1. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    WordPress background image

    Discussion in 'Writing Software and Hardware' started by BayView, Jul 24, 2017.

    I'm playing with my damn website - again. (WordPress, booklives.com)

    I bought an image that I want to use as the background for the words, at least on the main page, but I apparently don't know how to do that. I installed it as the background, and as far as I can see it's there, but there's a text box on top of it that's blocking almost all the image.

    Is there a way to either make the text box transparent or get rid of it entirely or put the image I bought as the background of the text box rather than the background background?

    Anyone good with WordPress?
     
  2. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    It depends on the wordpress theme. If you're referring to the banner/header/title as the "text box" in question, I found with mine that I had to load the image into a photo editing program and create the banner there. Then I loaded it into wordpress as a "logo" under the header area. Otherwise it was just a blank box with the title in the middle.

    I'm no expert either... still screwing around with it.
     
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  3. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    Hmmm... okay, I've tried a different theme and the image shows up...
    But now it's too intense and it overpowers my text.

    Maybe I need to find a way to make it fainter? Is that a job for GIMP?
     
  4. Trish

    Trish Damned if I do and damned if I don't Contributor

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    You could make it more faint by using picmonkey and putting a filter screen over it. I don't use GIMP, so I don't know if that would work, but picmonkey is easy to use and pretty intuitive for simple things.
     
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  5. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    Is there a name for that? Like, these are the filter categories available to me in GIMP:

    upload_2017-7-24_11-52-12.png

    Does one of those look like a likely candidate for a fading effect?
     
  6. Trish

    Trish Damned if I do and damned if I don't Contributor

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    I'd try blur or Light/Shadow, but I'm not at all familiar with Gimp.
     
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  7. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    Oooh, I think I found something...
     
  8. Trish

    Trish Damned if I do and damned if I don't Contributor

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    I should have asked - are there words that need to be read, or are you trying to make it blend so words stand out over it? Hard to try to help when I don't know the parameters.
     
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  9. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    There are words that need to be read - that's why I'm trying to fade it.

    I don't seem to be able to cut and paste an image here, or even to attach one. Not sure why it's so large... anyway, you can see where I am at the moment at booklives.com

    I think I might want to change the font, and I think I can stand to be a bit less faded on the image...
     
  10. Trish

    Trish Damned if I do and damned if I don't Contributor

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    @BayView I see. Are you dedicated to the colors? I ask because I think if you put a single color mask over it it will still show the pic, but let you control the contrast of the words you're putting over top of it. Does that make sense?
     
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  11. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    I think it makes sense... like, a crude example, put an orange wash on the image and then use blue lettering or something?
     
  12. Trish

    Trish Damned if I do and damned if I don't Contributor

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    Kind of yes. For instance you could put a light teal wash over it and then the black text you have should stand out perfectly. You wouldn't have to even blur it if you go that direction.
     
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  13. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    The original image was quite vivid... I don't know whether a wash would be enough to tone that down?

    The original is at http://annewipf.deviantart.com/art/Freedom-The-carousel-255438367
     
  14. Trish

    Trish Damned if I do and damned if I don't Contributor

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    It is quite vivid (and lovely). I think your best bet would be to go with red or blue and then change your font to a bolder one for text. Purple might work too. Yellow and green will make it too dark I think.
     
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  15. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    I have quite a bit of smaller font on the other pages on the site, and I don't know how to have a background image for my home page but a different or no background image for the other pages. I'm worried that if the text goes too bold, it'll be over-the-top for the other pages...
     
  16. Trish

    Trish Damned if I do and damned if I don't Contributor

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    Can you put the image in the header as a banner, and leave the page plain? I understand what you're worried about, I'm just not sure there's a simple solution. I guess you could go ahead and blur it, then overlay the color, and maybe that would be enough?
     
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  17. Trish

    Trish Damned if I do and damned if I don't Contributor

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    @BayView FWIW, I just clicked on a bunch of pages and I can read them all with no trouble as it is now.
     
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  18. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    Yeah, maybe I'll leave it as it is for a while, at least... it's not perfect, but...
     
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  19. Trish

    Trish Damned if I do and damned if I don't Contributor

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    I checked every page (without clicking on the books cause that just takes you to Amazon, yes?) and they are all easy to read. I wish I had a better suggestion, but it's been years since I did anything on WP.
     
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