User talk:Dkpat/sandbox/colors

Can I see these in use in a sample for each, all on the same page? That should help with an opinion on color and layout. As it is now, I can't really envision what they'd look like, so a visual aid would really help. Rolina (talk) 11:47, 6 November 2012 (CST)

These are all colors that are already in use throughout the wiki. I'm merely making a table for the reference and to gather them and to point out the unnecessary redundancy and inconsistencies between our colors for the four elements. ~ dkpat (talk) 12:51, 6 November 2012 (CST)

For Examples, The 1st three of each elemental color (base, light, and dark) are in use on Djinn templates, Psynergy templates, and the main page. the 4th color (Extra) is in use on character infoboxes and as of now, Djinn templates. The next two colors for each element are in use on the various elemental navigation templates about the wiki. (Template:JupiterPsynergy)

Following those, we have the Table Head, Section Head, and Section Content; in use on infoboxes that would have no elemental alignment (Template:infobox item). The first two of these colors are also used to represent The Broken Seal and The Lost Age, respectively, in navigation templates that are divided as such (Template:Maces) Also seen here is the color for Dark Dawn. Finally the nonelemental colors in use mainly on character infoboxes who are not an adept, or are of unknown alignment. (Kraden) ~ dkpat (talk) 13:11, 6 November 2012 (CST)

Wait, then... I'm confused. Why ask for opinions if it's not something you're planning to change or add? Rolina (talk) 22:09, 7 November 2012 (CST)

I can certainly understand your confusion. I really started the table to use as a personal reference for the colors but... I'm not entirely happy with the two "sets" of colors we have for the four elements. I dunno... It never really bugged me before, and I guess it's not a big problem... but I still think It'd be nice to have a consistent 3 or 4 colors to represent each element. Another thing here (and again... I guess it's fine as is but I wonder) is the fact that we have the overlap with the colors for the first two games and the default colors in use throughout the wiki. I just wonder if it's possible to do this better, or if it's even worth trying to. ~ dkpat (talk) 22:51, 7 November 2012 (CST)

Ah, I see. Well, if it's any help, I think the reason that there's two is because one of them is an artifact from before the current colors that are being used (Checking Adept and Djinn info tables, they appear to be the same colors - Brown for venus, Purple for jupiter, light blue for mercury, and red for mars). I think the Grey infobox works well for non-elemental characters, and while I suppose the black ones for Luna work fine for now, I'd prefer a color that's more of a dark indigo, like the shadows of the eclipse monsters. I guess that'd leave Yellow for Sol, and maybe a green one for aesthetic reasons (users could use it, I guess). I made an icon for the various colors using the Dark Dawn bullets and another set (which y'all wound up using). You can use them for reference if you wanna try tweaking or adding colors.

Dark Dawn style:

GSU style:

Rolina (talk) 23:28, 7 November 2012 (CST)

I feel the need to link to the older discussion that involved those icons after now having read through it completely (seemingly for the first time), where this dicsussion basically took place I realized. >_> User_talk:Erik_the_Appreciator#Suggestion_for_future_updates ~ dkpat (talk) 09:57, 8 November 2012 (CST)

Oh my goodness I just found two more colors that were in use on a few nav templates. This is ridiculous to me. I am done, and I'm going to come up with a consistent color scheme to use for the entire wiki. ~ dkpat (talk) 20:24, 4 December 2012 (CST)

Now I'm planning to make changes

I've been busy tonight, doing a bit of comprehensive color testing and searching, and I have basically a large overhaul. I've got this nice web page that I've been doing my testing on, using the actual templates the colors would be on. You'll find here adjusted colors for the four elements, as well as minor modifications to the nonelemental colors. This will at last create a consistency for each element throughout the whole wiki.

Now, besides that bit, there is also the part concerning the colors for each game, and the default colors for stuff (intended for use on item, fansite, and weapon infoboxes and maybe a little more) This will seem very strange... but.. I kinda want to use green for the default color scheme. Take a look at what it looks like here. I actually really like how it looks and it is one of the very few color groups that we have left that isn't in use by an element (or a potential future element, in the case of yellow). In any case, Throw feedback at me before I make these changes and you don't like it! :P ~ dkpat (talk) 01:38, 5 December 2012 (CST)

It looks good, but have you considered what backgrounds to use for Blados and Chalis? Or are you gonna keep them as they are? Rolina (talk) 08:47, 5 December 2012 (CST)

EDIT: I changed the lighter color for each element (to the one currently in use). When I went to see how the new color scheme would look on the main page... well it just didn't not work out. So The colors have been updated. As far as Umbra, we can use the black like we currently do (did) but, I wouldn't mind working with dark violet shades. ~ dkpat (talk) 10:15, 5 December 2012 (CST)

Yeah, my goal in creating those stars was to try and imitate the color of the shadows for dark monsters. They seem to be a very Dark Indigo - some where between blue, purple, and black, thus my choice in color. The trick is to make sure it's distinct from Jupiter, so as to not be confused with it.Rolina (talk) 11:43, 5 December 2012 (CST)

