PSA: There's now a dark theme for the forums

[Crono]

Ryan Smith graciously ported over my Stylish script, which is just a darkening/recoloring of the default XenForo theme to be mostly black, grey, and blue. You can select it using the theme selector at the bottom of the page (Ken g6's very awesome vBulletin-style theme is there, too, for anyone who missed it).

The dark theme is experimental and isn't quite extensive or perfect as a theme created from scratch, but it should help anyone whose eyes were like this using the default :

 

[rh71]

Usually not a fan of dark themes because then you have white text which really messes up my eyesight if staying on the page for some time. Thankfully it's gray text. Would still like to see more themes though I'm satisfied with the other experimental (it's a blue/gray and not bright white like default). Either way, thanks for trying to improve the place.

 

[Mayne]

I'm using the Experimental one and i'm really liking it. it's almost identical to the old forums. Whoever did this style...thank you so fucking much

 

[OutHouse]

humm, i like it.

 

[FerrelGeek]

I'm liking it.

 

[clamum]

Cool, thanks! And that VB forum look is awesome, almost like the original!

 

[ImpulsE69]

Thanks! I don't suppose someone could be hassled to apply this dark look to the VB experimental theme?

 

[dainthomas]

Niiicce

 

[Printer Bandit]

i'd kill for a fusetalk theme.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Has Ryan published the existing theme? I mean the actual CSS files used by Xenforo? From what I've gathered (been a couple weeks since I looked at the CSS) it appears that there are two or three files that get served up dynamically. I'm guessing there's a basic Xenforo CSS, then another CSS file which modifies that for the site theme.

With those files, someone could more easily create a fully custom them, instead of having to use the hunt and peck method that's produced these beta alternatives.

 

[Chaotic42]

Wow. Thank you admins. Seriously.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Just did a little playing around with it. Very nicely done.

A couple things:

- Just out of curiosity, is this only a modification of the colors, or has any of the sizing or spacing also been changed?

- That blue text of links is really hard to read on the gray backgrounds. IMO.

- The little right-pointing triangle thing next to avatars in threads needs to be recolored to match the box to its left.

 

[brianmanahan]

hey, it looks like [H]

 

[Carson Dyle]

hey, it looks like [H]

Not even close.

 

[twinrider1]

Thanks! I had switched to, and was liking, the VB Style. I like this too. Though I agree with Carson Dyle that that blue (when there are unread posts) is hard to read. Needs toned down.

 

[Crono]

Just did a little playing around with it. Very nicely done.

A couple things:

- Just out of curiosity, is this only a modification of the colors, or has any of the sizing or spacing also been changed?

- That blue text of links is really hard to read on the gray backgrounds. IMO.

- The little right-pointing triangle thing next to avatars in threads needs to be recolored to match the box to its left.

Thanks for the feedback. No changes were made the spacing or sizing of any of the elements, just the colors. Ideally, I'd change the spacing of the layout to be more condensed and adjust the forum logo to be more like the original FuseTalk theme or like vBulletin's, but that's more work than I'd want to put into it at the moment. I'm refreshing and expanding my minimal knowledge of HTML/CSS, though, so I may make a theme from scratch in the future. The current dark one was just to have one a little easier on the eyes than the default.

I've noted the color difference in arrow and I'll add it to the list of things to fix. I'm keeping a list of things to adjust/fix - including the message text color in the "Postings" tab of user profiles - and in a week or two I'll update it, rather than constantly tweaking it.

You're right about the blue. I originally wanted most of the text to be light blue, but it tends to be either too bright (or even not bright enough) or doesn't contrast well on certain devices or for some people (and IIRC a lot of people have trouble focusing on blue no matter what). I may change the shade of blue used for hyperlinks or entirely switch it over to another color with the next update.

 

[brianmanahan]

Not even close.

well i mean sure if you want to split [H]airs

 

[JEDIYoda]

Dude thank You!!! Us old geezers have trouble seeing that light colored stuff!!

 

[brianmanahan]

Dude thank You!!! Us old geezers have trouble seeing that light colored stuff!!

i don't really see a difference, but maybe that's just me

 

[FeuerFrei]

Switched. Dark theme is super fine. Been waiting for this.
I appreciate the delineation of signatures, and their font shrink.
The list of threads should be in lighter blue. Actually yellow is best, IMO, but I know blue is the rage these days thanks to Android.
Also the large text up top with the FORUM NAME or Thread Subject (depending) needs to stand out more.

 

[thebestMAX]

I thank you and my eyes thank you.

 

[CraKaJaX]

Just switched to dark to try out after using the VB experimental for a week or so. I like both. I think VB is preferred because it's classic and what I'm used to.

 

[Chaotic42]

A dark VB theme would be amazing. What do we need to do to get the best of both worlds?

 

[herm0016]

ohhhh yeaaaaa....

 

[Newbian]

Now all they need to do is remove the horrible sidebar crap like members online, it was fine on the bottom at the main page like before, and new posts so we get that monitor space back for less scrolling.