Very nice! I like the Beach Chess theme. Makes me feel like I am actually there.
New Chess.com Themes
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Jan 20, 2010
0
#4
Patzer24 wrote:
Very nice! I like the Beach Chess theme. Makes me feel like I am actually there.
Nice to hear! The Dutch beaches unfortunately aren't that sunny at the moment, but at least we have the Corus tournament to keep us warm 
erik wrote:
those are really cool! thanks for doing that :)
My pleasure really! 
I didn't even realize we had these options.
I am one of the ones that use metal chess . it is great thanks for taking the time to create them :)
They're all really quite nice, keep it simple seems to be the order of the day...
I'm looking to create a theme for one of my groups, problem is... HOW? Any help would be welcome...
Mar 7, 2010
0
#10
John_H wrote:
They're all really quite nice, keep it simple seems to be the order of the day...
I'm looking to create a theme for one of my groups, problem is... HOW? Any help would be welcome...
the group theme is just a theme, so before you select the group theme you should create a theme.
You have gold membership, so I think you can create what, 5 themes?
Go to 'account' 'styles and themes' and select 'create theme'.
You can select colours for almost all elements on a page, and a picture for the background. (tiled (repeating) or stretched (one big image)).
I wanted my themes to look solid and fun, while being workable. Some themes out there have colours that pain the eyes or make it hard to read text / menus.
Good luck with creating your themes!
Jun 29, 2010
0
#12
)erik wrote:
how did your themes hold up? can you check them now again?
Hey Erik 
. They could be doing worse, but there are some things I will have to look into.
For example:
1. The logo's were designed to fit in with the background colour, but now they are placed on the page background - which in these themes is a tiled image. Because this image can move relative to the logo, I think a solid edge or a transparancy supporting logo (which the home page logo appears to be ) is required to integrate it in a nice way.
2. The text at the top of the page (username | help | logout) and bottom ( Home | Spread the Word | ...etc) are now displayed in the background colour on the page background, which makes them somewhat hard to read here and there. I think this text should have its own font colour (the case already? I didn't check), because a high contrast between page background and background is otherwise required. I think that would be undesirable.
So overall, the theme's need some minor work which I will put in next week. I'm quite curious how the new design plays out when working with it. I just haven't got the time before my study semester ends on the 2nd of July.
Oh and I should add: I agree the home page looks more modern. The round edges are a nice touch. Good work!
The only (very?) minor downside I could list now is that older browsers struggle more with this design. Our university somehow still sports IE6 as the default browser on student pc's, so that's where I noticed. It doesn't bother me personally at all though.
I'd have to look into it more to be sure if it messes up both custom themes and the default homepage, or only custom themes.
New Chess.com Themes
One nice feature on Chess.com is that you can change its default appearance by selecting a theme suited to your taste. Some are provided by the webmaster (Standard Chess.com Themes), but with everyone free to create at least one theme, the majority is member-made.
I have been a member of Chess.com since early 2008, and I also happen to be active in graphic design. It should therefore be no surprise that I gave it a shot, and created a theme of my own ("Metal Chess"). This one is now used by quite a lot of people, and I'm happy about that as it is always nice to share.
Recently I decided it was time to expand my collection of themes, and after putting in the time I came up with some new themes. I think creating a theme is fun and I invite everyone to give it a try. In the meanwhile you are of course free to use themes created by the member community, such as the ones I am showcasing
.
I have created the following Themes:
"Metal Chess"
"Nature Chess"
"Copper Chess"
"Stone Chess"
"Colour Chess"
"Beach Chess"
I am curious to hear your thoughts on them.
RC
P.S.
(The easiest way to my themes is to go to "Styles & Themes", select "Browse All Themes" and clicking on my name, which is behind the "Metal Chess" theme. You can preview or select them for use there.)