Struggling with MyBB Themes
- Thread starter Ashley S
- Start date
If there aren't any you like, why not try making one yourself?
CSS isn't that hard to learn. There are also some good resources like w3schools that list the aspects of CSS and give examples of how to use them.
Plus, it's pretty easy to read and understand without much knowledge...
Just make sure to:
- set font size to at least 11 (or 12) for minimum.
- avoid neon colours. (Since they can be hard to read.)
- have good contrast / avoid using shades of colours that are too close. (If you have a background of grey, don't use a font colour of 1 shade lighter grey.)
- avoid fonts like georgia. (Ones that are fancy looking but small and difficult to read.)
MyBB's template system, while there are a lot of areas to go through, isn't all that difficult either. (Plus if you use your browser's "Inspect Element" you can tell which aspect is controlled by which element of CSS and roughly where in the templates you could expect to find it.)
Plus you don't even really need to mess with this section at first if you don't want to.
The hardest part of making a skin is just developing all the graphics. (Like the logo... which is probably the hardest graphic to make at all. Since it has to be fairly large, easy to read, high quality not overly large in file size and has to fit the site's aesthetic.)
Buttons also tend to be rather annoying. (Since, at least so far in my experience with MyBB, there doesn't seem to be a way to set text and then designate a CSS class to handle it's appearance.)
Even still, making buttons is often more tedious than difficult.
Even if your theme isn't the best, it's probably better to have a unique or custom designed one rather than be number 20,345 using theme X by designer Y. (Since, at least to me, it shows that the admin cares about being unique and making their site stand out from others. That they are willing to put the time and energy into making their site succeed.)
Don't get me wrong, there's nothing inherently bad/wrong with using a premade theme by someone else. Many sites do and are successful. But having a unique theme can often help your site stand out from others (which makes your site more memorable) and therefore guests may be more likely to return.
CSS isn't that hard to learn. There are also some good resources like w3schools that list the aspects of CSS and give examples of how to use them.
Plus, it's pretty easy to read and understand without much knowledge...
Just make sure to:
- set font size to at least 11 (or 12) for minimum.
- avoid neon colours. (Since they can be hard to read.)
- have good contrast / avoid using shades of colours that are too close. (If you have a background of grey, don't use a font colour of 1 shade lighter grey.)
- avoid fonts like georgia. (Ones that are fancy looking but small and difficult to read.)
MyBB's template system, while there are a lot of areas to go through, isn't all that difficult either. (Plus if you use your browser's "Inspect Element" you can tell which aspect is controlled by which element of CSS and roughly where in the templates you could expect to find it.)
Plus you don't even really need to mess with this section at first if you don't want to.
The hardest part of making a skin is just developing all the graphics. (Like the logo... which is probably the hardest graphic to make at all. Since it has to be fairly large, easy to read, high quality not overly large in file size and has to fit the site's aesthetic.)
Buttons also tend to be rather annoying. (Since, at least so far in my experience with MyBB, there doesn't seem to be a way to set text and then designate a CSS class to handle it's appearance.)
Even still, making buttons is often more tedious than difficult.
Even if your theme isn't the best, it's probably better to have a unique or custom designed one rather than be number 20,345 using theme X by designer Y. (Since, at least to me, it shows that the admin cares about being unique and making their site stand out from others. That they are willing to put the time and energy into making their site succeed.)
Don't get me wrong, there's nothing inherently bad/wrong with using a premade theme by someone else. Many sites do and are successful. But having a unique theme can often help your site stand out from others (which makes your site more memorable) and therefore guests may be more likely to return.
I do agree it was rather difficult to find a theme. What I did was look for a theme that I thought looked clean, I then looked at it and saw what I could do to it to make it unique by tweaking the theme. I have learned a lot about CSS and even HTML doing this along the years. Like I said, look for a theme that has potential, then use Google Chromes Dev tool and even Firefox Firebug and go on an editing spree.
Giorgios said:
True, but that's why you make a little more unique. Take a look at the Afresh themes by Justin S. They are quite plain and simple, but then look here: http://worldbeyblade.org/
They have turned it into quite a nice theme, and it wouldn't have taken any hard work at all.
If you don't mind the work, you could download some great themes here: http://www.mybb-es.com/foro-temas-plantillas-para-mybb and translate them to English. I did that as some of them were great. Most of them are free, a few are premium though.
Affiliates
