Guild Wars 2 Wiki talk:Color schemes
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Colors — Round I[edit]
As brought up by Infinite on the CommPortal, now is the time to have the color discussion. We've been kind of dancing around this for awhile, and the time has come.
I've been working on a wiki-wide color scheme (in addition to various changes to navs and infoboxes and stuff) here. The color sections are my proposals, everything below requires CSS to view properly. Does the kind of color system I've developed work for people? Aqua (T|C) 16:08, 5 February 2012 (UTC)
- Would be a nice time to discuss the profession colors as well. If people want to keep the ones we're currently using, it would be a good idea to have them listed side by side with your suggestions, just to make sure some colors aren't overused. Erasculio 16:23, 5 February 2012 (UTC)
- Yes, colours, colours, and more colours. That being said, I would like to suggest that we separate the colour talks into wiki colours and profession colours. While I'm fairly certain that both can occur simultaneously, I fear that one will start and both will not be able to continue as momentum builds in the one. Venom20
16:51, 5 February 2012 (UTC)
- Not that too many people care, but it would also be a good time to choose the race colors. It's going to be a nightmare to keep racial colors significantly different from profession colors. Erasculio 10:58, 26 February 2012 (UTC)
- Yes, colours, colours, and more colours. That being said, I would like to suggest that we separate the colour talks into wiki colours and profession colours. While I'm fairly certain that both can occur simultaneously, I fear that one will start and both will not be able to continue as momentum builds in the one. Venom20
Wiki colors[edit]
All right, some proposals for wiki colors. Here is my proposal for wiki-wide color groupings. Aqua (T|C) 20:57, 16 March 2012 (UTC)
- Maybe differentiate between lore and locations a wee bit more and then we're set, actually. :) - Infinite - talk 21:16, 16 March 2012 (UTC)
- I agree with Infinite on lore and locations look a little close and everything else looks awesome. Are we going to differentiate cash shop/promo items apart from other in-game items? I think having a different color for items that require money would be a good idea to set them apart. Could at the least go ahead and assign it a color either way. I figure it is better to have and not need than the reverse happen later on down the road.
21:44, 16 March 2012 (UTC) - Added thought. Could expand the promotional (green) to include anything gained from contest/giveaways. Anything that is gained outside of GW2 (like the cash shop or like the asura mini from PC Gamer in GW1) is kindof a promotion and could fit in that category. Also, Minis. 21:52, 16 March 2012 (UTC)
- I like the racial colors chosen. I recoil a little from having purple as a location color; I think I'd prefer to have something that's a little more neutral or grey. A different color for items that are in the cash-shop or tied to a promotion seems tricky because I'm not sure if that's actually a straightforward and sizable population. The former especially--for example, weren't dyes and transmutation stones both in-game and purchasable? For a lot of these things that might be in the shop or one-offs it seems like they would be both promotional/shop and another category. Aside from that, can't think of any concerns. Redshift 22:06, 16 March 2012 (UTC)
- I agree with Infinite on lore and locations look a little close and everything else looks awesome. Are we going to differentiate cash shop/promo items apart from other in-game items? I think having a different color for items that require money would be a good idea to set them apart. Could at the least go ahead and assign it a color either way. I figure it is better to have and not need than the reverse happen later on down the road.
- Hi, those color proposals seem quite spot-on, but not for the templates : too uniform in general (more on this feeling below).
- First, about racial ones, it seems a bit off, not because of the color choices (except for the Charrs), but because they lack differenciation. As you know, ANet has put many thougths and symbolism (and hints as we are concerned in this discussion) in their website assets and promotional images about background and foreground colors : racial wallpapers, character creation outline, concept art (cinematics) and Destiny's Edge iconic palettes.
- My proposal is to provide (for racial boxes) a background color teamed with a border/outline color, in order of conveying more depth (than for instance the concept of profession). Yet I'm no graphic artist, so I often can only express myself in words (when I find them correctly).
- Asura : "Magic" & "Rock" (electrical to tyrian purple, floating rock)
- Charr : "Oil" & "Battlefield" (motor oil or liquid red, sand or arena soil)
- Human : "Sunset" & "Dawn"
- Norn : "Freezing" & "Storm" (cold blue, menacing sky)
- Sylvari : "Forest" & "Shoot" (forest green, spring bud green)
- Anyway, it seems a logical course to stick to what ANet is proposing in the game. Even if, as shown above, each individual has his own interpretations about what the colors mean.
