Choosing Colors For Your ProBoard

[Betsu]

I agree with everythign you said, alot of memebers i notice pick very bright colores that are hard on the eyes that also do not draw members in

I think that forum colores should match to the layout and should be a light toned color

and many shades of that color or a seconed color threwout the froum

Also i noticed alot of forums have the same color as the text as the link (which for me is hard to see if members are posting a link in a thread)

[myke]

deiji said:

Also i noticed alot of forums have the same color as the text as the link (which for me is hard to see if members are posting a link in a thread)

Yep, when I come across that in GOAYB I always suggest they use different colors or shades for regular text and links so the links to stand out from all of the other text and be easily recognizable. Like you, I find it hard to recognize links if they are the same colors as the normal text in a website or forum.

[Rpower]

Good forum colors is a very important thing, because if you have a forum with bad colors, you wont even get members to join, to use proper colors is essential for creating a good skin that is easy on the eyes and that won't scare guests away.

[Black Angel]

ok.. i have seen some really bad choices made by some admins with respect to colors..

i have seen hot pink, with EVEN more pink.. but as atrocious as that is, that is not as bad as

hot pink with lime green, or cyan, with yellow..

i have seen forums that were all red, but with blue or green small text..

I know how hard it is to pick and choose the right color combinations, and so, i use a program called, Visual Color Picker.. (i'd link to it but i am not sure if that is allowed.. it is freeware, so you don't have to worry about time limits, or nag screens) it helps me a lot..

first i think about what color i want to use as the main color that is to be seen everywhere, and then i make the border color a few shades darker than the main color..

then i think about what color i want the links to be, and then once i made my choice,

then i'll know that i want the text to be a lighter shade of that color.. (for example, if i use navy for the links color, then i will use a lighter blue such as #4e51d8

but if i were to use a lighter color like chartreuse (although, if i were to use something similar to that color, i would make it a shade or two darker like #80CF00) for the links then i would opt for a darker shade of gray like #848484 for the text..

The program I mentioned earlier, helps me with that.. I'll already have an idea of the colors that i want to use, but that program, helps me to fine-tune those colors, so i can see what works, and what doesn't.. i reccommend this program to anyone who would rather make their own skins as opposed to using premades..

[Foozlebootz]

The problem I find with all the gray boards is the text. It is usually black or a darker grey. Plainly, I just can't see the text. There is a reason way back in time why blue or black in was used on white or creme paper - so it could be seen!

I agree, in principal, to board colours reflecting the theme of your board. But what if the members find that too dull, as they did at my main board. They wanted something to stimulate them, something with brightness and not the usual dull colours associated with poetry and writing. So we gave it to them and now it looks like space exploration, but the members love it, so it was the right thing to do.

The two most important things, in my view, is that members are not blinded by the board or reduced to squinting AND that text be easy to read.

[kelendria]

I love experimenting with colours.
Every so often I go through the skins (& there are many!) & I've actually deleted some because they look horrible (even though they were cool at the time)
I sometimes use a 'base' colour like black, white or grey, you can make good skins still out of those!

[Ímþ®óvîšâ†ó®]

myke said:

-Colors-

Colors are one of the most important aspects of the visual side of a forum. Good and bad colors can be the main thing that determines if one is going to stick around and explore the rest of the forum or not.

For example, if you forum's colors are hard on the eyes, and really hard to look at, no one will likely stick around and explore the content of your forum. Would you spend any length of time exploring, then register to this forum?

badcolors.proboards46.com/index.cgi

I seriously doubt it. That forum is not easy on the eyes at all (almost blinding), the text and links are extremely hard to see, which makes navigation a real task, as opposed to being a relaxing place to visit. The colors are just thrown together, and there is no real balance to them, no real flow of colors.

A lot of the time people focus too hard on their custom graphics, and ignore their colors. The appearance of the forum suffers as a result.

Another mistake that is commonly made, is not having enough color. I've seen some forums that are all one shade of Grey, with black text, and link colors. While that may be very easy on the eyes, the lack of color variety and color balance may be off putting to many people, who may have otherwise hung around to give the forum a chance had the colors been nice.


It is important to have colors that are easy on the eyes, match-up well, flow together nicely, have some variety, and overall match the theme of your forum.

That last part "match the theme of your forum", that is very important. A lot of times I see otherwise nice looking forums, but their colors (while nice looking) would match almost anything except the theme of their specific forum.

