Slater
Junior Member
Posts: 80
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Post by Slater on May 17, 2007 22:24:50 GMT
This is probably a very elementary question, but I'm wondering how to make a good background image for a forum, like the one on here. Where there are the two "bars" on each side, and another color in the middle.
My Forum width is 700 pixels. I'm guessing I would make the middle a little wider than 700 pixels, and then the outsides going the rest of the way out.
Thanks.
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Post by eternity on May 19, 2007 15:17:00 GMT
Yep, that's about right. The problem with backgrounds is that you want it to load quickly, but you want to cater for every resolution. I'd recommend making your background at least 2500 pixels wide if you're going to have a pattern on the outer part. Make it a few pixels high that reduces loading times. You want to try and make it as small as you can but big enough to cater for all monitors. Here's some advice I posted at another forum: if you just want a bog standard line down your forum say the curse of proboards then it only needs to be as wide as the forum plus a few pixels to allow for the bar. So my forum is 700px wide, the background is 800px (though I could've made it smaller really)
If you want something with a gradient like phazon, then it needs to be bigger. Theirs repeats okay so they don't need to make it huge and it'll be fine at 1280 or whatever.
If you want to cater for all resolutions and have a pattern then you need to make it about 2500 wide just to be on the safe side.
Remember the repeat is your friend so take advantage of it to slow loading times. For example, phazon could have gotten away with having their background 2px high as it is basically the same all the way down.
as I said above, it really depends on what pattern you have on the outside of the banner. Something that repeats both ways, the size doesn't matter too much (ie Phazon). Something that can only repeat on the y you'll need 2500px and for a background that has only a plain outside, just make the background colour the same and only use a background slightly bigger than the area you've drawn on (ie Curse).
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Slater
Junior Member
Posts: 80
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Post by Slater on May 20, 2007 15:02:54 GMT
Okay, thank you! That will help for sure.
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