Serendipity Forums

I want to set up a Serendipity theme with a 499x345 graphic in the header.

I've downloaded almost every theme I can find and tried substituting a blank header with the graphic merged to it.

I've looked through various files trying to find all the references that I should change - maybe I miss one or many but I can't find any way to do this?

It would be good if I could find a theme where the colours used or ones that I could use would complement the the white background and light brown and black that are the main colours of the graphic.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.

jbwill wrote:Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.

Well, for starters it would be nice to have an URL for the image in question. Plus, it would be good to see what you already tried to work it in, 'cause frankly, I don't see the problem ...

YL

Thanks for your response.

I assume from it that I can put the graphic in almost any theme if I change the supplied header for one that is the same width but has the extra depth?

I read that one theme uses a graphic 800x1 pixel so I crossed that off my list of possibles

If so, what files must I make changes to so that I am sure that the new header graphic won't break something, please?"

I've deleted the various attempts to incorporate the graphic in various themes and need to reload Serendipity later today (it's 5am here).

Thanks for all replies

jbwill wrote:I assume from it that I can put the graphic in almost any theme if I change the supplied header for one that is the same width but has the extra depth?

Let's put it this way: Basically it should be possible to use your header image in any template. However, it's not that easy, as you already discovered yourself:

jbwill wrote:I read that one theme uses a graphic 800x1 pixel so I crossed that off my list of possibles

Some themes do indeed have a container div which has a fixed width. To put it simple, this can make it easier to produce a consistent design, i.e. one which looks similar in most browsers on most platforms.

So let's assume you have a theme which gives the header a width of 800px and a height of 200px, which is pretty common. Usually, the header image is assigned as a background image to a container called serendipity_banner. And of course you could substitute that one by an image which is only, like, 400x100px - the question is: what do you do with the rest of the container

jbwill wrote:If so, what files must I make changes to so that I am sure that the new header graphic won't break something, please?

My suggestion would be to first pick an existing template which matches your header image's colors well. We'll then figure out how to change the header to make it look nice. Deal?

YL

YL, that sounds great - deal!

I'll put Serendipity back later today, add the theme and then repost.

That will be some hours, sorry.

I think it will also be of general benefit because there are a good quantity of questions about changing headers in these forums. I think I've read them all and tried most.

Thanks.

jbwill wrote:That will be some hours, sorry.

Take your time. Because of Easter, it's pretty likely I won't be able to read this forum over the next couple of days anyway, sorry. So there's enough time for you to pick out the one you really like

Then again, maybe somebody else can fill in for me. Shouldn't be that complicated.

YL

Actually, I missed some of my post last time.

I understand that all of us have commitments, so tomorrow will be fine.

ONLY JOKING!

I'm trying to finish writing a book at this time.

If I can help anyone else that is providing support to us Serendipity newbies, I will.

Don't eat too much chocolate!

Thanks.

I added all matter of stuff to my layout, the hacky way by editing the tpl file for my custom style. You should just be able to whack it at the top of all that and it appear at the top. As for colours you can just make a custom css file and stick it in the same directory.