I've seen lots of threads about CSS tips, but I have yet to see a thread about "good design". Well, maybe it was written before, but got lost in the depth of GAIA. However, seeing the vast amount of "eye cancer inducing" profiles, one more guide surely won't hurt.
Note: This guide won't deal with CSS and proper coding. There are enough other places for tips on this subject.
Ahem, I may open a thread once I have collected enough hints. (and found someone to translate this into proper English xd )
Text on Pictures
I often see text on very cluttered backgrounds. Maybe people don't realise how unreadable text becomes on a cluttered background.
So, here's a quick step-by-step on how to create 'good' backgrounds for your profile.
First, lets choose a picture and put some text on the image.
As you see, black text on a fairly dark background doesn't look very good.
So, let us change the text color to white. Looks a little bit better.
Yet, there is still too much going on in the background.
In order to get a better contrast between text and background, lets darken the picture.
Of course, you could as well use black text and lighten the picture. It works in both ways. You could additionally blur the picture to take it out of focus.
However my best advice would be to choose your cutout carefully. Faces attract people, that's just a psychologic fact. So it would be better to choose a part of the picture that doesn't show so much of the face wink .
So, this was a guide if you really can't pass on a picture background.
I would probably just use a simple pattern for the background, because sometimes less is more wink (However, our rules for contrast and focus stay the same)