Red and Green wouldn't necessarily resemble a Harry Potter forum, but may resemble a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Forum.

Dark greens would be perfect for a Halo forum, but wouldn't go well for a Chicago Bulls forum.

So when designing your forum's colors, try to make sure that the color scheme meets all of the positive requirements above (easy on the eyes, flows well together, matches-up nicely) and make sure the that colors matches the subject theme of your board, if there is a specific subject theme.

There is no magic formula for colors, no magical hex numbers. To make a beautiful color scheme takes a lot of work, a lot of patience, and a lot of experimentation. I never said it was easy, but it isn't as hard as some thinks, and is a very important part of your forum.

These following websites will help with choosing colors:

This website will help you match your colors:

Here is a skin coloor maker/generator:

Thoughts, comments, questions?

time to bring this thread back to the first page
That's probably the toughest part about skin-making unless you're use to it

My main colour seems to be blue (for some peculiar reason), but I'd rather prefer green since I loved it as my favourite colour.

Also, this is the part most members tend to faulter in when designing their own colour scheme...

There is no magic formula for colors, no magical hex numbers. To make a beautiful color scheme takes a lot of work, a lot of patience, and a lot of experimentation. I never said it was easy, but it isn't as hard as some thinks, and is a very important part of your forum.

True, without some interesting colours, members may not even bother joining, they might just glance at it for 3 minutes (maybe not even that) and just ignore it as if they thought of it to be an annoying ad

Blue, Purple and Black, seemed to have worked for me (as it was my first ever skin too )

I'm yet to figure out a good combination with a green colour scheme (my next skin )

~*Improvisator*~

[Shreaders1]

Can you go look at my probaord?It has diffrent color themes,Canyou tell me the ones you like the best or if I should try to make better ones.Anyone can go. shreaders1.proboards82.com/index.cgi will some one test it.And while your at it I need more members.Will you sign up please?

[Ímþ®óvîšâ†ó®]

shreaders1 said:

Can you go look at my probaord?It has diffrent color themes,Canyou tell me the ones you like the best or if I should try to make better ones.Anyone can go. LINK REMOVED will some one test it.And while your at it I need more members.Will you sign up please?

Sorry Shredears, but asking members to join/sign up and aldo posting your forum link in this thread, is strictly forbidden at this forum. As per the D:YP rules sticky...

You may not post the URL to your proboard. Period!

Feel free to put all that, in your signature though as the staff don't mind that compared to saying it in posts As far as your colour scheme query goes, feel free to post a thread in the GOAYB area and ask for your forum to get rated. People will comment on what they see to help them rate your forum.

But since you asked about the colours on it, I'll say (in short that) they look ok, but the colours need more revamping because there are some colours brighter than others, making them look sort-of painful to the eyes. Though keep trying to be creative with the colours until you get there

~*Improvisator*~

[$hØ©Këyë]

When I started my forum, I didn't really know what colour to chose. Then I looked at my website which had red colours so I started off with red colours. I looked on different sites for red and also I got the help from my Brother, Aquabot. But the thing is about chosing colours, members is: Don't make the colours very dark or your forum looks very dull and don't make it too bright or the members eyes will hurt. So that's all for me

[Beatle Aimee]

Pick original colours. Make yours different from the rest.
Have at least one dark skin and one bright skin.
If you can only create bright/dark skins, ask somebody for help to make a different one.

[clobopallymad]

On my new forum, I'm using one of them sites to get the colours right. I think one I chose was blinding. And one bit that helps me is I love experimenting...

[Kaythara]

I like to select a logo first and then model the skin after it. That automatically gives me a set of colors to work with so that all I have to do is figure out which order works best instead of having to choose every little hue from scratch.

[Timothy]

Initially, I modeled my site off of other forum color schemes. However, I realized that in order for my site to be different than all of the other comics-oriented boards, I would need a theme... And that theme would have to tie in to the mysterious Dark Knight vigilante and the Man of Steel without distracting visitors from the forum's content. As such, I chose a subtle gray approach with charcoal as the secondary color; as such, the site is appropriately themed, yet interesting in terms of the light and dark contrasting hues chosen...

[xena101]

How does my color look? I was just reading the board and I said to myself I ahve to joint his.. It might help out a bit!!! Well here is my site hope you like it.

Link removed


Becca