Tardis:Outdated/Background images

Stand well clear, Jo!

This article is currently undergoing significant editing. Editors should not use this tag for more than 72 hours. Please do not edit it until you no longer see this message, or until 72 hours have passed from the time this message appeared in the edit history.

Background images are those image files which appear literally in the background of this and every page on this wiki. The bulk of these images is seen outside the page margins, but in reality the image extends underneath the entire page. If you look carefully, you can probably see that the image is dimly visible underneath the page. This unusual behaviour means that images proposed for our background must be prepared in a special way. This tutorial will first explain how the background image works, and then provide an explanation of how these images should be prepared by the user.

How backgrounds work here

Our wiki uses a special bit of CSS coding to ensure a couple of interesting dynamics.

First, as already discussed, there is a distinct difference between the visibility of the image outside the page margin and the way it appears underneath the page. This is achieved by covering the entirety of the page with a translucent white background that sits between the page and the background image. Effectively, we've put a thin "gauze layer" in front of the background image. This improves readability of the foreground text, while also allowing the background image to offer subtle texturing.

Second, The picture remains in the same position, no matter how far down one scrolls on the page. If you'd like to see the difference between our page and that of the typical Wikia wiki, go to starwars:Yoda and scroll down. You'll note that their top-border image of Coruscant disappears when you scroll down the page. Our backgrounds, by contrast, stay put.

What this means is that our page height shrinks from theoretically infinite to something much shorter — something governed by the actual height of your browser window. This eliminates the need to do tiled backgrounds, which are seen on most wikis that have background images, and allows us to create a single, unrepeated background that appears as a strip at the top of the page. It also gives us the flexibility to make something longer, if we choose. In essence, the page fits our design, not the other way around.

Parts of the page

In order to understand how to make a background, we must first examine a page in detail. To aid that understanding a special "test background" was created. It should not be taken as an artistic example, but rather is a design which helps us easily define the parts of the page.

This tutorial shall use the following terms to describe the various areas of the page. The width of the dark grey bit is the "page width". The area where you see the lower Yeti's left hand is the "left gutter". The area where you see the upper Yeti's right hand is the "right gutter". The blue line between the dark and light grety areas is the "margin", further defined as "left margin" or "right margin", as appropriate. The dark blue stripe at the top with the wikia logo is the "wikia header". The distance from the top of the wikia header to the bottom of the dark grey bit is the "background image height". "Background image width" is the width of the graphic you're placing behind the page.

Page width

The page width is 1000px in the Wikia (sometimes called Oasis) skin. Since we had no CSS formatting prior to the advent of the Wikia skin, our site is automatically optimised for that skin. We do not, on this wiki, even pretend to support monaco, monobook or anything that came before. If you want to use your own, personal CSS style sheet, feel free. But we support Wikia Central's use of the Wikia skin and will not be developing stylesheets for other skins, until and unless Wikia moves oŘn from Wikia skin. This means a fixed with of 1000 px.

Background image width

The background image is not just the two Yeti. It's actually the entire browser width. The reason you can't see any difference between the grey towards the bottom of the pae and the grey around the Yeti is because the image is 1500px wide, but on a transparent background.

Gutters

This is the raw background used on the "live" screenshot above. Note that it's actually remarkably simple. It's just the two semi-transparent Yeti on a fully transparent background.

The main area of your design will almost certainly be the bit people see in the gutter. There are varying approaches on how you might fill the gutter. We might call the Yeti example above the "peek-a-boo" approach. Here, the aim is to make an image look like it's "peeking out" from behing the page. The background image width in such a case is quite deceptive. You might think that these two Yeti have been placed individually on the page. In fact, they're on a 1500px X 400px transparent rectangle.

Another approach is to have a continuous strip of background imagery. A good example of this type of background is, as discussed before, at Wookieepedia.

An important thing to remember about gutters is that they completely disappear if the user chooses to zoom his or her browser. Some users therefore never see this element of the design. For this reason, unless your background image is essentially a pattern, you don't want to have an image occupying over 250px of the gutter. In fact, much over 150px is stretching it. ň

Wikia header

Although background images technically start at the very top of the wikia header region, the bottom of the wiki header should be considered our top margins. Note that the right Yeti's head is below the bottom of the wikia header. To make this happen, give your background images a 50px header of blank, transparent background.

Background image height

The background height can really be anything you want it to be, but 400px is a good number to shoot for. It's not too short or too tall. Page backgrounds generally work better when they're occupying the top third of a page, which 400px would, on most computer broswers. The only real restriction with height is that you don't want it to be ridiculously tall, like 800+ px.

Technical specifications

File format

Background images must be in PNG format. It's the only allowed format. Background images must contain transparent elements, and the PNG format is the only transparency-enabled format which wikia allows for backgrounds. Unfortunately, if you do not have software which allows you to create PNG files, you cannot submit backgrounds to our wiki.

File size

Wikia restricts the size of the file to 100mb. Please try to submit files which are less than this. If you find, however, that you just can't make it work, go ahead and submit it, as long as it's in the PNG format. We may be able to compress it or crop it, or put it into a different variety of PNG. Still it is preferred that you present us with a file that we can use without alteration.

Transparency required

Your images must be on fully transparent backgrounds. Any submissions on a coloured background, even a white one, will be summarily rejected. The background image must blend into the background colour, and the only way to do this is if your image is on a transparent background. Furthermore, the image itself must be a minimum of 75% transparent. Note that with the Yeti in the above screenshot, we can actually partially see through them to the background grey underneath.

The reason for all this transparency is to make sure that your design does not prevent article text from being read.

Tiling discouraged

We want designs which run the width of the page, once. An obvious design would be to make a single TARDIS roundel and then tile it across the background, we're looking for stuff that's a bit more imaginative. Unless the tiling produces something unexpected, please don't submit it.

Colour discouraged

Yeah, this might seem like a weird one, but it's vital. Colour images underneath text is hard to read. Since background images tend to hang out underneath the parts of articles traditionally given over to infoboxes, this can cause a big clash. Colour is therefore discouraged, though it might be allowed if it's not too busy and it's no less than 50% transparent.

Rules governing submissions

As with everything on the wiki, you agree that your work is governed by CC-BY-SA. Once submitted, there is no legal opportunity to withdraw it or protect it to any significant degree. You agree that other users have the right to remix your work.

Most importantly, by submitting your design, you agree to make available all files you used to create the design to any admin who asks for them. This is because only admin have the power to actually put a background design up on the site. And it's extremely unlikely that your design will work "out of the box". Its transparency levels will almost certainly have to be fiddled with, and it's a lot easier to do this with your raw Photoshop files, for instance, than it is to take a finished PNG file, reverse engineer it, break it down into its constituent layers, and try to recreate an editable file.