Good news and bad news

First, of course, the good news:

You've been asking for backgrounds and other stuff for Christmas, and there is already some backgrounds and headers. And I promise to make more and also Christmas accessories.

And bad then bad news:

I've been a bit busy and I didn't had time to check my emails for some time. And I've got so much spam comments and emails, that I really haven't been able to answer your questions or requests of the custom works. So I had to clean all my emails and I have to start from the clean table.

So if I haven't answered to your questions or haven't accomplished your request, please, email again to blo64rt (at) gmail (dot) com. Or leave a new comment.

I promise to answer to all your actual emails, comments and requests from this day further.

How to add link to your comment

If you want to add a link to your comment, it's really good to make it easy to use. If you first have to copy the link and then paste the address, it's way too complicated, so better learn this very simple, but practical trick.

So only thing you need, is this simple code:

<a href="link">text to click on</a>

Here is a sample, I will make a comment to this post and will add this link below there, so you see how it looks, click the link on my comment and you should get back to this post:

<a href="http://blo64rt.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-to-add-link-to-your-comment.html">how to add link</a>

What is wrong with my background?

There comes sometimes requests that could I change the width of the background, specially the width of the middle part. Somebody wants to get it wider, that they could add larger images, or somebody wants to get background narrower, cause you could not see the whole background on your monitor.

But I have to tell you, that the backgrounds them selves have nothing to do with those widths. All widths have been defined in the html code of your blog. On the upper picture is 2 column regular Minima, and then the width of the header and outer wrapper are 660 px. This won't change if you change the background, you could put there what ever background and still the width remains the same. If you want that middle part wider, you must change the width of those wrappers on html code.

But, if you change the widths wider, then the background for 2 column regular minima doesn't fit anymore.


In this picture you see the 3 column Minima, where the widht of the header and outer wrapper have been changed from 660 px to 880 px.

So the background image has nothing to do with the widths of your blog or how you can see it on your monitor.

If you design your own background you must be ware of these widths, and make the design fit to your chosen template. Or if you choose ready made background, you must choose the right size for you template.

Unfortunatelly on some monitors, you can't see the whole background, specially with 3 columns it might be that the you can only see the middle part of the background image, and the sides are not seen at all. That you can't correct with changing the background, only thing you can do is change the resolution of your monitor.

And remember also, that the way you see your blog, is not neccesserely the way the others see it. What ever widths you use on your blog, the way it looks for the others depends on their own monitors. If the template is centered, like in most of the cases, the main content on your blog is seen to everyone, but the sides can be seen differently.

If you are not sure, how your blog looks on different monitors, you better check your blog on different computers, or ask somebody take the print screen of your blog and show it to you. Or if you want, I can also send you two different print screens and show how I see your blog, just leave the link to your blog and email address to comment box, and I will send you the print screens of my computers.

And feel free to ask anything about the backgrounds and templates, I'm happy if I can help you to get your blog look great!

About resolution

I've got questions about making own background, and I will give tutorials for it more, but now I want to show one thing, what is very important to understand, before start making backgorunds.

It depends on your screen size and resolution how you see the background, but you also have to consider that there is many other size screens too. I've took these screen prints with both of my computers. You can see, that there is quite much difference.

Here you see this blog with 1680 x 1050 resolution in 22 " screen.

And this is the same blog with 1024 x 800 resolution in about 15 " screen (my laptop). You can go and check how you see it, this is my Kyynelkaasua blog. It is a normal 2 column Minima template.

Here is a 3 column Minima template in 1680 x 1050 resolution in 22" screen.

And same template with 1024 x 1024 resolution on my laptop 15" screen. How you see my other blog, go and check here.

I make all my backgrounds on 1600 x 1200 px size, some older ones are 1450 x 1100 px. So they all fill the screen even with larger screens. In smaller screens you don't see everything, but I try to place the main images so, that the main parts of them are also seen on smaller screens. I check my backgrounds with both of my screens.

Sometimes I see backgrounds which are too small for bigger screen or too large for the small ones. I recommend to make the background large enough, but make sure if you have images there, that you place them right, that you can see the best parts of them also on the smaller screen.

It's quite difficult to explain, specially for me in English, it would be much easier for me to write in Finnish, but I bet that most of you would not understand a word. Feel free to correct my English anytime you see something written wrong. ;)

And feel free to ask anything about background making, I try to answer as well as I can.

About background colors

If you use background image, like my backgrounds on your blog, you should adjust your blog background color as close as you can with the color of the center of the background image.

Even your background color is behind the background image, it shows a little while, before the background image has loaded. So if you have your blog background color close to background image color, all the texts and other stuff will be shown better, if the color is same with image background. And, of course, if there comes problems for some reason, that the background image doesn't show up at all, then your blog is still readable.

About Headers

The blog header is like a crown for the blog. Very important element. And if the header and the background match well together, then the blog blog looks so distinguished.

One very important thing is the right size of the header. With 2 column regular Mimima, the header width is 648 px, then the header fits perfectly inside the borders and is well centered. If your header width is something else, it might best to change the widht to 648 px with photo editing software and then install it again.

With 3 column blogs, the header widht can differ, but the header width which I use on my 3 column backgrounds is 868 px.

If your header is already quite close to right size, it's easy to change, but if your image is a much smaller, it might become blurry. Then it's better to make a new image, which is closer to right size.

An other way to make the header match better is remove the borders from the header. You must change the border width from 1px to 0px.

header-wrapper
width:880px;
margin:0 auto 10px;
border:0px solid $bordercolor;

header
margin: 5px;
border: 0px solid $bordercolor;
text-align: center;
color:$pagetitlecolor;

Or you can of course adjust just the color of the borders from "fonts and colors". Choose the color which is the closest of the background color.

Have a wonderful Easter!

Black and White

After my green line, I like to work with black and white for the change. This Marie Antoinette background and header was the first set. Both are free, if you like, just pick and add a royal touch to your blog.

Go and check new backgrounds and accessories.

And one thing I must tell you, I'm so happy to work with you guys!

Green Green Green

A lots of new free backgrounds, more green of course. Go and check!

How to add your own signature to your posts?

This is very simple way to add a personal touch to your blog. First make your signature with any photo editing software, I used PaintShopPro. For the image I used png format, so it's transparent.

And then upload it to your web host, I used Picasa Web Album, to get url address.

And then go to Settings > Formating > Post Template

And paste this code to that Post Template box:

<p><image class="centered"alt="post signature" src="Your image url" /></p>

And that's it!

About my backgrounds

There was a good question in comments; is there something wrong, cause my backgrounds look too large? The answer is that no, they are made to look like that. But I like to make the same question for you, should I rather use a smaller scale? There are of course those too, but I like my self this intense what a larger scale and images gives. But I would be really happy to get your opinion.

And of course it also depends of the screen size, my older backgrounds are made to 1450 x 1100 resolution, newer ones I make with 1600 x 1200, so they look good also with very large screens. But in all designs I've tried to make them so, that they look OK with all kinds of screens.

In that picture you see, how this background looks in my small laptop screen, but there inside is the picture there you see the whole image, which you can see, if you have a larger screen.

Difficult to explain. But feel free to tell me what you think. I would be very happy if I get your opinion too, cause I want to make backgrounds you like and enjoy.