Post edited 11:01 pm – 02/24/2011 by Ian

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A lot of you have asked about how you can help with the site. Now that users can attach images to forum posts, I'm going to request images for character, series, event, and creator headers.

This is very important, but there's no way I can do it all myself while maintaining every other aspect of the site.

An image can be made for any term on the site. All you have to do is upload one that is the correct size and name and I'll drag it into the folder that the site grabs images from.

I could allow you guys to do it directly, but I want to be able to moderate and I think you should get credit for the ones you've done – this way everyone can see your contributions in this public thread!

 

Just follow these steps:

 

1. Find Or Scan An Image

Images should be work safe and not fan art (IE, an image of the original art or character we are discussing.) It's ok to scan from a book, as this is considered fair use (a small image in the service of criticism and archival work.) If you find one on the internet, make sure it's not fan art – we want to represent the work we are discussing and linking to!

 

2. Size The Image Correctly

The headers will only take images that are 187 pixels wide. Anything larger will break the layout! Height is a little more open, but we are going to limit it to 280 pixels for now.

The current default size is 187px x 140px. But taller is fine, just up to 280px!

 

3. Save For Web

Save for web using your application. Here is a tutorial for Photoshop. They are small images and most people have fast connections these days, so you can save at 80% quality (high quality). We want to save for web (compressed) without it looking full of jpg artifacts.

 

4. Name The File Correctly

This is very important. The file name should match the tag, be all lower case, and end with .jpg. Use dashes for spaces. If you are unsure about the tag format, check the url.

For example: Batman -> batman.jpg

If the title has spaces: Brian Michael Bendis -> brian-michael-bendis.jpg

Or any other characters: Sandman (Wesley Dodds) -> sandman-wesley-dodds.jpg

 

5. Upload to This Thread

When making a reply, click the icon that looks like a little tree (next to the film strip) and attach your images. In the uploader, you can select multiple images and upload them all at once.

Then go to the "browse" tab and select them to put them into the post one by one.

It should look like this:

or this:

 

That's it!

 

You don't need to tell me what tag it's for, if it's named correctly it should work as soon as I've dragged it into the folder (I'll reply here to let you know they've been accepted and are up.) But do note that it's a DC, Marvel, etc character so I put it in the right folder.

Right now, I'd prefer to focus on pages with no image (they'll have a default logo, the bookshelf picture, or "Creator" etc.)

Feel free to also ask in this thread if you have any questions.

Now get to it! There are a lot of characters and creators out there with no images!

It would, but I'd like to be consistent there. (and I know 187 is weird, I'm not sure how I settled on that, but all the previous ones are there.. sooo…)

Let me know if you need help with the uploader!

http://www.tradereadingorder.com/marvel-character/spider-man/

 

looks great! The taller ones are a little weird without any header text, but besides that I think it looks just fine. I think taller ones are good for important characters (who will have to have header text at some point) but maybe we should have shorter ones for smaller characters.

Doesn't matter too much though! I think maybe I should add in some text that says "Collected Edition Reading Order" or something under the title?

yeah, I'll start another thread.

don't worry, I'll let you know if I ever have a problem with anything (and I'll probably suggest a solution)