A Guide to bbcode Typography · 12:00am Jan 9th, 2013
Hmm, time to actually do something useful with my blog. Well, I'm going to give some examples of both 'buttoned' and hidden bbcode commands, and how they can be used to make a kick-ass chapter header for a story. I think typography makes stories look that little bit more professional, which can mean the difference between an upvote and a downvote. Perhaps that's me being full of myself. Oh well, if I'm going to make myself look like a self-righteous jackass, I'd better do it with pretty colours.
Now, there are many different ways of doing this. The most important thing is a good artistic eye. The coding is simple, but getting it just right? Slightly harder. I tend to find it hard to vary my different titles, so it can sometimes take two or three attempts before I'm properly happy with it. I'm always finding new commands though, so it can be fun to create unique 'art' to go at the top of each chapter. I feel most successful when the colours, style and layout give off a sense of what the story is about. So, onto those codes you know and love. I'll put the code itself into parenthesis rather than brackets, seeing as the bbcode itself is bracketed.
(b)Bold(/b) Bold
(i)Italic(/i) Italic
(u)Underscored(/u) Underscored
(s)Struck(/s) Struck
(size=20)Size(/size) Size
(center)Center(/center) Moves text to centre of page.
(color=red)Basic(/color) Basic
So, you probably know all of these in some form or another. Perhaps you use them in comments, or in stories. Well, you can combine different codes *gasp* to achieve a pretty cool work of art.
(center)(b)(size=36)(color=purple)The (/color)(color=pink)Crystal (/color)(color=purple) City(/size)(/color)(/b)(/center)
The Crystal City
Pretty cool, huh? That's the simple code that can be used to good effect, with very little effort. All that took was some colour, centred text and a bold typeface to finish it off. So, what else can you do with this wonderful, soon-to-be-changed-by-Knighty bbcode? Well, there are still a few other codes that I would like to show you. These are less well-known, but can make an average title into a pretty darn spectacular one.
(smcaps)Smcaps(/smcaps) Smcaps
(spoiler)Spoiler(/spoiler) Sierraisbestpony!
(color=#FF5721)Hex colour(/color) Hex colour
Smcaps is shorthand for 'Small Capitals', which is pretty obvious. It might not look like much in th example above, but I'll show you how it can be used to good effect in a moment. Spoiler... Well, I felt like putting the spoiler code in for some reason. Finally, hex colours are practically invaluable when making this kind of art. You can have almost every colour imaginable to use, which is a lot. I like to use this website right here for picking colours, as they offer nigh-on 1,100 different colours. If you're feelin' adventurous, you can also make your own colour *gasp* So, let's see what all these can do together!
(center)(size=64)(color=#7D26CD)The(/color) (color=#BF5FFF)(smcaps)Crystal(/smcaps)(/color) (color=#7D26CD)City(/color)(/size)(/center)
The Crystal City
Pretty cool, huh? Like I said, it's just a blend of all these different codes. The hard part is making them look nice. So, why not fiddle around with it a bit? Maybe you'll find something you like, and maybe it'll earn you some praise on a story. In any case, I strongly hope this was helpful to at least one person. Oh, and if you know any code I don't, I will happily pay you in souls for the knowledge. I love finding new code that works on the site. And now to sit back and watch the notification flood in.
Oh, and my internet is going to be patchy over the next few days. Put simply, everything's been cut off. Wifi, TV, home phones, everything. Hell, half the time we don't even have hot water or electricity.
> First World Problems
Anyway, this'll be the last time I'll be on this workstation until I move, more than likely. I can't see my mum renewing the wifi if we're moving in a week or two. Oh yeah, I'm moving as well. Where to? No idea. But I should be able to access fimfic from my mobile or college network. Unfortunately, no Skype or anything I can't access on a browser. This pisses me off because I took out a rental on a Minecraft server a few nights previous, but I'll get around it. So yeah, I'll be releasing the next chapter of TLB when I get my precious internets back.
691419 Also, holy crap it's midnight. Where the hell did my evening go, damn it!
691436 Midnight eh? After Dark is always the best time.
Unless your like me and you have insomnia and school in the morning...
Thanks! Awesome :3
Edit: Hmm... linky
691445 I live off five hours of sleep, usually. Day is wakey-time, and night is get-shit-done time.
691447 No problem! I'll check the link out in a minute. Gotta pack this workstation up now, so I'll be back on my mobile soon! Goddamnit! You just had to ruin my moment of feelin' fine, didn't ya
I had been wondering how to do the spoiler tags...
Now can you tell me how to do that 'hide most of the post behind read more' thing that Wander D does so often?
691470 I have no idea. I'll have a play around on the college systems though, see if I can find a bbcode dictionary and try some of them out.
691467
I didn't do anything, Sierra. Just linked you to a portalzor blog with a possible line breaking code.
I see what you did there.
5 hours is a lot of sleeping.
Otherwise, cool.
What a coincidence
I have informations!
(hr)
Example: They left the library.
Later at Sweet Apple Acres- You get the idea.