The color of gerbilling is gray

[dmaze]

So I have this new journal layout. I know there are a couple of people who read my friends page, and I've gotten at least one complaint. The New Style System (TM) does feel a little nicer to set up than the old scheme, but this is the only layout that looks good to me, and IMHO the best of the color schemes. Trying to come up with my own colors was a small disaster; if anyone has suggestions on what better colors might be that are somewhat neutral but definitely not pastel and preferably not gray, I'm listening. :-)

Also, the new layout renders terribly under Internet Exploder 6 on Windows XP. I think I'll describe this as a feature; it works fine under Mozilla Firebird and Konqueror and lynx and w3m. Haven't tried a Mac-based browser, but enh.

Comments

[obra.livejournal.com]

That was so not what I was expecting from the subject. I am so glad I was wrong.

[coraline]

oo.
i like the style, but there are a couple things i would change about it if i were making it my style... but i am far too clueless to figure out how to make those changes. d'oh.

(would it be trivial to put the icon on the top left of the entry instead of the top right, and put the username under it instead of in the header?)

[dmaze]

I think that would be hard to change, especially without giving livejournal money. And it conflicts with my sense of aesthetics, sorry. :-)

[coraline]

i meant more "could i make MY friends-page style like that, only with those changes".
unless this means i'd have to do more than just become a paid accoun?

[dmaze]

Hmm. It looks like you can customize the S2 style system in interesting ways if you have a non-free account, including coming up with a new layout or maybe customizing the placement of things within a layout. But I haven't looked in detail.

And I wanted to say in the original post that there's some clear abstraction issues; why is it that you can customize the number of entries per page in some layouts, but not others? This seems kind of fundamental.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

It looks fine on IE-whatever for Mac, albeit, well, grey.

Since I have no artistic talent, when I want a color scheme, I go to someone more talented than I: nature. I google-images for some naturally attractive object and pluck some colors out of it with the gimp until I'm happy.

Add a little color...

[rjpb.livejournal.com]

if anyone has suggestions on what better colors might be that are somewhat neutral...

For a sense of a neutral color but with more liveliness than grey shades, try some dark, rich colors. On my pages, I use a deep blue for the background, which gives a neutral feel to my eye. Deep blues, browns, and even a very dark indigo or green can work for this, but avoid redder colors. I also use a very pale yellow as a highlight color instead of stark white, but any bright slightly tinged off-white can work well.

I do not care for the new layouts I have seen. Some are simply too busy, and others have space issues. Having the information box on the side, as yours does, means that the entire left side is wasted blank space as you scroll down the page. I prefer the information box to be at the top to avoid this problem. I would like to find a style like my current (Generator), but a bit more customizable.