New Style for phpBB 3.3 ?

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Rhino.Freak
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Re: New Style for phpBB 3.3 ?

Post by Rhino.Freak »

Louis7777 wrote: Mon Jun 13, 2016 2:20 pm1. You can have unique elements e.g. one overall header, one overall footer, one container for a go2top arrow.

2. They make it faster for the browser to match an element (depending on how they are used and while keeping in mind that CSS selectors are matched by reading them from right to left) and faster for the developer to locate the element or its corresponding styles.
I already said the go2top things are probably the only real use of IDs.

You can have that by using a class as well and not reusing it.
Also have a look at this great article.
There isn't a need to have the IDs in logo and stuff is all I ask for. Just, don't.

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Louis7777
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Re: New Style for phpBB 3.3 ?

Post by Louis7777 »

Rhino.Freak wrote: Mon Jun 13, 2016 2:46 pm I already said the go2top things are probably the only real use of IDs.
There can be many unique elements in a template. Usually there are, many.
Rhino.Freak wrote: Mon Jun 13, 2016 2:46 pm You can have that by using a class as well and not reusing it.
What about speed?

1. Speed regarding how fast the browser matches an element.

2. Speed regarding how fast a developer locates an element or its corresponding styles. E.g. I may be modifying a class in a .css file... if I know that it is one of those that was used only once for the sake of not using IDs then I would save lots of time, but how can I? Should I check all template files to see where it applies?

Lirodon
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Re: New Style for phpBB 3.3 ?

Post by Lirodon »

Image
Image

Taking your suggestions into account, I expanded upon it.

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DavidIQ
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Re: New Style for phpBB 3.3 ?

Post by DavidIQ »

I don't think that suggestion to remove the icon should be taken into consideration at all especially seeing that large space to the left of the forum links. You can change it to an icon you think fits in but there should be an icon by default, plus it's already customizable so the suggestion didn't really make any sense.
Image

Lirodon
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Re: New Style for phpBB 3.3 ?

Post by Lirodon »

I did plan to add icons, but I was in a bit of a rush. Here's a more complete picture of the front page, now with icons implemented.

Image

Additionally, this is how I'd envision the header when logged in

Image

(obviously the Who's Online box would still have the colors and birthday list. I was copying in stuff from the main forum to use as dummy data)

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Louis7777
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Re: New Style for phpBB 3.3 ?

Post by Louis7777 »

Imo there's no need for an entire new theme and we should simply improve on the current theme. With things like:

- HTML5 Elements
- Smilies in a dropdown box and/or a WYSIWYG editor
- Sprites, SVG icons and SVG forum/topic imageset
- Remove CSS @import, organize and improve CSS (less files hopefully?), CSS concatenation etc.
- Use CSS3 instead of loading.gif, icon_user_online.gif etc.
- etc.

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DavidIQ
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Re: New Style for phpBB 3.3 ?

Post by DavidIQ »

Louis7777 wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2016 11:29 pm Imo there's no need for an entire new theme and we should simply improve on the current theme. With things like:

- HTML5 Elements
- Smilies in a dropdown box and/or a WYSIWYG editor
- Sprites, SVG icons and SVG forum/topic imageset
- Remove CSS @import, organize and improve CSS (less files hopefully?), CSS concatenation etc.
- Use CSS3 instead of loading.gif, icon_user_online.gif etc.
- etc.
These things were going to be dealt with through the implementation of a new style anyways. Fixing the current style is a bigger task than just applying those changes so we had established there would be a new theme. That someone is working on a style is actually a breath of fresh air. As long as some of those items are taken into account (not all are necessary and not all were agreed to) then there shouldn't be a problem.
Image

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Louis7777
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Re: New Style for phpBB 3.3 ?

Post by Louis7777 »

DavidIQ wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2016 11:35 pm Fixing the current style is a bigger task...
What's wrong with it though?

I mean, what's wrong with its appearance, colors and layout that needs fixing and changing?

Wouldn't it require less time to simplify and improve the DOM and the CSS using more HTML5 and CSS3 while keeping the layout, the colors and appearance mostly the same?

Lirodon
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Re: New Style for phpBB 3.3 ?

Post by Lirodon »

Admittedly, the ProSilver style feels very dated. The design language of the web has changed, and even though 3.1 did make subtle changes to the theme to improve its markup with more use of CSS to replace hardcoded images, we've had the exact same default interface for nearly 10 years. phpBB looks like it is stuck in the past.

Beyond the aesthetics issues, ProSilver is also not optimized for high resolution and touch-based enviroments. Small text and buttons may have been approriate back when 1024x768 was the most common resolution, but becomes progressively tiny and hard to read on higher-resolution displays. Just think of what it looks like on a 4K monitor without zooming. Some of our sprites still use GIF images too.

You, also, really have to design things mobile-first nowadays. We need to have a theme that is more in line with modern design trends, and can be easily customized by webmasters to compliment their overall web design.

Rhino.Freak
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Re: New Style for phpBB 3.3 ?

Post by Rhino.Freak »

Lirodon wrote: Wed Jun 15, 2016 6:26 am Admittedly, the ProSilver style feels very dated. The design language of the web has changed, and even though 3.1 did make subtle changes to the theme to improve its markup with more use of CSS to replace hardcoded images, we've had the exact same default interface for nearly 10 years. phpBB looks like it is stuck in the past.

Beyond the aesthetics issues, ProSilver is also not optimized for high resolution and touch-based enviroments. Small text and buttons may have been approriate back when 1024x768 was the most common resolution, but becomes progressively tiny and hard to read on higher-resolution displays. Just think of what it looks like on a 4K monitor without zooming. Some of our sprites still use GIF images too.

You, also, really have to design things mobile-first nowadays. We need to have a theme that is more in line with modern design trends, and can be easily customized by webmasters to compliment their overall web design.
+100
This. So much this. Also I would like to contribute to this theme in any way possible :)

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