Forum:One wiki front

Hello guys! I am just wondering if you could make a front just for one of my wiki? Is that pausible? Mand&#39;alor Skyobiliviator The Devastator 21:29, September 11, 2011 (UTC)


 * You can change the font on your wiki to whatever you want. Just use css.--697px-CloneWarslogo.jpg
 * So is it avalable for everyone to see? Mand&#39;alor Skyobiliviator The Devastator 01:52, September 12, 2011 (UTC)
 * I want it in this front:
 * Can someone make he css for me? Mand&#39;alor Skyobiliviator The Devastator 03:27, September 12, 2011 (UTC)


 * You can't do custom fonts, only basic ones such as aerial, monospace, verdanna and the like.--


 * You could ask wikia to upload a custom font you have created and than call it using the @font-face CSS method, but you'd need the font file first. — Sovq 06:19, September 12, 2011 (UTC)
 * Sorry, guys I am new to this. Could you be a little more specific? Mand&#39;alor Skyobiliviator The Devastator 11:19, September 12, 2011 (UTC)

Do you have the font you want to use in the form of a file? .ttf file? If so, then you could try contacting Wikia by Special:Contact and ask them to upload the font on their servers (since you can't do this by Special:Upload on your own) and then import the font on your wiki by using the @font-face method.

If you don't have the file then you need to create or download a free font first. — Sovq 11:29, September 12, 2011 (UTC)


 * Uh...can someone do it for me? Tell the contact, I approved it... Mand&#39;alor Skyobiliviator The Devastator 20:52, September 12, 2011 (UTC)


 * Aaagh! How to do this??? This is so bloody confusing!Mand&#39;alor Skyobiliviator The Devastator 22:15, September 12, 2011 (UTC)
 * ...They say they can't do it...Mand&#39;alor Skyobiliviator The Devastator 23:56, September 12, 2011 (UTC)


 * For the group: We can't really do it on our end because we don't have any custom fonts loaded. Even if we put it on our server, where would we store it? How would we load it? That's significant engineering time that honestly could be spent more wisely. --daNASCAT http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb32675/wikia/images/e/e9/WikiaStaff.png (help forum | blog) 00:34, September 13, 2011 (UTC)


 * How do wordmark custom fonts work then? -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 12 Sep 2011 5:36 PM Pacific


 * Wordmark custom fonts work because it is an image file. To render all text on the wiki in that font because the font cant be stored anywhere.--
 * So (sadly) we can't do it? :( Mand&#39;alor Skyobiliviator The Devastator 03:16, September 13, 2011 (UTC)

@daNASCAT: "We can't really do it on our end because we don't have any custom fonts loaded" - That's not entirely true, is it? For example, the Dragon Age Wiki or Deus Ex Wiki, for the section headings use custom fonts which are available on Wikia's servers. Even though these fonts weren't uploaded on request, they are still available to use by wikis if one knows where they are stored. So it is technically possible, although yes, the time to do that could be spent more wisely.

@Anakin Skyobiliviator: You don't need to upload the font on Wikia's servers to be able to call it on the wiki. If you find a hosting site where you can upload a font and get a direct link to the .ttf file, then you can use that font on your wiki with CSS. I haven't found a site like that, but I imagine it's possible. — Sovq 07:16, September 13, 2011 (UTC)


 * Sovq, most of these are actually browser dependent. I don't tend to browse around our TRAC code much outside of extensions, but I'm not aware of any font files out on our code server. --daNASCAT http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb32675/wikia/images/e/e9/WikiaStaff.png (help forum | blog) 17:58, September 13, 2011 (UTC)
 * No, I don't mean titles/wordmarks, I mean the front for the whole wiki, included in articles...Mand&#39;alor Skyobiliviator The Devastator 21:24, September 13, 2011 (UTC)


 * Is there a reason you keep saying "front" instead of the correct, "font"? It seems very strange. You can try to change the wont for your whole wiki, but it would take a lot of trial and error CSS work and would be restricted to the commonly included fonts in most browsers. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 15 Sep 2011 11:33 AM Pacific

Well, technically, you're not limited by browser. You're limited by OS. A font has to be on your system and actively engaged in order to display in your browser. And most people can see more than just Verdano and Arial and Times New Roman. Its just a matter of building a font stack that plays to the probability that a person might have a particular font on their system. There are free sites available online which tell you the probability (from a sampling of different OSes) as to which fonts they'll display. Just Google "font stack maker", or the like, and you'll find them. So you assemble a variety of fonts, putting the ones you really want at the top. For instance, this one I use at w:c:tardis:

font-family: Zapfino, /* For Mac */ 'Edwardian Script ITC', /* For half of Win users */ 'Blackadder ITC', /* For the other half */ 'URW Chancery L', /* for virtually all Linux users */ 'Monotype Corsiva', /* For a tiny fraction of Win and Mac users */ fantasy /* everyone's fallback */ !important; In this font stack, it'll try Zapfino first. If the system doesn't have that one installed, it'll go to Edwardian Script ITC, and so on. In order to be truly effective, a font stack needs to have fonts from all three major OSes. Otherwise, you're dooming a whole gaggle of editors to the default font-family (in this case "fantasy"). This particular font stack results in less than .5% of all users falling down to "fantasy". Since I can easily find font samples of all the specific fonts, I can easily imagine what the end result will look like, and am generally happy with each of those possibilities. That's as close as you can really get to font customisation — not just here at Wikia, but on the web in general. No site looks the same to any 100 randomly selected users.

Now, what you can do, if you're attempting a really custom font is this. In your case you're going for a Clone Wars-y kinda font. So you would get the font recommended above: CloneWars. Then you'd put that at the top of your list, and then put more common fonts underneath. Then you would have to put a link somewhere prominent on your site, telling them where to download that font. Then, when they installed it, they would see your site they way you intended. But with such a specialised font, you could include it in your code, but you'd have to tell your readers to go get it and install it. Although the @font-face CSS command is possible — which would mean you could, um, "force push" it to your readers — I'm not sure how likely it is you'd find it in the right sort of hosting environment to use that command.

Another worry with free, fanciful fonts like this one is that they often don't have full character sets. They're typically made by amateurs who only give you A-Z and 0-9. A lot of them don't print symbols or accented letters, like ≠ and ě. Some of them don't even give you lower case! You generally don't want to use free custom fonts on wikis, because users have a way of surprising you with respect to the amount of unusual characters they like to use. Several of our users at w:c:tardis have special characters in their user names, which means you can't use many free, custom fonts, even just for headline text.

So if you do want to use a custom font, make sure it has a full character set. Then give your users a link to the font. And have a good font stack that'll take care of the majority of users, because the truth is, the majority of people who visit your site won't install your custom font. And be aware that you'll essentially have to create two looks: one for people who download your specialised font, and one for people who don't.  That's because the fonts that are likely to be at the top of your list aren't likely to be installed on most people's computer. So you really need to plan for that "other" look. 16:06:37 Fri 16 Sep 2011