- So @Aquadrizzt, about the proposed colors : a reddish Charr would be welcome (could have been a shorter analysis, hehe I know).
- Locations could retain neutral greys, while lore and organisations (ruling bodies, military arms, bestiary factions, etc.) could keep the proposed purple.
- Skills, traits and effects should not be under the same coloring, even if the color is really good. Traits are more brown-related so far, and effects roam around orange-red : so bringing complementary colors (like this blue) is still a good idea. Skills' are working fine in the current green (which would pose a problem if NPCs take a similar shade).
- Which brings up the personal story theme, which should keep the green that is always in the upper-right corner of the game UI.
- Good choice for dynamic events thus including reknown hearts, group events and I suppose skills challenges. Their brown and white icons would do well in combination, as well as the skill point icons.
- But should dungeons not have their own related theme : between story mode, explorable paths, boss encounters, traps, mechanics and unscalability per design, they are far from similar enough. Elite events could go into this category as well, since they will probably reclaim the mini-dungeon term from the freshly-renamed points of interest system.
- That's all I can think of for now, thanks for reading. --
Leonim [talk·contribs] 13:12, 17 March 2012 (UTC)
- In-game color schemes We do not need to duplicate the color schemes seen in game. Arbitrarily picking colors is no better than what we currently have. Skills and traits are grouped together because they are both "build" related, and effects can get a different blueish color. Personal story could take a lime-ish color I guess, but I don't think it should be given a green. In terms of the locations v. lore thing, both define the (more static) world of Tyria, and thus should be grouped under some color family (I chose purple, but it could be shifted). Perhaps we could merge NPCs into those, but I'm not sure if that would be wise. Dungeons could definitely receive a darker color.
- Race colors & symbolism I did not just randomly choose race colors. They are all actually extracted from the character selection screen images. When I think charr, I think iron and lava. The orange suits that. Continuing on the "hints", I have probably seen ever piece of concept art on this wiki at some point, and I didn't overlook them. However, we are the Guild Wars 2 wiki, but that doesn't mean that we have to be identical to what ArenaNet has in mind. Aqua (T|C) 20:27, 19 March 2012 (UTC)
- That's all I can think of for now, thanks for reading. --
(Reset indent)
While personal story being green doesn't sound bad, personal stories is related to questing and should have closely linked colors imo. And along the lines of what Aqua said, colors that work in game don't always work on webpages and what looks good in game might be difficult to read with that color on the wiki. When I first saw the race colors Aqua proposed, they immediately made sense to me as being those races colors and still do which is all they need to accomplish. Also, I don't think anything is going to have the need for multiple colors on a page, so there isn't the need to split things up a bunch like splittling up skills and traits into their own colors. Grey is not a color. (Also, Elite Events are part of dynamic event chains.) I see now what you mean Aqua with those little squares not giving them justice. Just tested the lore and location colors with a random nav (pic on right: loc on top, lore on bottom) and they look fine. 21:08, 19 March 2012 (UTC)
Charr Color[edit]
Oh look I'm doing colors... again. The charr header color (such as that used in nav bars) is way too saturated. While it is similar in terms of brightness to the other racial nav header colors, in practice it is actually quite striking, as can be seen here. A slight desaturation and/or reduction in brightness should solve the issue. Perhaps #D25D6B? Aqua (talk) 17:23, 8 July 2014 (UTC)
- I'll have a think about this, but while I'm here, I note that none of the colors in the common.css for the navigation templates seem to be on this page. *sigh* perhaps they should be the same as the table colors tbh. -Chieftain Alex
17:35, 8 July 2014 (UTC) - ok I've decoded the css into a table. I agree that the Charr header colour is rubbish - it's currently the same as the elementalist color which I've had trouble with before, so we may wish to change that at the same time, albeit perhaps to a different color. -Chieftain Alex 18:04, 8 July 2014 (UTC)
