June 8, 201214 yr Hello. I could really do with some advice on color schemes for my website. I've never designed a website before, and I'm totally new to HTML and CSS. I've only just finished Head First HTML. I'm not too worried about the coding because I'm pretty confident I will learn that side of things OK given time. What I do worry about is my total lack of visual artistic ability. So let's just get this out the way first. This is what I have so far. Brace yourself... http://www.dreamofsleeping.co.uk/ My musical alias is Dream Of Sleeping. So I was thinking dark blues. Night sky, ect. Although I also like websites that are very clean and white. Is there a way to mix the two? Whenever I used a dark blue color that was all the same shade it just looked wrong, so at the moment I use a repeating image thats the same color as the font. I thought maybe I could add some stars to it. Like a child like picture. But then I looked at it again, and realized it just looks like I have a pair of jeans for a background. I did have a snow texture under the text, but then I realized that just looked like a loaf of bread! I haven't uploaded it yet, but I did create a nice realistic night sky background. And the background looked good but then the main page just looked like a white piece of paper floating in space.I might upload the space theme tomorrow to the website to hopefully get some opinions. My headings are made of images, which I have only just read is a big no no too. I've not yet learn another way of using anything other than web safe fonts. So I was hoping someone could guide me in the right direction. Especially to do with color schemes. I'm not looking to make website of the year, I'm aware of my limitations, but it would be nice to have something clean simple and elegant. I'm hoping with practice I might be able to develop a bit of an eye for it. Thanks for reading. Edited June 8, 201214 yr by Dream Of Sleeping
June 8, 201214 yr Hey, I'm also new to website design and developing, but I think i want to give a comment or two. Btw, your website looks great! Way better than my first website I really like the layout and it does looks clean and elegant. Anyway, I think, asking someone to give you a color scheme won't work. It might, but it's better that you play around with colors and look for them yourself. You can't ask for color scheme for every new website anyway. However, colors is a really hard fundamental to master. Color choice for everyone is different and thats what make your website unique and different because you can give your website your personal touch. Website is an art i guess. You should browse more through these websites: Awwwards , TheFWA , cssdesignawards and CSSWinner. Expose yourself to those winning websites and learn on how they pick their colors and creates their design. Instead of limiting yourself with a wrapper and a background, you can spread your content all over the website. You can play around with the background even more, without caring that there is a piece of paper floating in space because it is now gone. Limiting content in a wrapper is also rare nowadays and I encourage you to use this style. Not only that you can play around with background and color more freely, you can also play around with the layout and the website can become more fun to look at and more appealing. Hope this help
June 8, 201214 yr Author Anyway, I think, asking someone to give you a color scheme won't work. It might, but it's better that you play around with colors and look for them yourself. You can't ask for color scheme for every new website anyway. Hi there, thanks for the reply. I'd just like to say I don't want people to just give me a color scheme. I'm just looking for guidance and adivice and how I might mix dark and light colors, or to see if I've done anything horrendously wrong. I'm not expecting a list of hex values! lol I'm also color blind which makes things tougher. Thanks for all the feedback though. I's very much appreicated and what you have said has been taken on board. Edited June 8, 201214 yr by Dream Of Sleeping
June 8, 201214 yr There is a thread on colours I believe, however a great website for creating complimentary colour schemes is kuler There are loads of schemes already on there or you can create your own. Edited June 8, 201214 yr by jpwd
June 8, 201214 yr Hi Dream, If you want a colour pallete or some inspiration, use something like Kuler, as jpwd said, or colourlovers. If you want to learn more about using colours together and on the web, you should do some readign on colour theory. Here's some to get started: An Introduction to colour theory The Meaning of colour A look into colour theory Contrary to what macelc said, colour on the web is not always subjective. If it's your personal site, sure, you can go wild. When it comes to users/branding it's a different matter. You could also have a read about using textures on the web too. Google that one. You shouldn't use images for your headers because the only way that text is going to get read is by a human looking at it. You don't have to stick with web safe fonts completely, though it's not always a problem. Have a read of this to get started. If you absolutely must have that special font that wont @fonface, you should use an Image Replacement Technique. As a side note, incase it's helpful, if you're making a site you want to update ofen, you perhaps might want to have a go at tumblr. It's a super easy blogging platform to set up, theme and integrate to your site. It'll save you time in the long run Hope that helps, best of luck! ~evu. eD: Don't you love coming home from work to a windows pc and trying to press cmd+leftArrow to jump to start of line... Stupid alt key... Edited June 8, 201214 yr by evu
June 8, 201214 yr eD: Don't you love coming home from work to a windows pc and trying to press cmd+leftArrow to jump to start of line... Stupid alt key... That's what the Home key does on Windows. Unlike the Mac, where it's more or less guesswork what the Home and End keys do.
