(Discussion) Text Colors...

Pbartender · Jun 19, 2004

This is something that's important enough to me, at least, to want to highlight it with it's own topic...

I don't know about anyone else, but I'd like to request that people stop highlighting spoken text with color... Or at the very least pick the colors that they use a little more carefully. I myself am having two big problems with colored text...

First, like so many gamers, I've got bad eyes. It is a strain to read text off a computer screen to begin within, but changing the text colors to something unusual can quickly make it almost painful to read. The result is that I have a tendancy to skip over and disregard anything I can't easily read... That's not good for a judge and a DM.

Second, when I browse the ENWorld boards at work, I usually use the 'stealth' mode style to be a little less conspicuous. Text colors that work well with a dark grey background rarely work well with a white background, and vice versa.

Now, while I don't have a problem with occasional colored text (yellow Nos and Yesses for approvals, or cyan text for in-game mechanics, or red judge warnings), the rainbow of in-character spoken tect is beginning to give me a headache.

I'll give a sample of the colors available at ENWorld, so that you can see just how they work...

Black
Sienna
Dark Olive Green
Dark Green
Dark Slate Blue
Navy
Indigo
Dark Slate Grey
Dark Red
Dark Orange
Olive
Green
Teal
Blue
Slate Gray
Dim Gray
Red
Sandy Brown
Yellow Green
Sea Green
Medium Turquoise
Royal Blue
Purple
Gray
Magenta
Orange
Yellow
Lime
Cyan
Deep Sky Blue
Dark Orchid
Silver
Pink
Wheat
Lemon Chiffon
Pale Green
Pale Turquoise
Light Blue
Plum
White

msd · Jun 19, 2004

Guilty as charged

Pbartender said:
I myself am having two big problems with colored text...

I am certainly guilty of this.

I am glad you brought this up, though, because the only reason I use highlighted text (a bright blue) was because I thought it would be easier for others to read. If that's not the case, I'd like to change my ways so that it is easier...

One possibility (a bit draconian I admit) is to have the judges standardize what an ENWorld in-game thread post should look like (post is titled with the character's name, flavor is to be italicized, mechanics in blue, judge's calls in red - as an example). Another option is for the individual GM to set the standards for his/her individual adventure.

Personally, I would favor the community adopt a standardized approach, but that's just me and I say that because I don't have any attachment to the "aesthetics" of a particular style. In my mind, it's all about readability.

Again, whatever course of action everyone ultimately decides on, it would be helpful if, at a minimum, the GM's of each game thread made the chosen policy public. Pbartender, I'm in one of your games, so feel free to tell me how you want to see my posts...

Hope this helps,
matt

Knight Otu · Jun 19, 2004

Guilty as charged.
I don't even think that much of the different styles anymore (and I'm sure some people are not even aware that they exist), to be honest. The only one that I would switch to would be Hive (the bees are too massive, making everything hard to read).

I think the main reason to use colors is to draw attention to the text, followed by differentiating between players and flavor. It's easy to do the first just with styles, but the other two functions aren't easily represented. Personally, I wouldn't mind guidelines on color use, but practically any color can look bad on any style.

Edit: Here's the colors per style that I think look bad or are plain unreadable. I suspect we can disregard blue screen, though.
Standard:
Black
Dark Olive Green
Dark Green
Dark Slate Blue
Navy
Indigo
Dark Slate Grey

PHB + d20Modern + Stealth:
Yellow
Silver
Pink
Wheat
Lemon Chiffon
Pale Green
Pale Turquoise
Light Blue
Plum
White

Electric Blue:
Black
Dark Olive Green
Dark Green
Dark Slate Blue
Navy
Indigo
Dark Slate Grey

Hive:
Black
Sienna
Dark Olive Green
Dark Green
Dark Slate Blue
Navy
Indigo
Dark Slate Grey
Dark Red
Olive
Green
Teal
Blue
Slate Gray
Dim Gray
Sea Green
Royal Blue
Purple
Gray

Blue Screen:
Sienna
Dark Olive Green
Dark Green
Dark Slate Blue
Navy
Indigo
Dark Slate Grey
Dark Red
Dark Orange
Olive
Green
Teal
Blue
Slate Gray
Dim Gray
Red
Sandy Brown
Yellow Green
Sea Green
Medium Turquoise
Royal Blue
Purple
Gray
Magenta
Orange
Yellow
Lime
Cyan
Deep Sky Blue
Dark Orchid
Silver

Creamsteak · Jun 19, 2004

I use strange colors like...
creamsteak
and
kobold

Gurdjieff · Jun 19, 2004

I usually dont have any problems with the colors (except the really dark ones like dark red, which really are hard to read with a black background). I'm using DarkOrange & Magenta, which seem to work pretty good allround.

Guilt Puppy · Jun 19, 2004

I'm guilty as well. Always.

For one thing, I wasn't really aware that the board had different styles available -- I'm not surprised that it does, as most do, but it still just never occurred to me. So while I'm always careful to be sure my text appears well in the default style, I have no idea how bad it looks in the others.

On the other hand, I do like colored text for dialogue; it's just one more indicator that sets the characters apart from each other. And of course, it's always good to use the full range of tools available -- those formatting options are just one more advantage PbP has over, say, PbEm.

But then LEW is a bit of a different story -- such a wide player base, it's much harder to reach a consensus. There's also the problem of constantly switching party makeups -- right now, Sturm's silver is unique to him, but in the next adventure, will that still be the case? If it's not, then what's the point?

Anyway, I'll keep on using it until there's some sort of policy decision (and I'll definitely use it outside of LEW -- as a DM, I've really come to appreciate my players' use of colored text; years of literature have proven that quotation marks are sufficient to set apart dialogue, but that doesn't mean an extra bit of formatting isn't an even better way to set it apart). But I'm glad someone brought it up, as it would have completely slipped under my radar otherwise.

Steve Jung · Jun 19, 2004

That's me as well. I use DarkSlateBlue for my character's spoken text and Navy for his thoughts. I've been using the Player's Handbook theme for so long I forgot what the original theme looks like. I'll go back to the default color.

Uriel · Jun 20, 2004

I use yellow for almost all of my PCs.

When I DM, I usually use orange or lime for NPCs, with the occassional cyan.

Kahuna Burger · Jun 20, 2004

I use Magenta for all my characters and for major NPCs when I DM, Royal Blue for additional NPCs, Cyan for mechanics and ooc comments, and other npc colors on occasion. And I'm not guilty at all.

I know some people are going to use a non standard veiw and if an individual DM wants to ban it in his or her game I'll go along, but as a player and a DM I find it enhances my use of the pbp format, and I like it when others do it.

If you want to set groundrules in your own adventures, I'll respect that, but I couldn't get behind a movement to have everyone use non colored text.

Kahuna Burger

msd · Jun 20, 2004

I use the electric-blue style so I can't speak to the effect on other styles, but...

Is there a set of three of four colors that will show up universally, i.e. on all the themes? That would (arguably) be a big step forward to reaching some sort of standard.

Thoughts?
-matt