- Elementalist #EC5752 + Charr #D25D6B ? -Chieftain Alex 18:29, 8 July 2014 (UTC)
- help a guy who has never used anything except rgb/hex colours on a wiki out with an example? -Chieftain Alex 22:23, 8 July 2014 (UTC)
- Websafe is just the colors that can be written shorthand (i.e. #364 as opposed to #363275). Although the colors themselves are fine, I just would personally rather have slightly more complex colors than the ones currently in use. The difference between 12-bit (websafe) and 24-bit (6 digit colors) is small but I prefer the more complex colors as it allows for more variety. Aqua (talk) 22:48, 8 July 2014 (UTC)
- help a guy who has never used anything except rgb/hex colours on a wiki out with an example? -Chieftain Alex
- Thanks for explaining - somehow I did not get that from the extensive WP page... gamers explain everything better. Implemented changes. -Chieftain Alex 17:44, 11 July 2014 (UTC)
- Thanks for explaining - somehow I did not get that from the extensive WP page... gamers explain everything better. Implemented changes. -Chieftain Alex
Colour blindness[edit]
Just out of curiosity I put this page through a colour blindness testing filter, and holy cow the game's colour scheme is really not colour blind-friendly. If anyone's interested this is how it looks. --Kazerniel (talk) 16:30, 25 February 2018 (UTC)
More visible table row colours[edit]
It always has been bothering me how invisible the separation between table rows is when alternating with white in Template:STDT. So I propose a bit more visible shades below. (25% header colour + 75% white)
| Profession | Current rows | New rows | Subheader | Sub. border | Header | Border |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guardian | #EAF6F9 | #DCEFF5 | #B9E0EC | #94B3BD | #72C1D9 | #5B9AAE |
| white | ||||||
| Revenant | #F6ECE9 | #F3DBD6 | #E4A598 | #BFA8A0 | #D16E5A | #A65747 |
| white | ||||||
| Warrior | #FFF8E8 | #FFF3D9 | #FFE8B3 | #CCBA8F | #FFD166 | #CCA752 |
| white | ||||||
| Engineer | #F8EBDA | #F3E6D5 | #E8BC84 | #BA966A | #D09C59 | #A67D47 |
| white | ||||||
| Ranger | #EEFAE3 | #E3F7D0 | #C7EFA2 | #9FBF82 | #8EDF44 | #72B236 |
| white | ||||||
| Thief | #F5EEEF | #EFE3E4 | #DEC6C9 | #B29EA1 | #C08F95 | #9A7277 |
| white | ||||||
| Elementalist | #FEEEED | #FDE2E1 | #FBC5C3 | #C99E9C | #F68A87 | #C56E6C |
| white | ||||||
| Mesmer | #F4EBF9 | #EDDDF4 | #DBBCEA | #AF96BB | #B679D5 | #9261AA |
| white | ||||||
| Necromancer | #E5F2EA | #D4E9DB | #A9D3B7 | #87A992 | #52A76F | #428659 |
| Race | Current rows | New rows | Subheader | Sub. border | Header | Border |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asura | #F1EBFD | #E8DEFB | #D1BDF8 | #A797C6 | #A27BF1 | #8262C1 |
| white | ||||||
| Charr | #FFEBED | #FFDDE1 | #FFBCC3 | #CC969C | #FE7887 | #CB606C |
| white | ||||||
| Human | #FFFBE8 | #FFF8D9 | #FFF2B3 | #CCC28F | #FFE566 | #CCB752 |
| white | ||||||
| Norn | #EAF5FF | #DCEEFF | #BADDFF | #95B1CC | #75BAFF | #5E95CC |
| white | ||||||
| Sylvari | #E7FBE8 | #D7F9D8 | #B0F3B2 | #8DC28E | #61E665 | #4EB851 |
| Type | Current rows | New rows | Subheader | Sub. border | Header | Border |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Generic | #EEEEEE | #E1E1E1 | #CCCCCC | #AAAAAA | #888888 | #6D6D6D |
| white | ||||||
| NPC | #E8F8E1 | #D9F2CC | #B3E699 | #8FB87A | #66CC33 | #52A329 |
| white | ||||||
| PvE | #FFF8E8 | #FFF2D9 | #FFE6B3 | #CCB88F | #FFCC66 | #CCA352 |
| white | ||||||
| Equipment | #FFF0E8 | #FFE5D9 | #FFCCB3 | #CCA38F | #FF9966 | #CC7A52 |
| white | ||||||
| Skins | #FFEDF4 | #F7DEE5 | #FFD4DF | #B3A1A5 | #E07A98 | #996574 |
| white | ||||||
| Mechanics I | #E8F0F8 | #D9E5F2 | #B3CCE6 | #8FA3B8 | #6699CC | #527AA3 |
| white | ||||||
| Mechanics II | #E1F8F8 | #CCF2F2 | #99E6E6 | #7AB8B8 | #33CCCC | #29A3A3 |
| white | ||||||
| Lore | #F8E8F8 | #F2D9F2 | #E6B3E6 | #B88FB8 | #CC66CC | #A352A3 |
| white | ||||||
| Location | #F0E8F8 | #E5D9F2 | #CCB3E6 | #A38FB8 | #9966CC | #7A52A3 |
| white | ||||||
| Promotional | #F0F8E1 | #E5F2CC | #CCE699 | #A3B87A | #99CC33 | #7AA329 |
| white | ||||||
| HoM | #F8F0E8 | #F2E5D9 | #E6CCB3 | #B8A38F | #CC9966 | #A37A52 |
| white | ||||||
| Boon | #EAF9F9 | #DCF5F5 | #B9ECEC | #94BDBD | #73D9D9 | #5CAEAE |
| white | ||||||
| Condition | #E5F2E5 | #D3E9D3 | #A8D3A8 | #86A986 | #51A651 | #418541 |
| white | ||||||
| Crafting | #F2ECE5 | #E9DFD3 | #D3C0A8 | #A99A86 | #A68151 | #856741 |
-- kazerniel (talk | contribs) 10:40, 14 October 2021 (UTC)
- Since the mass of tables confused me, the only change being proposed here is in the "New rows" column (column 3, replacing values in existing column 2).