I like the idea of using green as a default color, although I'm not sure if we should be using it for items like in your demonstration. Although rare, there are items out there that deal elemental damage. I'm not just talking about Bramble Seeds and the like, either; There are some elemental weapons that don't deal non-elemental damage*. I realize such items are the exception rather than the norm, but it might be enough to justify using different colors for them. Just an idea... The World's Hungriest Paperweight (talk) 13:40, 5 December 2012 (CST)

What would you envision that we use the green for? As for the pure element weapons, I think that there is just too few of them in comparison to the whole to warrant making them different from the rest of the items. If it was something like Adepts or Djinn, where everything belongs to a clear category, with plenty of members of each type, then I would definitely support it. (Also, I think that I might end up redesigning all the table templates; vendors, bestiary, and class series psynergy. So we have those things to keep in mind for colors as well)~ dkpat (talk) 20:04, 5 December 2012 (CST)

First of all, I'm not saying we treat weapons differently than other items: If we were to go with my idea, we'd use the gray coloring as the default for all items. Of course, I'm well aware that elemental offense items are quite rare by comparison, so I can understand not wanting to. Second, I imagine the green being used for the very things you just mentioned: Shops, bestiaries, classes, the various item templates, enemies, locations, and pretty much everything that isn't elemental in nature. I mean, that's what I thought you were developing it for in the first place. The World's Hungriest Paperweight (talk) 19:40, 6 December 2012 (CST)

I suppose there is no harm in using the gray color for item info-boxes as well. I'd rather they have a splash of color (subtle, maybe like they are now) but maybe it isn't that bad. For the item navigation templates, I liked the idea of having colors to represent a game. I just think it is a small detail of personalization for each game, and might give the reader (though I guess more often the editor or frequenter) a level of association that when they see that color, they know the links below it are related to that game. (Maybe I'm trying too hard. lol) Although I do kinda like the thought of having it for the beastiary, vendor, psynergy tables, and perhaps the navigation templates that are game-less (like landmasses above)~ dkpat (talk) 23:21, 6 December 2012 (CST)

Well, it's just as likely that I misunderstood you when you said "default colors", which made me think "for the entire wiki" rather than just "for certain areas". As for associating each game with a different color... That I'm not to sure on. I mean, I'm not completely opposed to the idea, but I think that, if each game does have a color, they should be easy to tell apart. Right now we have two shades of blue and some green, which is close enough to blue to cause confusion*. If we decide to keep separate colors for each game, we should probably change the colors so that they can be distinguished more easily.

Of course, it wouldn't hurt to get a third opinion in here. Anybody? The World's Hungriest Paperweight (talk) 12:02, 7 December 2012 (CST)

Yes, someone else chiming in would be grand. I always thought that the games were 'assigned' a color on the wiki. Perhaps it was I that misunderstood then. haha. When I'm saying default colors I'm specifically meaning the default color templates. I thought that the colors that were assigned to the games were simply reused for other things, because they were convenient. (and thinking about it.. I think it was me that started to use them for other things actually... >_>) But, I'm maybe over-thinking things, so another voice, pleaaase wiki contributors.~ dkpat (talk) 12:20, 7 December 2012 (CST)

Well the three games certainly were assigned theme colors for the purposes of representing each game in directory templates like in item directories. Light green for Golden Sun because the label on the GBA cart has a dark green background, light bluish for The Lost Age because the label on the GBA cart has a dark blue background, and a bolder blue for Dark Dawn because the cover art has a blue background like that. The only reason the colors for the first two games were made so light in comparison to the cartridge labels was because making them that dark felt overly stand-out bold with the wikia aesthetics at the time, though that was more of a casual decision made long ago and probably shouldn't factor into what the actual theme colors for each game on today's wiki should be. But at any rate, I'd say it was the intention that the set of theme colors for the games on the wiki are separate from the set of theme colors for anything elemental on the wiki. I suppose it might be some small problem to some people if the two different shades of blue used for TLA and DD look very similar to the blue used to represent anything Mercury-aligned, though I don't know how to go about dealing with that...

The "non-elemental gray" can be placed pretty much everywhere on the wiki where there's either an item or monster or a non-elemental thing that normally is associated with some element, like a spell. The GSU Color Testing page's contents look pretty ideal to me right now, and I guess I figure that even for pure-element weapons like Elven Rapier or items like Weasel's Claw, there probably isn't a need to make that a purple item infobox instead of a gray infobox because a little Jupiter star icon in a battle effect section should be enough to visually tell that the item does a Jupiter-aligned thing. Only Adepts, Djinn, and Psynergies would get the special elemental colorings in their infoboxes because these are categories where you expect anything from one of them to be innately assigned to some element or other. Erik the Appreciator (talk) 15:37, 7 December 2012 (CST)

Well that's an interesting origin for the colors. I think we seem to be settled on the elemental colors, but I'm going to make a quick chart on this page (aka the non talk part of it) that has a list of all the blue shades that would be used after these changes. That way you can see them side by side, then see if you think there may be a problem with that. ~ dkpat (talk) 16:49, 7 December 2012 (CST)

Starting to Implement

I just updated the elemental color templates to use the new colors. Please look at various pages that those are in use on (Djinn, Psynergy, Characters) and tell me if you have any problems with those pages. I'll continue to update later if I don't see any responses. ~ dkpat (talk) 09:26, 10 December 2012 (CST)