docbook: Updated CSS for HOWTOs
Subject:
Re: Updated CSS for HOWTOs
From:
David Horton ####@####.####
Date:
7 Mar 2004 02:28:53 -0000
Message-Id: <404A88E1.3030709@speakeasy.net>
Saqib Ali wrote:
> Hello All,
>
> I have written a new CSS for displaying HOWTOs. Here is a sample output:
>
> http://www.xml-dev.com:8080/tldp/http://www.xtrinsic.com/geek/articles/acpi.xml
> and
> http://www.xml-dev.com:8080/tldp/http://tibberio.freeshell.org/pock-it/Pocket-Linux-Guide/Pocket-Linux-Guide.xml
>
> (watch for line wraps)
>
> Here are more sample: http://www.xml-dev.com/blog/#88
>
> So how does the new formating looks? Is it is any good or should I change
> the colors?
>
>
> Thanks.
> Saqib Ali
> -------------
Saqib,
CSS is a great idea for TLDP. It gives the documents a much nicer look
than plain old unstyled HTML. I'm glad to see that you chose a
sans-serif font. It makes things much easier to read on a screen than
the Times Roman font that is standard on so many browsers.
I would like to offer the following suggestions for the sample stylesheets:
* Margins and whitespace make documents easier to read. A 5% to 10%
margin would be nice and would equate to about 1/2 an inch to an inch on
US Letter sized paper. I would also suggest margins in boxed text like
<programlisting>'s.
* A high contrast black text on white background would be easier to read
than a colored text on white. I would go high contrast on the body text
and save the colored text for the headings and other things that need to
stand out.
* I would choose a different overall color scheme. I am not an expert
on color, but I picked up a few things from my dad the art teacher. :^)
You might try a monochromatic or analogous color scheme. (Here's a
site showing some examples:
http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-theory-basics.html) Cordinating
the heading colors, link colors and border colors for boxes can add a
professional touch.
You have an excellent start with the current stylesheet. A few tweaks
and it will be brilliant. I would love to see the final product adopted
for docs served up at the TLDP website.
Dave
