Metafilter Gray

January 2, 2009 9:33 PM

Metafilter Gray.

Firefox + Stylish + [jreid's Metafilter White +my/Gina Trapani/Tuwa/VoidContext/carsonb's comment divider code + code from my blue and green pastel patches + [black-on-white = Ow, My Eyes!] + a few other tweaks = Metafilter Gray.

I put stuff together mostly by tinkering, altering what already exists, or trying to splice, so suggestions for CSS optimizations, improvements, areas on the site missed, more harmonious (yet still gray-neutral) color selections, code changes, etc. are certainly welcome, as are code forks.

Also, fixes for three particular areas would certainly be welcome: (i) I couldn't seem to find the right code to tweak the username on this; or (ii) to tweak some of the backgrounds here; and (iii) I wonder if CSS can be used to make the buttons a color that matches the theme (instead of the original yellow buttons). If anyone wants to contribute, let me know and I'll throw your revisions into the code on UserStyles.Org.

posted by WCityMike to MetaFilter-related at 9:33 PM (25 comments total)

Screenshot?
posted by killdevil at 9:36 PM on January 2

Seconding that ^

Before I install a bunch of stuff, what's it look like?
posted by mathowie at 9:39 PM on January 2

I'm trying to get a screenshot up right now. I'm having some troubles getting the PNG below 75k, which UserStyles requires to host.
posted by WCityMike at 9:41 PM on January 2

Oh, and I'm sorry, the math equation was meant to suggest how I got there. All that's required is Firefox, the Stylish extension, and the linked-to user style.
posted by WCityMike at 9:42 PM on January 2

Email it to me - me at rustybrooks dot com and I'll host it.
posted by RustyBrooks at 9:42 PM on January 2

Ooh, I like this. You're right about the buttons, they don't work well against the grey, but otherwise I really like this theme.

(if you look at the text of the link, you can install this as a greasemonkey script, if you don't have stylish installed. It doesn't work as well when loading, but it does work in the final product.)
posted by middleclasstool at 9:43 PM on January 2

Maybe PM me too just in case I miss it in email.
posted by RustyBrooks at 9:43 PM on January 2

Rusty, I'll e-mail you the full-sized screenshot; I got it below 75k for UserStyles, so there's a preview there now.
posted by WCityMike at 9:45 PM on January 2

Yeah, this is a nice balance between the original color and the plain theme. Thanks so much for this.
posted by middleclasstool at 9:55 PM on January 2

Not professional-looking enough.
posted by The Whelk at 10:21 PM on January 2

Turns out I had stylish, so it's a one-click install. Hmm, I really don't like it because the link colors have too much contrast and hurt my eyes, but I used to do a gray theme on the old "Day Without Weblogs" day.

Stylish is cool for these custom styles though, I may not use it, but it's great that anyone can make a custom design for any site like this.
posted by mathowie at 10:33 PM on January 2

Well, see, that's the thing ... you can always tweak the link part of the code if you wanted to use it otherwise. =)
posted by WCityMike at 10:39 PM on January 2

Full-sized screenshot, courtesy of Rusty.
posted by WCityMike at 10:41 PM on January 2

Jesus, Matt. What kind of dictator are you?

Where's the "But what about all the time I spent on the layyyyout!" or the "My precious design!" or "This unauthorized alteration of my website is no less message altering and artistically bankrupt than the removing of curse words from a Scorsese film."

Quit being reasonable, already. Less even-handedness, more banning!
posted by ODiV at 10:51 PM on January 2

METAFILTER GRAY WILL BURN IN ITS TANK, etc
posted by cortex at 11:31 PM on January 2

http://www.metafilter.com/username/WCityMike

The username.mefi URL construction is ooooolllldddd.

Groovy design, Mike, I'll give it a shot.
posted by carsonb at 7:13 AM on January 3

I like this pretty well. Thanks Mike!
posted by SteveTheRed at 10:50 AM on January 3

After using it for a while, I found myself agreeing with Matt -- the heavy bold gets a little wearing on the eyes. I tinkered. New version at same URL on UserStyles.
posted by WCityMike at 10:51 AM on January 3

Well, drat. Noticed two problems, one with best answer, one with something else. I fixed 'em, so re-download if you downloaded in the last 10 minutes.
posted by WCityMike at 10:58 AM on January 3

So the gray is the semi-professional equivalent of the professional white background?
posted by Justinian at 11:41 AM on January 3

That really wasn't the intention. Hell, I'm out of work, so I'm not really concerned with professional or semi-professional. I just prefer low-contrast stuff (like Whitehart), and since I do a lot of my 'Net reading on Mefi, I figured it was worth the time investment.
posted by WCityMike at 1:22 PM on January 3

Always nice to increase one's options. Thank you -- though I think I'll be applying it only to the front page lest I get confused.
posted by subbes at 9:51 PM on January 3

Only stylesheet I need is
* {
font-family: Georgia !important;
}

That, and the white-background theme and MeFi=pretty.
posted by bonaldi at 2:34 PM on January 4

I'm noticing something weird, and I think this has only happened post-crash, I swear just today. Using Metafilter Gray, anything on a www.metafilter.com domain (including recent activity, profiles, whatever) looks the same, but the fonts for all other subsites (ask, meta, whatever) are noticeably larger.

Has something changed in the markup post-cleanup of the 1337 h4xx0rification, or has this always been the case and I'm losing my goddamn mind?

FF 3.1b2, OS X 10.5.6
posted by middleclasstool at 6:32 PM on January 28

Never mind. Figured it out, the problem was mine.
posted by middleclasstool at 8:37 PM on January 28