Transparent WordPress with Semiomantics XO

Developing a transparent WordPress Based Photo Blog, I got inspired to use some elements in a Grunge environment. It’s creative, it’s fun, it’s the Semiomantics XO Theme for WordPress.

Grunge Background

The first step is to create a grunge background:

Grunge Background for WP

This background is 1680 x 1250 pixels big and has a weight of 130 kb only.

Transparent Header Footer and Content Backgrounds

Step 2: make your backgrounds transparent and set opacity to 70 %.

Fancy Fonts

Add some fancy fonts for h1 and h2 using the Fontburner plugin.

Fancy Fonts for h1 and h2

Background Opacity and Hover Function

It is not easy to read content on colored backgrounds, therefore we add a hover function to show white backgrounds on left content and sidebar.

Save load by Scrolling over the Background

No vertical tiling is needed, also on long blog posts when the content scrolls over the background. We fix the background attachment (background image).

Header Transparency and Site Title

To get the header effect I have loaded a transparent header png with no content and added a top margin to adjust the position of the content.

The blog title is painted on the background with position top left to allow display on any monitor irrespective of resolution and size.

Transparency Variations

Your creativity is the limit. You could create an overlay look by adding a black background with 80% opacity:

Transparent Overlay Hover

Try and enjoy!

More about this Topic

• Blockquote, Pullquote and Code
• Yorgo Nestoridis Design Brand Header
• Fancy Fonts Headers
• Design Branding
• Design Graphic Background

Transparent WordPress with Semiomantics XO

Developing a transparent WordPress Based Photo Blog, I got inspired to use some elements in a Grunge environment. It’s creative, it’s fun, it’s the Semiomantics XO Theme for WordPress.

Grunge Background

The first step is to create a grunge background:

Grunge Background for WP

This background is 1680 x 1250 pixels big and has a weight of 130 kb only.

Transparent Header Footer and Content Backgrounds

Step 2: make your backgrounds transparent and set opacity to 70 %.

Fancy Fonts

Add some fancy fonts for h1 and h2 using the Fontburner plugin.

Background Opacity and Hover Function

It is not easy to read content on colored backgrounds, therefore we add a hover function to show white backgrounds on left content and sidebar.

Save load by Scrolling over the Background

No vertical tiling is needed, also on long blog posts when the content scrolls over the background. We fix the background attachment (background image).

Header Transparency and Site Title

To get the header effect I have loaded a transparent header png with no content and added a top margin to adjust the position of the content.

The blog title is painted on the background with position top left to allow display on any monitor irrespective of resolution and size.

Transparency Variations

Your creativity is the  limit. You could create an overlay look by adding a black background with 80% opacity:

Try and enjoy!

More about this Topic

• Transparent WordPress Semiomantics XO
• Transparent WordPress Theme Design
• Blockquote, Pullquote and Code
• Fancy Fonts Headers
• Yorgo Nestoridis Design Brand Header

Design Graphic Background

While I prefer to keep my backgrounds white, I have added a background to this site for the purpose of the Web design Workshop.

The Background needs to be in harmony with the color scheme which is based on black-blue #000125 and red #B3000.

Background based on an image

This is what I did:

1. Take a photo and transform it to gray scale.

2. Work it to establish a pattern:

Background pattern

3. Make a tile out of it so that the borders match:

Background Tile

4. Add a Color overlay in Blue #000125 with 45% opacity.

Black-blue Tile

5. Insert to your site using the style sheet:

Design Background