- I've made a visual mock up of the proposed color codes at User:Chieftain Alex/sandbox5.
- My opinion would be some of the existing table row colours are too light, but not all of them. I would accept your proposed changes for: guardian, norn, boons - but this might be my poor monitor calibration for blue colours.
- Also this has highlighted some of the stated colours on this page are incorrect, particualrly for generic and skins - your proposed row color is way too close to the subheading as a result. -Chieftain Alex 21:34, 14 October 2021 (UTC)
- Sorry for the confusion, the only change I did to the mainspace tables was adding a new column (and those white rows to see contrast). In your new mockup the only original colours that work for me are: revenant, engineer, necro, sylvari, mech2. Everything else is practically invisible.
- I guess the first thing to do is to update the mainspace tables on this page to show the actually used colours. I can do this later based on that mockup page. For subheaders it seems like the mainspace tables generally used a blend of 50% header colour + 50% white, we could make this uniform, and that would I think make the row colours sufficiently different from the subheaders too. (But I will see what the situation is with the actually used colours.)
- Another thing I noticed now that I looked at the code of the tables is that the header gradient is achieved by putting a transparent image over the bg colour. I think using linear-gradient would be a better idea for this. -- kazerniel (talk | contribs) 10:46, 15 October 2021 (UTC)
- With your suggestion you are somehow implying that the odd rows should be clearly highlighted, but I'm not sure if this was and still is the intention of this whole approach. Wouldn't stronger colours just distract the wiki users from the original content and decreasing readability. Not sure if this example is fitting, but I think it can be compared with the following: I prefer to start the first cell of table row with a plain and decently coloured cell (simply
| <content>) instead of setting it to the subheader colour (with! style="text-align:left" | <content>). - I admit that the suggested new colours are really matching the colour schemes in general, but for me they are way too strong, sometimes they are even too close to the subheader colours.
- If I'm not wrong, the linear gradient computes a colour transistion, so by definition this is just a linear sequence of colours. On the other hand, isn't it the intention of the overlay Infobox header overlay.png (also used in the table headers) to provide "randomness" and thus is much more suited to create a shady and messy look? --Tolkyria (talk) 12:00, 15 October 2021 (UTC)
- With your suggestion you are somehow implying that the odd rows should be clearly highlighted, but I'm not sure if this was and still is the intention of this whole approach. Wouldn't stronger colours just distract the wiki users from the original content and decreasing readability. Not sure if this example is fitting, but I think it can be compared with the following: I prefer to start the first cell of table row with a plain and decently coloured cell (simply
- When there's more than one line of text in the table rows (eg. Lounge), the different rows all blend together and hard to tell apart at a glance where one row ends and the next one begins. It can be done with some scrutiny, but it's not a comfortable user experience when one just wants to glance at a table and clearly see the information laid out.
- Re: headers, you're right, I never noticed it had a texture, but if I zoom at 200%, it indeed does. -- kazerniel (talk | contribs) 12:15, 15 October 2021 (UTC)
- Overlaying the headers with the mostly opaque background gradient is the reason the header colours are so vivid on this page - they're usually covered in a mostly white layer which blocks out the color (this is intentional). -Chieftain Alex 16:37, 15 October 2021 (UTC)
- Overlaying the headers with the mostly opaque background gradient is the reason the header colours are so vivid on this page - they're usually covered in a mostly white layer which blocks out the color (this is intentional). -Chieftain Alex
