ATS.5/3 has two core color modes -- light/dark -- there can be more

Krakatoa
S.O., Please send me the info and I'll do my best to come up with an alternate theme. If there are theme patterns in the CSS (commonly linked areas requiring the same values), it will be easier. In a previous life, I did this exact thing for a product of a former employer.

"Give me to tools, and I will finish the job...."

edit on 9/10/2013 by Krakatoa because: (no reason given)

It's funny that we now talk of "custom theme creation", I MYSELF just experimented with FF and tried to custom mod this new theme. (Maybe I should look into chrome, I could NOT modify anything with FF).

Questions..why does this even come up..what DOES THIS SAY about the new theme? Hint hint...

The icons/images are oversized needlessly and make it look like a site for visually impaired people.

While IRRELEVANT objects increased in size, the actual text-size of the forum messages DECREASED.

The "old" theme had functionality which is now missing (uploads, notfications etc.).. and I don't see ANY advantage of the new theme whatsoever. If I had a way to get the old, classic theme back with normal sized icons and "clear" font I do it in a heartbeat. I understand this is NEW and we will likely get many improvements and probably even more alternative themes to choose from in the future. I have seen some screenshots which looked rather good (the one guy of the chrome user)..but the CURRENT ones seriously makes me cringe.

It's clear that you want to cater to the "mobile people" but I am NOT one of them.

reply to post by ProfessorChaos


this looks VERY good, do you have an idea what add-on to use in FF to get this done?

Side-note: I couldn't even reply a second ago since the IMAGES (!) have not loaded. You have to click on the ICONS to reply since the text (eg "reply") is not click-able.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord

I really like the idea of ProfessorChaos it looks great that would be perfect for my vision or lack of

My fav site just keeps on giving love it love it love it

ProfessorChaos
Just messing with Chrome, this is what I came up with for coloring:

I darkened the background, message text, message box and the greenery a bit and changed the stats text to a lighter color.

As an aside, I pray to God that someone comes up with acceptable emoticons.

this is how i would like to see my ATS screen

reply to post by NoRulesAllowed


In FF you can use the "inspector" under: tools < Web Developer < inspector

or you can add "Firebug" as a plugin, which is better.

Even better, though, is using google chrome's "Inspect element" found by right-clicking on any element. It's what I use as a Web Developer. Find FF more restrictive in this regard.


PS. Love the new site! The flat style is so much easier to look at. And the more responsive design is nice too. I opened the web site like, "wait... what?"

Though, I don't like the smiley's and new color-ways would be nice. Minor things...

(

ProfessorChaos

This gets a thumbs up from me.

openlocks
reply to post by NoRulesAllowed

 

In FF you can use the "inspector" under: tools < Web Developer < inspector

or you can add "Firebug" as a plugin, which is better.

Even better, though, is using google chrome's "Inspect element" found by right-clicking on any element. It's what I use as a Web Developer. Find FF more restrictive in this regard.


PS. Love the new site! The flat style is so much easier to look at. And the more responsive design is nice too. I opened the web site like, "wait... what?"

Though, I don't like the smiley's and new color-ways would be nice. Minor things...

(

reply to post by NoRulesAllowed


Yeah, at first I had the same question. Short answer, you can't. I think this thread is meant to submit screenshots of edits, then ATS will implement new color-ways based on what people like... I think.

Maybe a mod can give us some more info on how the new color-ways process will work?

Very black background with light text causes eye strain for me.

Perhaps, as a suggestion there could be the current light / dark and additional colour / very dark options.

I did some tweaking on chrome and for me I really like this:

I'm looking at playing around with a program to see if I can get the dark scheme that I got from Chrome to become a scheme that can be actually used here.

***EDIT***
It's going to be a while for me to figure this all out. If I get anything useful, I'll let you all know.


***EDIT 2***
There is a free program called Stylizer, it has a periodic nag screen that pops up and does a 10 second countdown, but it allows you to edit web pages, in case anyone is interested in playing around with it.

reply to post by NoRulesAllowed


I'm not familiar with FF: firebug, I'm currently playing around with Stylizer, but with time constraints, who knows how long before I have it figured out. I haven't dabbled with this stuff since HTML4 came out. lol.

openlocks
reply to post by NoRulesAllowed

 

Yeah, at first I had the same question. Short answer, you can't. I think this thread is meant to submit screenshots of edits, then ATS will implement new color-ways based on what people like... I think.

Maybe a mod can give us some more info on how the new color-ways process will work?

No... not screen shots, actual CSS.

There are two CSS files used to define just the colors in a toggle between light/dark.
The light version - ats_color.css
The dark version - ats_color_dark.css

I need complete versions of those in order to consider to consider the change. For example, if you've named your color scheme "ATS Blue Blast," then the CSS file should be "ats_blue_blast.css"


Make sense?

Two suggestions:

First, could the darker of the two themes be the default. I clear my cookies/preferences after each browser session so whenever I come back to ATS I get my receptors fried out.

Second, how about a red, "night vision" theme like the astronomy/military apps have so that we can view ATS in a darkened environment without depleting our rods.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Oh, okay... but how are we suppose to upload CSS files? I just tried to do it with the media uploader and it said "only image files".

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


I can send the entire CSS for the colour tweaked page I made, though it has all the CSS information.

Is there some way of getting just the relevant CSS information from the page? There isn't a link to CSS showing or stylesheet.

openlocks
Oh, okay... but how are we suppose to upload CSS files? I just tried to do it with the media uploader and it said "only image files".

Send me a private message, then I'll give you my email.

I wouldn't mind trying the uploaded CSS also, if possible.

Yes this is kind of nerdy, anyway...

I tested a ton of extensions and addons for Firefox and played around with the CSS.

It is NOT that easy to "override" existing CSS with those addons (despite what they claim), in fact it does not work with any add-on at all. Why that is I don't know. According to the extensions like "stylish" etc. it should be possible.

The ONLY way to do it is a little more complicated. There are instructions on the web. It involves to go into the FF profile folder and creating a "userContent.css" file. (Google "Override CSS in Firefox") and you will see those instructions.

You can download the CSS files mentioned and then put them in this folder as "userContent.css" When you edit the CSS, the default CSS of the site is always used, UNLESS your custom CSS contains an "!important" directive for each line where it then overrides the existing CSS values.

So what I am saying, it is "basically" possible to download the ATS CSS files (it's several), save them and edit them and also have them stick...but it's more like "hacking around" and not really an elegant solution. All the extensions which seem to serve the purpose to override and make custom CSS do NOT work here, FF 23 and Win64.

So what you COULD try, use FF and Firebug/developer console etc.. edit your CSS "live" and then save the edits as this "userContent.css"..I mean you want to save it anyway if at some point you plan to send the proposals to ATS.

reply to post by NoRulesAllowed


I think the only way for the specific format of just the complete CSS files for colour from SO is probably the only way to edit and save the CSS in the format that is required for consideration.

Perhaps SO could allow for those interested to upload the CSS, edit, rename, save and send.

reply to post by NoRulesAllowed


This one works pretty well. You can see all the individual css files and save / load a copy of your own over the top (in the firefox version anyway, not sure about the chrome one).

Theres a little bit of a learning curve but it works fine