For those of you who have had an opportunity to view my latest chapter of Dark December on the new blog, I would like some honest feedback. I have been debating as to whether or not the images are too big or if they look all right before I start tweaking the colors and adding more to it. There is a poll for those of you who don't want to leave a comment here to the right.
For those of you who are willing to leave feedback, please do so by leaving a comment on this post. Of course you can also vote AND leave feedback; it is the feedback I am really looking for...
FIRST! hey gayl! i actually quite liked the new big pics! But i think if they were the original size, I wouldn't complain either. But the bigger pictures are definitely more fun to look at and leaves more room for speculation because of the bigger view of the faces. There's room for interpretation of the characters faces.
ReplyDeleteThe white background is ace. Now that I've seen the stuff on white, I think it's easier to focus on the pictures and text. Compared to the dark blue (coloured) background for DD, white is the choice that wins hands down. somehow, it's less distracting and more flattering to the pics.
text was great and loved the new look :). In fact, I think I'll use a white background for my story blog when it gets done up :)
It's funny you brought up the size thing because I did think they were a little too big, but it's totally up to you. The shots are still fabulous, I just found it hard to look at the shot and then read the text. But that's just my opinion! I do love the colors of the blog, it's beautiful. I say do what makes you happy with it, the shots and writing are as always fabulous, so as long as you're happy with it, I'm happy!
ReplyDeleteWell, giving it some thought, as much as I adored the shots, the size of them, being able to see every chiseled plane of Slim, Rafe, Cooper, et al...it did kind of overwhelm the text. Perhaps making the text bigger would help. Now that I look at the text, bigger and bolder would help, that way you can keep the pics the same size!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Chloe about the white background, but that is only a personal choice of mine, all my blogs have light backgrounds.
I like the lighter background, which I plan to copy for the writing portion of anything I do in the future. It doesn't compete with the shots.
ReplyDeleteAs for the size, my shots are not that big (yet), but the text still doesn't track perfectly with the shots. You have to scroll down to read everything. That given, I don't think it makes any difference whether the shots are as big as you made them, or s800, the reader still has to scroll below the screencap to read everything.
The very large shots also allow you to see expressions without making every shot a closeup. I thought they were wonderful.
This isn't helpful, I know.
Thanks ladies! So far, the consencus seems to be that the light background works nicely (which I may tweak some still but will keep it light) and the text either needs to be larger or the images smaller to accomodate the text better.
ReplyDeleteI did struggle with getting this posted and although I haven't tried another post yet, I am wondering if it is a limitation of the template settings. Since it was designed to showcase images and not a traditional blog, I wonder if that will continue to be a problem. I sure hope not...
The images posted there are 800x600 so perhaps making them smaller will not be an option. Or perhaps to use a less standard size I may need to go to an external image host which will be problematic given the content of some of the images.
I voted for option 5, lol leave it how it is...
ReplyDeleteYou know I'm kind of blind, but I had no trouble reading your text at all... It was not small at all (for me)
I think the white background worked perfect with the text color you choose that's why it was so easy to read ... of course, you can always make the text a little bigger I wouldn't mind!!
I loved everything about your new layout, I loved the huge pictures, they were very clear you could see everything what was going on in there... I loved them...
I wouldn't change anything either!!
Hey Gayl, I'm still trying to get caught up with all your stuff (I found it via Beth's page) so I haven't commented yet, but, I did want to give some feedback.
ReplyDeleteThe images are lovely, however those using lower resolutions might have some issue viewing them, especially if they don't maximize their browser windows to span the entirety of their desktop. I don't have an issue, but I'm running 1280x1024. The text issue is true too, it kinda gets lost in there.
But the layout looks great and the light background/dark text didn't bother my eyes at all. I did like the different type of proportions you use with the images... how they were more wide than long (and not proportionate)... gave kind of a cinematic quality, like wide screen movies or theatres.
Sandy, thank you for the feedback. I'm still not sure I am even going to keep that template. It was hard to work with the first time around and I am not sure if it was me and my scatter-brained mood that day or if it is the blog. I may try and tweak it a bit more and see how it goes. I love it but if it is too much work to get the images and the text looking right and in line, I may have to go with something smaller. We'll see.
ReplyDeleteMao, thank you so much for leaving feedback. This is still such a work in progress and I am not sure that I will ultimately keep it if it becomes too tedious for me. My time is so limited most days, it needs to be effortless when I post so I don't know if this will work. I do want to make the text bigger and could probably reduce the images as long as the text doesn't spread too far beyond the images. I know how to add tables but that is more than I want to do. Unless there is an easier way, well, I may need to figure that out.
ReplyDeleteAs for my stories, thank you for reading! I have actually managed to get through Knock it Down and am part of the way through Wings of Steel. I am embarrassed to say I didn't comment but I thought I would get caught up and then go from there. It's a wonderful story you have going.
Haha, wow. I really need to get medals made for people who actually trudge through KiD and then manage to catch up with WoS!
ReplyDeleteAs for your layout, you can always check the HTML/Stylesheet width and make your pictures match it or change the width of the area with the pictures. Maybe more of a hassle than you want, though. If you want, I could always look at it. I love messing with HTML/etc.
The thing with this template is there is so much I can't make it all out when I look at the html although it's probably my ineptitude and not the code. There are a lot of things I would modify if I could figure out where it was. It was designed to showcase photos, not as a blog so it probably was not the best choice for me. And I struggled to get the text in there correctly with the shots. I may just take you up on that offer to look at it.
ReplyDeleteAs for KiD, I wanted to read it for the background of WoS. Probably didn't need to but I am glad I did. Both stand alone quite well but I like knowing the backstory.