[Sumaleth]

I'm working on getting my old book review site back up and running again after a long break (actually, it was hosted by the same group that hosted 3DPalette...) and I've been working on making up the art for the menu system. Thought I would see if anyone had any comments on it at this point;



I think I've broken about a dozen "dezign" rules with this (hey Assa ), but I'm quite happy with it at the moment.

Row.

[samdragon]

Nice layout and design. Your biggest problem is the text. It's too thin for that drop shadow. The stroke width is competing with the soft dropshadow and the colored background, this is causing the text to vibrate, or look blurry.
Which is more important, the texture in the background or the text that's over it? I would guess the text is more important. Maybe if you were to lighten the background texture up some more and lose the drop shadow it would look much better. I do like your over all color scheme. It's very nice!
Back to the text. Your kerning is too small. (space between the letters) this is causing the letters to run into or touch each other. It's easier to read if we can see some space between the letters.
I'm glad you're using left justification and not centering everything. Center justification works for small things, but with alot of words like you have here, left works best.
Are we looking at a triple roll over here? Do you have a normal, over and down roll over? Is that why we see the arrow and the highlighted text. I'm guessing the highlighted text the down state, while the arrow text is the over state. I like that idea alot! Nice choice with the highlight and arrow with a box around the text. Again, great color scheme.
I'm very picky about the text stuff, alot of us tend to ignore it, but it's worth going back and taking a second look at your typography.
I can't wait to see the final version!

[Joachim]

looks nice

If I ever had patience to do the same, I would. But, I guess I have like 10% of the book amout you have

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Joachim's Place

[A.Buttle]

Is the armpit of America in Flint, Mchigan or Bakersfield, California?

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I wanna get with you, girl!...
And your sister, I think her name's Debra....

Joe Dillingham

[email protected]
Three Times A Day

[Icannon]

it generally looks good. i like the colors, but it all seems too faint. the text gets slightly lost in the background. maybe this is what you were aiming for, but i think a little more contrast would make it a more comfortable read. again, i like the colors

[samdragon]

quick side note:
the armpit of the usa is in Tennessee. And it boarders North Carolina and Virginia

[Sumaleth]

Thanks for the feedback.

Sam;

Particularly good information and comments there. Here's a new version with those those changes in mind;



That looks much cleaner!

The text is more spaced, is now opaque rather than slightly transparent, the drop shadow is reduced, and the background image is brighter.

I did try it with no drop shadow but didn't like how it looked so I just reduced it a bit.

The text blurring, which I think was probably 80% of the problem in the first image, was actually fixed by turning off the "Fractional Widths" option. Now I know what that does.

--

I'm not sure what you mean by roll overs, but what I'm hoping for the final version is pretty much as you guess. The solid orange box behind text shows that it is currently selected, and the arrow-orange-outline combo show where the pointer currently is. I'm hoping that these will be able to fade in and out as the pointer enters and leaves that area.

Thanks.

Row.

[AKIRA_x]

I would recomend you blur the background part behind the textlinks even more. Yes you can read it as it is..but its also an iritation momen where your eyes try to focus on the background. Do we really need to see what it is? Its suposed to be just the media holding the text in place...so..make it more blurred or fade it more. Makes it more pleasing and less of a strain to read.

AKIRA

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Whos ya dady!!

[immi]

Looks much better now Sumaleth. btw, if you're interested in hosting, we could set you up under 3D Palette. Lemme know