Tardis:Outdated/Background images
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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. Consider the following example:
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 own 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
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.
