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Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Learning to Make My Blog Mine

I've been hunting the perfect blog background for months, playing with colors, stalking background sites, and finally throwing my hands up in frustration when I realized what I really wanted was my own background. Something special, unique, and individual.

To get that I realized I needed to take a moment away from editing books to edit HTML, a language I am not fluent in.



To Change The Background Image: Much easier than I thought. I took the basic template from pyzam.com and changed the imagery. Scroll down to the bit of html that resembles this:
body {
background:$bgcolor;
margin:0;
color:$textcolor;
font:x-small Georgia Serif;
font-size/* */:/**/small;
font-size: /**/small;
text-align: center;
background-color:#000000;
background-image: url(http://stuff.pyzam.com/layouts/img/c/e/ahcelestia.jpg);
background-attachment: fixed;
background-position: top left;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
border-color:#ffffff;
border-width:0px ;
border-style: solid;

See the bit in red? That's what you change. Find a picture you like, a stock photo, something you've loaded on to flickr or the kodak gallery, and right click.

Scroll down until you see the option for "Save Image Location" - pick that and then paste the image location over the web address. Easy!

To Change Background Colors: Thanks to the wonderful Blogger Tips and Tricks I figured this one out. Look for this html:

#header-wrapper {
width:660px;
margin:0 auto 10px;
border:1px solid $bordercolor;
background-color:#000000;

The bit in red is what you're targeting. The #123456 is the hexadecimal code. Want to change the black blob behind your text to a readable white? Color blender has all the colors and let's you pick the ones you'd like to blend to get a gradient.
White- #FFFFFF
Black- #000000
Bright Yellow- #FFFF00
Navy Blue- #000099

Have fun!

7 comments:

  1. Thanks for the tips, Lei. Have been trying to do the same and not come up with much more than muttered curses at the computer. Will Try. :)

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  2. All I can say is that you have a GREAT looking blog page!

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  3. Thanks for the tips, Lei!

    I will help you with a header whenever you need. :)

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  4. Just a question. It's not breaking copyright to use photos from places like stockxchange is it?

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  5. Windosng- As long as it's free use, my understanding is it isn't. You can always copyright to the person and link back if you're worried.

    I didn't make the background, but I did ask permission and there is a link to his deiviant art page at the bottom of the sidebar.

    One of the pictures I have for Under a Dark Star has the copyright attached and a watermark, I will take it down and just leave the link if I don't hear back from her soon giving me permission, even though the woman in the photo is considered a public figure.

    As long as you aren't using the photos to make money or trying to sell them as your own you should be okay under the fair-use laws.

    Someone go and correct me if I'm wrong.

    Marty- thanks :o)

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  6. Cool background lei! I think I'l stick with standard backgrounds for the moment ;)

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  7. Thanks, Lei. That's what I thought, but they always seem to qualify the rules with: you may still be breaking copyright etc. :$

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