Example Thematic Background

This page uses the Thematic theme on a black background.

All page design elements are set through the Shiba Custom Background Plugin.

1. Assign Theme Colors

This example uses a dark background to illustrate the range of design options you have available, all from your WordPress dashboard, and without any PHP or CSS coding.

Note however that different themes will be more or less customizable. Framework themes such as Thematic, Hybrid, Sandbox and others will be more easy to customize because they provide a blog structure whilst leaving most of the detailed design specifications up to the user or theme designer.

Themes that already have defined backgrounds, for example, will not work as well. However, the Shiba Background Plugin also lets you switch among multiple themes by tying them to your background object.

As you have already seen, this page uses the Thematic theme, but all other pages use the Shiba theme which is set as a default.

2. Background Images Used

Here are the background images I used on this background object. You can get to the full sized images by clicking on the caption link below each image.

In general it is a good idea to mostly use JPGs because the files are much more compact and faster to load. In the background images below I use only one PNG image for the leafy flourish that I have placed on the top right area of the screen.

Tattoo_Maiden4b Tattoo_Maiden5 Tattoo_Maiden7 Tattoo_Maiden_Flourish2

Note that background objects can also be used as galleries. For example, I am displaying the background images above using the WordPress shortcode and the Shiba Gallery Plugin –

Tattoo_Maiden4b

Tattoo_Maiden5

Tattoo_Maiden7

Tattoo_Maiden_Flourish2

3. Position Background Images

As you see from the section above, I have used 4 different images for this background object.

• Tattoo Maiden4b is anchored to the Bottom-Left of the main blog content area (i.e., ‘content’ div in Thematic).
• Tattoo Maiden5 is anchored to the Top-Left of the blog content area.
• Tattoo Maiden7 is anchored to the Top-Right of the blog content area.
• Tattoo Maiden Flourish2 is also anchored to the Top-Right of the blog content area.

Each of these images are then positioned offset to their anchor points.

In practice, image positioning is done through a simple visual interface within the Shiba Custom Background plugin.

The Sky is the Limit

Finally I have attached this background object to only the current page. There is a simple drop-down menu in your Post/Page Edit screen that will allow you to attach background objects on a post by post basis.

This page only shows a simple example of what you can do with the Shiba Custom Background Plugin.

Step outside the usual WordPress blog box and have fun creating a different kind of look for your own personal online space.

Have fun experimenting!