How to Make a Mibba Story Layout
Only recently have I started caring what my stories look like. But now that I do, I've got a few hints for anyone who needs a little help with the artistic elements of their stories.
The Basics
Mibba 2.0 offers several pre-made layouts for you on the Stories page of the home site, but there's a certain satisfaction people seem to gain from appreciative comments on their best story's layout. However, because there are only so many pre-made ones, people who want to have special, unique and attractive layouts have to look further than your average white and blue story.
Here are some simple tips to keep in mind.
Coordinate Colors
No one wants to read a story in which none of the colors have nothing to do with one another. If your background is a light peach color, browns, dark reds, and oranges look wonderful with it. Do not use bright colors and light ones together, or earth tones and neon. It just doesn't look good.
Keep it Simple
If your layout is too fancy, people won't be able to read it. I'd advise using, at most, two background images - one for your banner, and one for the story's background.
Make it Easy to Read
This is important to ensure your story or poem can indeed be read and not just looked at. In other words, don't make the text too small or too big (I tend to gravitate towards anywhere from 9-16 point size), or too close to the color of the content background. For example, if your content background is black, do not use dark gray text.
Decide on Your Theme
Is your story centered on the page? Do you have a banner? Is the story set in the city, the country, or the forest? Once you have a story, it's not hard deciding on the layout. Take my story Smiles Around Cigarettes. The story's theme is rather dark, being an American Idiot fan-fiction, and involves many dark and confusing aspects. Therefore, the basic style would be black. The story background and the border of my banner are black, where the content text is white, and the links are a soft gray. The banner's colors are muted and darkened, adding to the concept of darkness the story has.
The Layout Maker
Upon the creation of the new Mibba, I was quite confused by the multiple pieces of the Layout Maker. After a few tries, I got the hang of it, but it was no easy process.
You'll notice that the Maker consists of a screenshot of your story, a blue-and-orange box which is the entire of your control over your story's appearance, and an option to save what you've created. Said box should look like this: Page, Content, Title, Subtitle, Text, Summary, Chapters, and then Save This Layout.
Page Tab
Upon clicking Page, you'll see the word Background, with Color, Transparency, Image, Repeat, Attachment and Position below it. You now have the option of either a tile (seamless) background image that flows smoothly, or a solid color background. Dujo has thoughtfully provided us with a color selector; if you want a color just click the icon and choose a color. When you've got that sorted out, click the Content tab. Don't worry about the Text or Box options for Page, they have no real purpose.
Content Tab
Here, you should see the same arrangement as Page. Choose a solid color for your background color, as images make reading it nearly impossible, and then locate the subtab for Box. Decide on how wide your story is to be.
Title Tab
Here is where the most creative aspect of layouts comes in: banners. Simply find an image or two you like, edit them however you want on Photobucket or Photoshop (making sure to include the title in the banner) and copy and paste the image URL into the box by the word Image. Your banner should appear there; if not, choose the Box subtab and edit the top padding until your banner is fully visible.
Subtitle Tab
A subtitle is a fancy word for chapter title. Choose the text size and color and style, and you're set.
By now, you're probably getting the hang of it somewhat. If you think you've got the layout maker down cold, continue on, and best wishes to you in doing so. If you're still unsure about the maker, contact someone whose layout you admire and ask them simply, how did you make your layout?
I hope I helped and thanks for reading!
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