Here's the colour set:

jupiter.walagata.com/w/design/backred.gif
jupiter.walagata.com/w/design/backgreen.gif
jupiter.walagata.com/w/design/backblue.gif
jupiter.walagata.com/w/design/backpink.gif
jupiter.walagata.com/w/design/backyellow.gif
jupiter.walagata.com/w/design/backcyan.gif

Okay Nooki, I'll make a set just for you

jupiter.walagata.com/w/design/backnew.gif

Preview:

jupiter.walagata.com/w/design/backnewprev.gif


For this background to be effective, the forum width should be at most 730 pixels, and the background colour should be D0D0D0. The background can either be used in vertical repeat only, or having full repeat gives a raised bar effect either side of the forum.


Last Edit: Sept 20, 2005 22:32:43 GMT by nooki

This is quite a nice effect I made using Paint and Photo Editor. Therefore, no psd (sorry).

Feel free to change colours, add stuff as necessary.

Download

This set is designed for a forum with a light red colour scheme. The icons have a faded look so they don't dominate over other images. The images join together, so a forum would need to get a code which Removes Menu Spacing.

This set also includes buttons for INDEX (instead of HOME), LOGIN, REGISTER, NOTIFICATION, ARCADE, CHATROOM, MAGAZINE, and WEBSITE.


Last Edit: Sept 18, 2005 16:45:06 GMT by nooki

There is no ttf. You have to cut the letters out

OK, fine, I'll make the program...

For when 5 pixels is just too big

PM me if the colour you require is missing.















Or download complete set at:

jupiter.walagata.com/w/design/mb1.zip


Just add your text or board logo, etc to the minibanner.


Last Edit: Sept 18, 2005 16:42:58 GMT by nooki

Click

Feel free to PM for colour additions and such


Intended for a dark forum, but for light forums, try Invert Colours in Paint or something.

This tutorial will show you how to fully customize your UBBC tags and get a really professional minimalist look!

UBBC tags can be boring. And frankly, making the PB defaults into your skin colours is such a monotonous dull task, I wrote a program to do it instead:
jupiter.walagata.com/w/design/ubbc22.zip

But you can do better than that. UBBC should have some time taken over it, rather than just skipped over.

The whole point of minimalism is to KEEP THINGS SIMPLE. So do. A few ideas:

Use only a pixel square as your border
Use a pixel font
Use only two block colours - one for the background, and one for the border and text

Your UBBC Tags will quickly develop from these simple guidelines. I used a dark green to create this Bold tag:



It looks nice enough, but seems to be lacking in something. An easy way to add interest to this is to modify the border:



When you've found a style you like, just finish off the rest of the buttons. Remember:

The glow button should be a block circle of a mid-range colour (e.g. if your text is dark green and the background is light green, choose a mid-green)

Make the buttons look like what they do (B, I, etc)

Use simple icons, don't go above 4 colours.

You should now have a set of perfect minimalist UBBCs!



Last Edit: Oct 2, 2005 20:51:51 GMT by Mucleus

How to design a GREAT (maybe) skin – by Mucleus.[/u]

How to use this guide:
This guide is a series of steps for anyone who is unsure about how to design a ProBoards skin. It is intended to help those who do not have experience in graphics or coding. The way this guide is meant to be used is to follow each point completely in order. No skipping steps!

1. The most important decision before even attempting to start your skin is to decide whether your forum will be dark-based or light-based. This affects all images in your skin.

2. Next choose the main colour of your board. Good options for light colours are green, yellow, red, etc. Dark skins work well with highlighted areas, so choosing e.g. purple will make your board too dark.

3. Think of a board logo, which hopefully relates to your URL, or perhaps is just a nice shape. This should be in the header and other appropriate places, and could form a major theme in your skin.

4. Now, get a pen and paper and draw out the rough layout of your skin. This should include any coding design features you plan to add, and should have the basic idea of ALL MAJOR IMAGES (by that I mean main image, header/footer images, navigation, on/off, and any others). At this point you still have not touched the forum or your designing programs.

(i) Main image
The main image is what defines your board. A good image will lead to a successful forum (generally) and a bad one will repulse possible members. Remember that people are looking for a design that is appropriate to the skin, so don’t use tech-style in a Valentines forum for example. Colouring should be the same as the skin. If you are choosing a background for your image which is different to the forum background, definitely use a border (substantial, not just a pixel) to define the area.

(ii) Header/Footer images
These go above and below the categories respectively (TIP: If you have enough boards per category, use category dividers). They should not be distractive, all they serve to do is to gently finish off the harsh table edges. Use curved corners and minimal decoration.

(iii) Navigation
These are the Home, Help, Search, etc. icons which enable members to get around the forum. They are important, and it is a good idea to make them

• Tall enough to use a ‘rough click’ (some noobs can not position mice)
  
• Not enormous, if they spread to stretch the board the result will be disastrous
  
• Only use icons if they are small and not distractive.

(iv) On/Off images
The on icon tends to have a light focus in it, of the same colour as the main forum colour. The off icon is usually a greyscale version of this. Text in these images does not generally work, but some ideas for what to put in it:

• Your board logo
  
• A simple shape (but try to avoid orbs, everyone uses them)
  
• Simple gradient with border
  
• Relevant image

5. Create all of your forum images! This will take a long time if you are going to use Paint, but it is possible (to an extent). Remember that your images should follow the skin pattern, and don’t use more than 3 contrasting colours. Professional forums tend to use grey and shades of the main colour (discussed in #2).

HINT: If you are going to use Paint, try some addons such as
jupiter.walagata.com/w/design/ubbc.zip
jupiter.walagata.com/w/design/ZDGrads.zip


6. Customize board images!

You're now well on the way to becoming a great forum!

(Note: This is alot simpler if you have only a few different colours!)

A nice border effect is one where the second innermost pixel border is highlighted, like:



To get this effect, it is necessary to use the HUE, SAT, LUM settings in Colours > Edit Colours.,These are just an alternative method from RGB of determining a colour (Note: HSL goes from 0 to 240 rather than 0 to 255, thus less colours are possible, but 240 is chosen because it has many convenient factors, e.g. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, etc). We need to increase the brightness of the colour, so this is LUMINOSITY. We want to make the colours THE SAME AMOUNT CLOSER TO FULL, so to do this, some fairly simple Maths is required:

Taking the value of the luminosity of the original colour, subtract this value from 240 (e.g. if original was 168, value becomes 72).
Now, multiply this value by a fraction either less than 1 for increasing brightness, or more than 1 for decreasing (e.g. in a light image). If the fraction was ½, then this result would give 36.
Take this away from 240 to give the new luminosity (204).


Do this on every pixel, and you can get an effect just like the one above!

I have started off with a simple ball shape, but you can use whatever shape you require for your effect.

First, ensure that Draw Opaque is NOT CHECKED on the Image menu. This is the equivalent of clicking the bottom box with a sphere, cube and cylinder in it when the select tool is active.

Select your shape, and while holding SHIFT, drag it around. The shape copies itself where the mouse is (note: there are gaps because the mouse is not detected constantly. The pencil tool appears as a continuous strand because lines are drawn between the points).

Use a circle to get an effect somewhat like a slinky!