Please may we have more colour contrast in links?

[10mph]

I am not the only person with poor colour vision or monitor screen set up, who is unable to see the very small colour contrast used for links in this skin for the forum. There was a post yesterday, here, showing that others also experience the same trouble which I have.

Thanks Lynda. It doesn't show up in a different colour on my screen - looks the same as the other print. Its only after you pointed it out that I hovered over it and it then became underlined.

By manipulating the text size on maximum zoom I can see a definite colour difference, which I have measured and find that the unlinked text is in colour #333333 whereas the links are #673C71. It would be a great help if the css files could be modified to increase the contrast, at least for the class #postcontentrestore a:link which is I think what governs the links in posts.

I did try changing my browser to ignore link colours set by the web site - but this did not work on the forum, and had also the adverse affect of of changing colour schemes on other websites, where I can actually see the colour distinction chosen by the webmaster. In IE I tried making a specific .css file to be linked in for this website, but I could not get it to work.

I have managed to make a clearly coloured link further up this post by using the editing controls, but it would be better if this was automatic so all posts would use it by default.

 

[Alex728]

I am a mod on another VB based forum which has gone to VB4 and we had exactly the same requests. And our user base there is mostly young people with reasonable eyesight. I am lucky as my (corrected) eyesight and colour vision is good (essential as I work in IT & telecoms) but anyone of any age can have colour vision problems, or simply a monitor with a lower contrast ratio.

 

[NRG]

I also struggle with the current colour scheme...one work around is this:

Click on the URL icon

Paste into the dialogue box the URL you want...click OK, the URL text will already be highlighted back in your post, so click on the Font colour A icon and select the colour you would like...your are done!

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk

 

[rsscott]

OK, will look into this folks.

 

[flecc]

I also struggle with the current colour scheme...one work around is this:

Click on the URL icon

Paste into the dialogue box the URL you want...click OK, the URL text will already be highlighted back in your post, so click on the Font colour A icon and select the colour you would like...your are done!

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk

Another solution I've adopted now is to click bold to have the link in the text in bold letters, since this accentuates the standard forum link colour:

An example of an included link in bold letters.

 

[10mph]

I have succeeded in modifying the pedelec.co.uk forum page appearance when viewed in Firefox to turn all text links blue. It needs some more work to deal with a number of other issues I have.

The file I have made just adds the needed .css code into your browser, only when you are viewing the forum. It does not affect any other websites which you view. It is a simple add-on to your Firefox browser.

I will publish the instructions once I have refined it, but in the meantime let me know if anyone wishes to suggest anything else which they would like tailoring to improve its appearance in Firefox. Or PM me if you wish to test the file as I develop it.

 

[10mph]

Instructions for use of Stylish Firefox add-on tomake blue links in Pedelecs Forum

In Firefox Menu bar:
Click Tools > Add Ons
Click Get Add-ons.
Search for Stylish
click install Stylish 1.1.2 (or latest version)

Now go to the userstyles home page Restyle the web with Stylish! - userstyles.org

Search for pedelecs
You should find the link

Pedelecs Forum - Makes links blue - Themes and Skins for pedelecs.co.uk - userstyles.org

Follow the link and there you have a button which installs my code in your firefox.

The css code I have written only modifies your view of the pedelecs.co.uk/forum pages.

the code is:

@-moz-document domain('www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/'), url-prefix('http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/') {
    
        body a {
    color: #0000ff !important; 
    text-decoration: none;
}
#columnright {
margin-top: 2000px !important;
}
#columnleft {
    
    width: 900px !important;    
}
.navbar a {
    color: #CCCCCC !important;
}
.toplinks ul.isuser  a {
    color: #FFFFFF !important;

}
.above_threadlist a {
color: #cccccc !important;
}
.below_threadlist a {
color: #cccccc !important;
}
.above_postlist a{
color: #cccccc !important;
}
.below_postlist a{
color: #cccccc !important;
}
}

As well as modifying the link colours the post window is widened to 900 pixels, and the flashing/colourful advertisements in the right column are moved to the bottom of the webpage where they no longer distract me as I read the forum. This won't impair advertiser click thru, since anyone who installs this will not be a newbie on the pedelecs website, but rather a regular user who is well already aware of the companies paying to support the website, and knows how to find the links to advertisers if he needs to contact one of them. I don't anticipate the advertisers will suffer any loss of sales or product awareness.

You can actually edit the .css after you have installed it in your Firefox, if you wish to retain the colourful/flashing adverts in your line of site. I will give instructions or make another version if needed.

 

[rsscott]

Links are now underlined folks, let me know if that is suitable.

 

[NRG]

Thanks Russ, Pedelecs - Electric Bike Forum looks much better now when a link is embedded in the middle of some text...

 

[flecc]

Thanks Russ, a simple fix that is sufficient to indicate the link's presence.