Code of Many Colors »
I decided that I didn't really like the color scheme. Mostly it was that green. Nothing wrong with green, and the color - in general - is definitely still one of my favorites. But after the relatively easy-on-the-eyes color of the last scheme, I decided it was just too bland.
No, perhaps too dark. I don't know. Regardless, Peter had to convince me that I needed to lighten it up in the first place. If you missed the version that he references, consider yourself lucky. The most recent green was nothing compared to that one.
In any case, I wanted a change. So I tried a yellow sort of color last night, and it wasn't bad, but it was a tad too cheery. Then I had settled on a reddish tint. I thought it made the "blocks" of content stand out a bit better than the green, but that it stayed away from being too terribly bright. Then I decided it was just on the edge of being too pinkish. Not that I have anything against pink (or Pink, for that matter). It just wasn't quite right.
So I moved to the current Light Dull Orange background (hex #c96). I don't know that I have ever used a color even approximating this one on any of the web sites that I've ever built. I like that. It's different. But it's not bright enough to be annoying (to me, anyway). I think that I'll stick with this for a while. Maybe I'll change the name of the site to MezzoOrange or the Man in Orange or something.
Anyway, I left the text at #300, which is Obscure Weak Red, and I think it adds that slight tint to the text that blends well with the background. I also changed the background of the <pre> area to Obscure Dull Red (#600), and the link color to Dark Orange-Red (#930). Let me know your thoughts.
Special thanks to VisiBone for the "official" names of the colors and EasyRGB for help with the color harmonies. I don't know if I actually used them, but I'm sure that it helped nonetheless.
Comments (6)
The background color sort of reminds me of "nude" pantyhose. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing... still getting used to it. I like that you've gotten everything in sync throughout your site, though. Very nice. One thing I do miss is the ability to click directly to the comments form from your main index on a post where there aren't yet any comments. You have to click through to the individual entry first.
Posted by Peter on January 4, 2005 9:47 AM
On a scale of 1 to 10, I rate it a five. My own preference is for pastels. But, being a database geek, I have no skill at graphic design. So take my comments for what its worth.
Posted by Ted on January 4, 2005 7:35 PM
Some people might take offense at that, Ted, but I think a five is pretty good! Out of curiosity, what would you have rated the green color?
Posted by Chad Everett on January 5, 2005 10:40 AM
Oh, and Peter, I added the comment-linky thing back to the index. In fact, I enhanced it. Now, you can go to a particular comment, or directly to the form to add your own. Let me know what you think!
Posted by Chad Everett on January 5, 2005 10:46 AM
No offense was intended. It just meant that I am neutral about the color. I don't remember the green.
Like I said, I'm not a graphic designer, but a database geek. Unless the design gets in the way of reading the text, (like dark blue letters on a black background) content is what interests me.
One of the sites I like to read is Instapundit. I don't find his site particularly attractive or ugly and I don't care. The text is black letters on a white background for best contrast and thus easy to read. I go there for what is written, not how it looks.
On my own blog, I was more concerned about fonts and typesize than graphic design - as you may have noticed. I wanted to make the text as easy to read as possible.
The problem with fonts is, you don't know how the reader's browser will display them.
In the end, it's your blog and you can do whatever pleases YOU.
PS. I'm glad to see you have comments working again.
Posted by Ted on January 5, 2005 4:57 PM
No offense taken, Ted. It's actually extremely difficult to offend me. I'm actually quite impressed that people are neutral - though I'm really a bit amazed that people liked the old design. I liked it at first as well, but after a while it really weighed on me. I'm sure this will be no different. :)
Posted by Chad Everett on January 6, 2005 9:55 AM