Site Update » Adjustments to chapter formatting controls · 8:02am Dec 2nd, 2015
I have made some minor improvements to chapter formatting controls.
1. "Flash of unstyled content" should occur less often when loading chapters, especially on mobile. This should also help chapter load times on slower devices.
2. Four new themes have been added (if someone has any particular wants for a colorscheme we're missing, please leave a comment)
3. Authors notes box and chapter selector are now dark on dark themes.
I plan to do some additional work to solve the white background that appears above the ratings box on themes that don't already use a white background, as well as some work to have a dark version of that bottom-of-chapter ratings box for dark reader themes, so there isn't a big light box right below the chapter content, as I've noticed this can be annoying while scrolling, especially on mobile. Both of these things are slightly larger scope projects, however, and I wanted to get these three improvements out now.
Yay new themes!
I'd like a red text on black background theme in honor of my awesome OC Demonspawn Nightblade.
Real talk though can we get a Cadance theme to go with the Celestia one (which is fun) and the luna one (which is also cool ).
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I will consider it, but fun themes that are actually fun are a bit tricky to design properly, I have to be in the mood to play with it. (or knighty does.)
While you're at it, could you take a look at the color of the HR tag on the Medium Light theme? I'm seeing it showing up as #ddd which is the same color as the background, which really makes it hard to tell what's going on when an author uses just that for a scene break.
3586443 rs858.pbsrc.com/albums/ab148/SuperNyappyOfLove/Kawaii%20Stuff/Pixels/031-1.gif~c200 something cheesy in the background like this maybe?
Excellent, very nice additions to the formatting. I really like the Solarized Light setting and am using that now. Though I do think if it retained black text instead of dark gray it'd be even better.
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Should be fixed.
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Yeah, I use the Medium Light setting for reading too, and horizontal lines being indistinguishable from the background can be pretty confusing at times...
It is indeed loading much faster on mobile! Before, it would take 8–10 seconds to load a chapter fully. Now it loads in 2–4 seconds!
Nice. The site's standard themes always seemed a little lacking.
If you're taking any input on what can be done, then may I recommend looking at what FimFiction Advanced has for themes? #L1359 #L2677
It mostly handles the ratings bar by applying the colour scheme to it's region instead of just the chapter text and title.
I also alter the Mane Six themes slightly to get rid of the extra spacing that currently makes the page way too long, and to frame the content to make it more coherent.
For any other colour schemes I might want, I don't know. How about a Starlight Glimmer one to celebrate the season finale?
A DJPon3 one might be interesting as well, although not too practical. I can contribute some keyframes that would make the text pulsate as if there were bass playing behind it.
Oooh, shiny new themes!
I'm tempted to use the green on black theme all the time now, but the Luna theme is still my favorite.
Hey the tracking keeps telling me that I have 2 chapters I have to read but doesn't show up.
I been through the stories I have track but can't seem to find them.
I wondering if it is a glitch?
Hey, the synopsis of my story just disappeared. I didn't touch it, and now it just says my user name.
We gonna get the character tags soon? Blossomforth needs a tag.
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I really would like red on black for a very serious reason.
Reading off the tablet in the dark goes very well if you can have red text on black, because red does not kill your low light vision and black background (at least on AMOLED screens) saves battery. It is also much easier on the eyes.
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That's a new one.
I've been seeing new fics that add Moon Dancer, Rara, and the Shadowbolt 5. Any idea when we will see new character tags?
3586459 Yep, fixed. Thanks!
Thanks for the new features! :)
Green on Black dark theme FTW! (Should just call it Matrix theme)
Could we also have a dark theme for editing? A lot of us authors are night owls.
3586605 I second the need for a Moon Dancer tag.
3586557 I'm surprised Blossomforth doesn't have a tag already.
Oh my god, you don't know how long I've waited for this. Xaquseg, I love you.
Dark themes should help be easier on the eyes too! Thank you :D
Would it be possible to separate the top and bottom author's notes? When I put a new chapter up it looks like I can only do one at a time.
