Tardis:Outdated/Background images: Difference between revisions

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 [[starwars:Coruscant|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.  

[[file:BackgroundExample.jpg|center|675px|thumb|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 [[Robot Yeti|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 to a new skin.  This means a fixed with of 1000 px.

|Background image width||The background image is not just the two [[Robot Yeti|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||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.   

|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.

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.'''

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.   

Yeah, this might seem like a weird one, but it's vital.  Colour images underneath a page makes the text 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.

Unless your design is round, chances are you'll end up with a hard edge that we don't want.  Note that the Yeti example makes this mistake deliberately for illu

strative purposes.  Our Yeti therefore look ridiculous, frankly — more like [[muppet:Cookie Monster|Cookie Monster]] hand puppets than menacing Yeti.  What we need is a way to "fudge" the bottom edge so that it doesn't look like we just cut the photo out with a pair of scissors.   

#Make the height whatever you want it to be, but prefereably no less than 200px and no more than, say, 1000px.  The Yeti example uses 400px, which keeps the images in the upper third of the page.

#Make sure that the layers which contain your images are no less than 75% transparent.  In Photoshop, this is easily done by selecting the appropriate layer on the layer pallette and then just fiddling with the opacity slider.     

#When you're happy with the design, you need to choose to do what Adobe calls "save for web".  Other companies might call it "image compression", "web compression" or something of that ilk. It's essentially a compressed way of saving.  You'll never make it to the tiny 100mb size limit if you just save the file normally.  In Photoshop, at least, there's then an option to choose between a couple of formats of PNG.  As you fiddle with it, you'll be able to see in the bottom left-hand corner of the window an indicator of how bit the file is.  You just have to keep whittling away at the quality of the file until you get to 100mb.  If you play with it for a while and you still can't get it under 100mb, even at the lowest quality, you may have consider cropping your image.  If you've got a 400px image, consider going to 300px.  If you have an image like this Yeti thing, where you've essentially got transparent space on the extreme left and right, then reducing the width to 1400 isn't going to hurt anything.  If you've gone against recommendations and made a colour design, going monochromatic will reduce file size (another reason why colour is discouraged).  Hitting that 100mb limit with the PMG format is pretty hard and it may take you a while to figure out how to do it.

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.