads for 5 years through becoming a premium member

.