How to Spice Up Home Page With Text Only

not an artist

[mongoloid001]

Hi,

How do you spice up a webpage with text? I've never seen a page like that before. I am not very good with all the drawing tools, I don't have that many anyways. So I am thinking to having a few light shaded texts as my background, the different fonts as my borders etc. Anyone has any idea on such things? Is it a good idea to mix presentation with the content?

Thanks!

[martinibuster]

I like to frame my decisions around the question, "What do I want my site visitor to do, and how does this help me achieve that goal?"

So, think about your motivations for doing something and see if that matches up to the goal of the website. If they don't match you may not need to do it.

As for mixing presentation with content, you may want to keep as much content out of images as possible. Myself, I use a few images (smiling people if possible) for a "lifestyle" branding effect.

[edited by: martinibuster at 5:12 pm (utc) on Mar. 5, 2004]

[asquithea]

Forget it -- it's a terrible idea (IMHO). You can make a nice looking page with text and CSS alone, but using text for presentation alone (presumably with tables or fixed fonts) is going to look awful unless you're a design genius or you just want to present raw information.

[mongoloid001]

I am definitely not a design genious:). That's why I am posting the question in the first place. I just want to give my user a good impression when they first come to my page, that's why I am avoiding the fancy stuff.

Right now, my page is basically black on white, it's kind of boring:). But it's got nice layout though(I think). Since I used CSS from the start, I have a chance to do this pretty easy.

Thanks!

[Dayo_UK]

mongoloid001

Coloured Tables and a thin table border look OK, take up little bandwidth and dont need to much graphic design knowledge.

Have a look at the boxes on Yahoo for an example.

[too much information]

I definately recommend using simple colored borders on your layers. Even a 1px border in a bright color can make a world of difference.

[mongoloid001]

you be the judge:). I just don't like my page at all.
<Sorry, no example URLs. See TOS [webmasterworld.com]>

(Sorry, not sure if it's a good idea to post a link, I don't want to spam anyone here:).

More specific: I want to highlight the keyword "J2E", so I am thinking of have it as the background. BTW, I don't use tables, so not sure how to border up my <p>'s.

-Mongo

[edited by: tedster at 6:52 pm (utc) on Mar. 5, 2004]

[tolachi]

Quite honestly, I think your webpage is great for what it is doing. The sourceforge.net crowd are more interested in function than aesthetics. The page's layout is clean and information seemed fairly easy to find.

As far as highlight J2E, I think you do a great job by putting it in a different font. If you make it the background I would hate you if I came accross that page. If you want to highlight J2E Translate, get rid of the welcome to bit and add a quick tagline explaining what your software does.

[jackboyle]

We have used simple color photos to enhance text. Also used multiple array of colors just at the top to give contrast, color and interest. Not to difficult to do.
We also use a Welcome page before going to a Home Page, and then keep the color scheme consistent on all the pages.
Our view. Good Luck.

[asquithea]

That's fine, it looks OK.

A CSS and text combination can look wonderful (and obviously allows borders and whatnot). It's also very functional and conveys information in the way that the HTML specification intended.

I had an horrible feeling you were going to wade in with font tags, tables, horizontal dividers and multi-coloured text, but what you've got is just the right approach.

:-)

[mongoloid001]

Thanks! I got the whole idea from one of the tutorials by Eric Meyer. He made the background the name of a company "W3C". I think it's pretty nice:). I've spent way too much time on this, I guess.

Oh btw, what's a tagline?

Thanks again

[too much information]

I just thought of this but you could always put some very lightly colored layers behind your text to give an artistic feel to the site. If you do your colors light enough they will not interfere with the text at all.

[tolachi]

A tagline is a short snappy phrase that sums up what something is about. For example, the NYTimes "All the News That's fit to print." Although in your case a nice "What is J2E Translate?" box may work better. See what ht*p://www.gnome.org has for inspiration.