explain xkcd talk:Community portal/Proposals

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Site logo

Summary of current proposals:

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The main image (top left of the wiki) is not the best image ever. You really need to update it.

Maybe:

Just an idea, because that text looks weird, or at least please add a transparent background instead of white for the logo (and center the text). --Grep (talk) 21:39, 1 August 2012 (EDT)

I like it. What does everyone else think? (PS - don't forget to sign your entries on this page!) --Jeff (talk) 21:18, 1 August 2012 (EDT)

I could go with that. Had been kicking around some ideas, and if I had any artistic aptitude, it might have looked very much like that: the black-hat retort; alternately: the lowercase blue xkcd that RM uses (sans comic figure watermark) with a "Explain" in a hand-written typeface in some other color splashed across the top left part of those letters. And yes, definitely with transparency. Just thoughts... ultimately, whatever the consensus is... IronyChef (talk) 01:51, 2 August 2012 (EDT)

Something like one of the following?

--Grep (talk) 12:40, 2 August 2012 (EDT)

I like that first one - File:wiki.png. And perhaps use that same text for the Tagline? --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 19:50, 2 August 2012 (EDT)

Yeah, the first one captures what I was thinking. I thought I'd download it to tweak it a bit, and quickly proved to myself how unartistic I am. I was thinking the xkcd pretty much overwhelming the bottom (touching all three sides) and the explain (first typeface) in tight, maybe at a 5 degree angle over the x and k. Of course envisioning it is one thing, realizing it another (it may be totally unrealistic...) but I toss that out for further consideration. -- IronyChef (talk) 00:25, 3 August 2012 (EDT)

Hmmm, rereading Philosopher's comment, I think he and I may have been talking about two different images. Ooops. Anyway, was just chatting with a buddy who is more artistic than I am, and he created this mashup. He suggested: "Establish some vocabulary. First, xkcd needs to be bigger; it defies describing, and refuses to be pidgeon-holed into a box, so the xkcd needs to be so big that it doesn't fit entirely in-frame ... the Explain part has got to be casual, to represent the wiki and informal nature of contributing to it, and you gotta have it in close, because the contributors are going to get as close as they can to the truth. And keep it simple." (I broke with that, and tried to add the black hat; in doing so, I think I trashed transparency, tough) Anybody think that's worth taking a run with it? -- IronyChef (talk) 01:04, 3 August 2012 (EDT)

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Moved from User talk:Jeff. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 00:37, 4 August 2012 (EDT)

I prefer the first option (file:wiki.png). At the size the logo is meant to be, it's perfectly readable; furthermore, it's visually pleasant and it conveys the meaning well. We'll need it to be transparent, and editing the file at the current size produces sub-optimal results. Grep, could you please generate a transparent version of it and reupload it to overwrite the current image? --Waldir (talk) 05:14, 4 August 2012 (EDT)

Slight problem. I don't have the original "it's cause your dumb," I just copied it from explainxkcd.com header, and trying to remove the whitespace myself makes, well, suboptimal results. The font used was Heiti SC/TC, if you or anybody else wants to make it themselves. Also, maybe using #6e7b91 for the XKCD or something... it's the color RM uses on the home page.

I have uploaded a high res version of File:Wiki.png. Not exactly the same, but similar. I used FreeSans and a xkcd font I found at the xkcd forum. I still have the SVG version.--SlashMe (talk) 10:57, 4 August 2012 (EDT)

or

I suggest the two above this comment. Both of these are designs be me. The first one has a nice xkcd logo-text that features many of the main characters. I personally think that it looks better aesthetically. The second one is a globe that is kind of a nod to wikipedia. The ballon is there because that seems to be an often reappearing theme in xkcd. Now I really need to make a note of this, but xkcd should be in lower case letters unless it begins a sentence. This error exists almost everywhere on this wiki, but we should try to keep it out of the logo (http://xkcd.com/about/ for proof). Also I think that the logos that just say "explain xkcd" are too simple and kind of borring. The use of both black and blue additionally bothers me. Alek2407 (talk) 07:37, 5 August 2012 (EDT)

I agree. I like the first one best, but Megan's hair could be tweaked a little because it doesn't look a lot like her right now. Do you think you could do that? --Waldir (talk) 08:31, 5 August 2012 (EDT)

Alek2407 (talk) 06:56, 6 August 2012 (EDT)

That's perfect :D I vote for this one. --Waldir (talk) 07:12, 6 August 2012 (EDT)

By the way: could you make the background transparent instead of white? --Waldir (talk) 07:12, 6 August 2012 (EDT)

✓ Done We have a winner. Alek2407 - I'll leave a message on your contact page, but please email that logo to me with a transparent background. --Jeff (talk) 15:31, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

Sent. 16:42, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

I've rescaled the image (poorly) and i have asked Alek for a smaller version. --Jeff (talk) 03:25, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

Remember it needs to be transparent as well. Also, I point you again to the suggestions I made below regarding how to properly setup the site logo. Replacing the image server-side is actually recommended against by MediaWiki documentation. --Waldir (talk) 10:51, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

Thanks Waldir, I'm going to have Alek keep it transparent (MS Paint is all I have and it kills transparency... ugh) and when he gets me the final one, I'll change the field and not just replace the wiki.png directly. --Jeff (talk) 12:25, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

+1 for MS Paint :) Brings me good memories... --Waldir (talk) 18:37, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

I've always loved the "It's cause you're dumb" motto of the Explain xkcd blog, which furthermore is (to my knowledge) original to this website, so I strongly recommend a variant of file:wiki.png for the logo. "explain xkcd" (and probably "the wiki" as well) should, I believe, be written with the very same typeface and case (ie full lowercase) than in the header image displayed on top of http://explainxkcd.com. - Cos (talk) 12:31, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

I wasn't sure if Alek was going to do this or not, so I made a transparent copy of the logo and resized it to the optimal 135x135 pixels myself. Here it is (aaaand, another captcha!). Omega ^{Talk • Contribs} 09:50, 8 August 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. I uploaded the image as a new version of File:Logo.png, so when Jeff does the configuration changes, the site logo should be automatically updated. --Waldir (talk) 11:34, 8 August 2012 (UTC)