I didn't even know that's possible. I always noticed that "Formatting" button, but for some reason, I never really paid attention to it and never thought about what's it good for so far.
Very interesting. Only the waving of the Celestia style is distracting. Not really sure how one wants to read a fic that way.
I probably won't use the styles too much, because for me, the "Light" style is FIMFiction.net, but it would be interesting for special occasions for sure.
Can there be a Cutie Mark Crusaders theme?
might i suggest a "custom" color scheme? one where you pick the colors yourself, and is aved on the device only, so it is special depending on where you are using it?
so i can have a nice dark theme on my phone, in the colors i want, and a different custom color scheme on my computer.
also, what is the status on the Android app for fimfiction?
Could we get a Sunset Shimmer theme? Along with a Starlight Glimmer and Cadence themes.
3586900 Can we not?
While the gimmick of having pony names is momentarily amusing, many or most of the colour schemes are not practically usable for actually reading text.
And a definite upvote for 'custom'.
I've been asking this ever since you guys "fixed" it so the Epub downloads would work for all e-readers and never got any kind of a response either negative or positive, but can you guys please please PLEASE fix it so that italics, bolds, etc. actually work on the downloads? So many stories depend on them and many are incomprehensive without it.
Just roll it back to the way it was where it didn't work with every e-reader if you have to. You could just direct people to the Calibre program which will automagically format it to work with their e-readers and the bold/italics/etc. will still display properly.
Definitely a good idea. The authors notes never stood out enough from the story before. For some reason many readers skipped them.
I noticed last week that blog body text color is hex 333333 instead of 000000. I think 000000 is easier on the eyes. This sentence is 000000. I know there's this doctrine in graphic design that says light on light is more pleasing, but I don't give a damn about that. I just don't want to strain my eyes binging on blogs. There might be a way to change it, but I haven't found it.
Story text seems to display as #000000 in color scheme Light.
I have a question, when I try to log in on my mobile, I fill in my username and password, and when I press login, the site loads, but doesn't log me in. It just goes back to the normal mobile page.
Is there something that I'm doing wrong? ( Using iPhone 5s.)
Nice work!
Good... good, now if you could just bring back the site's banner art at the top. Then we're golden... cause seriously this site now looks less pony than ever.
I remember back in the day when mobile users of the site kept getting stuff screwed up by udpates. I'm really glad to see a focus on improving their lot, nowadays.
Thanks for the changes, Xaquseg!
3587062 But don't you like bland, colorless death bands?
3587089 Greens and Tans, Greens and Tans. They're... uh green.
3587095 That's the spirit, now please going back into the mines, Vladimir.
Oh man, the Celestia theme is hilarious.
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I loved the art, it made it so much more colorful and helped set the pony kinda mood.
Tried out the new themes now. My favorite is amber on black. Feels easy on my eyes, looks cool, and reminds me of those ancient amber computer monitors.
Horizontal rules are finally visible on Medium Light view!
(cough—took you long enough—cough)
I'm not sure what it is, but now grabbing the epubs with Calibre, which worked fine previously has some broken bits. At the start of each chapter it now has:
Epubs downloaded using the site method doesn't have this, however all formatting is gone so it isn't much of a trade off.
I'm not sure what you guys are talking about, but where might I find these "themes" you all keep talking about?
Or is all this just for published stories and such?
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Top gray bar over the chapter text. There's a button labeled "A Formatting" at the right, it opens a panel to select how to view the font, spacing, and background of the text. It works for both published and not.
3587513 Oh, okay. Thanks.
3586489 omg pulsating text? I'd love to see that.
How about adding a color scheme for the CMC (either individually or as a group)? Spike should get a color scheme too.
A bit unrelated, but one minor bug that I've noticed is that when you're logged out and viewing a story chapter, the trashcan icon for deleting comments is visible.
I never knew we had themes in the first place. Good.
3587757 https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/5838-fimfiction-cmc-story-styles
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Yup, precisely. It's only a subtle pulse though.
I actually already have it used in Interactive Ponies for Vinyl's speech box.
3586519 That happens to me too. Every time!
Let me know if figure it out
3589387 Ah I never used that.