June 8, 201214 yr That's what the Home key does on Windows. Unlike the Mac, where it's more or less guesswork what the Home and End keys do. Oh I know, but in Chrome it's "back". I've done this too many times after writing a post, so I felt like a whine
June 8, 201214 yr Author Hi Dream, If you want a colour pallete or some inspiration, use something like Kuler, as jpwd said, or colourlovers. If you want to learn more about using colours together and on the web, you should do some readign on colour theory. Here's some to get started: An Introduction to colour theory The Meaning of colour A look into colour theory Contrary to what macelc said, colour on the web is not always subjective. If it's your personal site, sure, you can go wild. When it comes to users/branding it's a different matter. You could also have a read about using textures on the web too. Google that one. You shouldn't use images for your headers because the only way that text is going to get read is by a human looking at it. You don't have to stick with web safe fonts completely, though it's not always a problem. Have a read of this to get started. If you absolutely must have that special font that wont @fonface, you should use an Image Replacement Technique. As a side note, incase it's helpful, if you're making a site you want to update ofen, you perhaps might want to have a go at tumblr. It's a super easy blogging platform to set up, theme and integrate to your site. It'll save you time in the long run Hope that helps, best of luck! ~evu. eD: Don't you love coming home from work to a windows pc and trying to press cmd+leftArrow to jump to start of line... Stupid alt key... Thank you very much for your detailed reply. And also to everyone one else who has replied. Lots useful information there. I'll look into that font face thing. Thanks again.
June 15, 201214 yr Hello Dream, Try to check this site.. http://speckyboy.com/2008/01/13/top-10-resources-to-the-perfect-color-scheme-for-web-designers/ it will give you different perfect color scheme for a web designer like you. I hope it will help you.
June 18, 201214 yr This is soo much better than my first attempt I have no idea what I am doing. How did you go about putting this together ? Any guidance would be fantastic !!
June 19, 201214 yr Author This is soo much better than my first attempt I have no idea what I am doing. How did you go about putting this together ? Any guidance would be fantastic !! Thank you! That's very flattering that you would ask for my advice. I don't think I am qualified to give it though! Basically I just set my sights low, and tried to keep it as simple as possible. I put everything on one page because it was easier. I made the page have a fixed width because it was easier. I gave it a white background because it was easier. All with the intentions of improving and getting more ambitious later on. I would rather keep it simple and pull it off, then make it a complicated mess.
June 22, 201214 yr I don't see a problem with the colors really, overall I quite like the soft simple feel of it. The only thing I will say really is that its not immediately odvious what the page is about and it kind of looks like its aimed at children if you know what I mean.
June 23, 201214 yr Author I don't see a problem with the colors really, overall I quite like the soft simple feel of it. The only thing I will say really is that its not immediately odvious what the page is about and it kind of looks like its aimed at children if you know what I mean. Haha yeah, I think you are right. It might be the font having that colored in by crayon look about it.
July 10, 201214 yr Your first site includes the <figure> tag. My first site included <table>. Edited July 10, 201214 yr by John Fotios
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