Attempting to create a Userbar

[kingdingeling]

Well, I was bored last night (and today lol), so I went and read a couple of tutorials (cause I have zero photoshop skill!) on userbars, to see if I could come up with a halfway decent attempt myself

 

I wanted to incorporate something personal (i.e, my nick, and the German flag ), but also have it relate to [email protected] I made two versions, but neither really fit what I wanted to produce.

 

 

For my liking, there's too much text in the first one, but I dunno where to reduce it? I did [email protected] in the second one, but that looks weird again. The @ is a problem in both of the userbars, because the @ from the font I'm using (Visitor) looks really crappy, so I'm experimenting with @'s from other fonts. What do you guys think?

 

[Edit] Here's two more with the Gradient changed a little:

 

[BrewMeister2010]

Hmm, I like the 3rd one down the best, more blue in it makes the text easier to read.

 

I think they would benefit from a border as well, but that's just my personal preference.

 

I've never really messed with user bars before, are there any "rules" regarding their creation? I.E. standard size, etc.?

[kingdingeling]

Afaik, 350x19, but other than that, I just mess around

 

Border is a good idea though, I'll check it out

 

[Edit]

Just orange:

 

Just blue:

[road-runner]

Why make one when you cant use it?

[kingdingeling]

This is not the only forum I'm signed up on road

 

With border (just for Brewmeister ) and shadow for the text:

[BrewMeister2010]

Why make one when you cant use it?

 

Which ones can't he use?

 

With border (just for Brewmeister ) and shadow for the text:

 

I like the drop shadow on the text.

[kingdingeling]

Which ones can't he use?

Staff = either OCC userbar, or none at all.

 

I like the drop shadow on the text.

Yea, a friend helped me out on that

 

[Edit]

And another variation:

 

[ClayMeow]

Staff = either OCC userbar, or none at all.

That's for staff-related userbars, ie. your news editor one. You can have any other userbar you want.

 

As for those userbars, no offense, but yuck!

 

1. Change the opacity of your scan lines. You don't have to go from solid black to none, there are options in between

 

2. Make sure you use the "native" font size for the font you're using. Pixel/Bitmap fonts are like LCD's in that they have a native size they look best at. Visitor is either size 10 or 11, I don't remember, but I can tell just by looking at your's that you are using a size that's 1 pixel too big. Also, make sure that anti-aliasing is turned off for the text. Pixel/Bitmap fonts = no anti-aliasing.

 

3. Instead of a drop shadow for the text, most userbars use a 1-pixel stroke (usually black) surrounding white text.

 

 

PS. Here are my userbars, with [email protected] and OCC ones on that page

[kingdingeling]

All these english terms... why did I have to get German photoshop from my dads work? I did change the opacity the very last one, but yea, I see your point.

 

Next try:

 

Even lighter:

 

[ClayMeow]

I like the top one, BUT move it behind the german flag and [email protected] symbol . Oh, and your text looks much better now

 

EDIT: Have you tried having the black/red/yellow lines of the flag extend all the way through the userbar? Not sure how it'd look, but I'm curious

[kingdingeling]

Smudged flag:

 

 

Flag as background:

 

[ClayMeow]

Those look better, IMO.

 

I would swap the positions of your name and [email protected] text (so your name would be on the left ,and the [email protected] text would be on the right next to the [email protected] symbol), then maybe extend (smudge) the flag enough where it just extends beyond where your name ends.