User blog:Tama63/The Perfect Theme

When Starting a new wiki it is always a good idea to have an eye-catching theme,to hook readers or maybe even editors.An eye-appealing theme can draw in more editors to help your wiki grow,but you the wiki founder ask "how can I do this?"


 * Find a perfect tileable image using an image search engine try using these key words :"the subject of your wiki"Tileable Image",you will be able to find an image which tiles perfectly.MAKE SURE IT IS UNDER 100KB and a jpg, gif or png. To add this go to Special:ThemeDesigner find the background section upload your chosen image,tick the tile box and hit save!


 * Now on to the Wordmark,this is the logo of your wiki,it appears on every page so it essential it looks great you can try and make one yourself using |22762|photoshop||S|e|5974630583 Photoshop or Paint.NET both good editing tools but be sure to make the canvas 250x65 and save it in PNG Format .If your not good at image editing why not ask at the Logo Creation Wiki a wiki which provides Wiki Favicons,Themes and wordmarks.Again to add this go to Special:ThemeDesigner, find the wordmark tab go to the "Graphic Wordmark" Area then upload your wordmark make sure it is 250x65 and Color_wheel.jpg PNG Format otherwise it wont work then click upload then save!
 * The Next Step of a great wiki theme is the favicon find an image on the internet(try using Google images or this) or again you can make your own in an image editing program.After you have completed making the image or have found one you can go here to make it into the favicon format after you have converted it go to File:Favicon.ico and upload your favicon(to make it show restart your browser or change browser).
 * Finally you need to choose the page,buttons and header color these are changed in the customize tab and in the page section try to use a theme that goes with your background or topic so if your wiki was about fire you could choose warm colors.if you can't find a color you like once you have clicked either:buttons,links,header,color find the choose your own part of the pop up and go to this Wikipedia page to find your desirable color.

Hope this helps you and I wish you luck with your new wiki.(if you have over 50 pages ask at the Content Team and wikia staff can help you out make sure you meet all of their criteria first)

Content Team Request criteria

 * The requester should be either the admin, or link to a discussion with the admin of the wiki and agreeing to skin design and homepage help.


 * The wiki should have at least one active admin, meaning he or she has made at least one edit in the last 7 days.


 * The wiki should have at least 50 content pages, not counting stubs. Stub articles should make up no more than 1/5th of all pages on the wiki.


 * The wiki should have a clear category structure to help readers navigate around the site. Every content page should be in a category.


 * The wiki should not be in the middle of choosing new admins, or any other upheavals. It should be a stable, friendly place.


 * The wiki should be using the Wikia welcome tool, signed by admins -- (MediaWiki:Welcome-user should say @latest, @sysop or the name of an admin.)


 * The wiki should not use offensive language or include inappropriate images.

'''The Content Team will make all final decisions and design work will be at their discretion. If your wiki meets these criteria, leave a message on the talk page of this article.'''

Advanced
You can go further by editing your wiki's CSS adding better features to your wiki's skin.

Background
Add this css to have a fixed and better quality(larger than the usual 100kb limit)

/**************************************/       /* BG  and page tweaks*/ /**************************************/       /* BG */ body { background:url(image url make sure it is wikia,wikpedia or photobucket) no-repeat center top #000 ; }       /* BG Fixation */ body { background-attachment: fixed !important; }

Page Color and glow
You can make the page glow by

adding this changing the colors go to this Wikipedia page to find your desirable color.

/***** Page Colour *****/ .WikiaPage { background: green; border: 1px solid red; -moz-border-radius: 30px; -webkit-border-radius: 30px; border-radius: 30px; -moz-box-shadow:0 0 30px red; -webkit-box-shadow:0 0 30px red; box-shadow:0 0 30px red; }