Help:Customizing your signature

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• H:CYS
• H:CUSTOM

This page is to help you customize your signature! It is important when doing so to realise that other users will often need to access your talk page and perhaps your user page or contributions. Therefore ensure that these links are obvious.

Reference

• Many of these snippets use common HTML elements, the most common of which is <span>. For a complete reference, visit Mozilla's HTML documentation.
• Much of the flashy, custom effects are done using CSS. For a complete reference, visit Mozilla's CSS documentation.

Basics

Almost all signatures are made using the HTML element <span> using the attribute "style". The style attribute has a number of CSS properties which combine together to produce a wide variety of possible signature forms. Many signatures use two or more <span> tags nested within each other: one to produce the box within which the links are contained, and one or more to change the style of the links contained within the box. The basic format used in the <span> element is:

<span style="Property1:variable; Property2:variable; Property3:variable;..."></span>

CSS Properties

Font color

Property: color

You can use this property to specify a color name as follows:

Input	Output
<span style="color:red;">Text</span>	Text

The same result can also be achieved much simpler with {{Color}} as follows:

Input	Output
{{Color|red|Text}}	Text

Color names are limited to a list of recognized Color names which can be found here, however hexadecimal codes can also be input to yield any Color:

Input	Output
<span style="color:00ff00;">Text</span>	Text
{{Color|#00ff00|Text}}	Text

Font Size

Property: font-size

This property can be used with words like "large" or "x-small":

Input	Output
<span style="font-size:large;">Text</span>	Text
<span style="font-size:x-small;">Text</span>	Text

More control can be used by substituting a percentage for the size:

Input	Output
<span style="font-size:50%;">Text</span>	Text
<span style="font-size:125%;">Text</span>	Text

Pixel sizes may also be substituted:

Input	Output
<span style="font-size:10px;">Text</span>	Text
<span style="font-size:20px;">Text</span>	Text

Underline and Strikethrough

Property: text-decoration

Underline and strikethrough both use the same CSS property, but can still be used at the same time

Input	Output
<span style="text-decoration:underline;">Text</span>	Text
<span style="text-decoration:line-through;">Text</span>	Text
<span style="text-decoration:underline line-through;">Text</span>	Text

Underlining and striking can be achieved much simpler using <u> and <s> respectively.

Input	Output
<u>Text</u><u>Text</u>	Text
<s>Text</s><s>Text</s>	Text
<u><s>Text</s></u>	Text

Font face

Property: font-family

You can specify more than one font with this property, separated by commas. The first one listed is used by default, but if a user, when viewing your signature, does not have the first font installed, it will display the second font for them. Generic font styles can also be input, such as "Serif", which have "flares" at the end of the letters, "Sans-serif", which does not have them, and "Monotype", fonts wherein all letters are the same width.

Input	Output
<span style="font-family:Times new roman;">Text</span>	Text

Subscript and Superscript

Unlike other formatting code used so far, superscript and subscript does not use the <span> tag, but instead uses separate tags:  and  respectively.

Input	Output
Text<sup>sup</sup>	Textsup
Text<sub>sub</sub>	Textsub

These must appear outside the <span> tag, as shown below:

Input	Output
Text<sup><span style=text-decoration:underline;">sup</span></sup>	Textsup

Background Color

Property: background-Color

The easiest way to use this property is to specify a Color name, however hexadecimal codes will also work:

Input	Output
<span style="background-color:yellow;">Text</span>	Text
<span style="background-color:#00ffff;">Text</span>	Text

Borders

Property: border

There are many different types of borders. The most basic border format is:

Input	Output
<span style="border:1px solid blue;">Text</span>	Text

Extra space can be put between the start and end of the border and the start and end of the text by putting non-breaking spaces   before and after the text. Just like in font Color and background Color, the Color can be a recognised Color name, found here, or a hexadecimal code. The "1px" value can be changed to alter the thickness of the border, and the "solid" variable can be changed to any number of border styles:

Dotted	Dashed	Solid	Double
Groove	Ridge	Inset	Outset

Multiple border styles

The above syntax applies styles to all 4 borders at once. To apply styles to a borders one by one, use the following properties:

• border-bottom
• border-left
• border-right
• border-top

Input	Output
<span style="border-bottom:1px solid blue; border-left:2px dashed green; border-right:3px outset red; border-top:2px dotted purple"> Text </span>	Text

Rounded corners

Property: {{Border-radius|Value}}

The "1em" measurement can be changed to any value between 0em and 1em. 1em is produces a quarter-circle corner which takes up half of the shorter edge on either side of the box. .5 em produces a quarter circle corner which takes up one fourth of the shorter edge. Other values are also possible, and adjust the radius accordingly. Due to the rounded corners, it is often necessary to use &nbsp; before and after the text or specify a left and right padding to ensure its not covered by the border.

The {{Border-radius}} template lets you use rounded borders for most major browsers, and should be used instead of specifying specific CSS elements.

Input	Output
<span style="border:3px solid blue; {{border-radius|1em}}"> Rounded corners </span>	Rounded corners

It is also possible to set a different radius for each corner by specifying four different em values, one after the other. The order in which they are used is: top-left, top-right, bottom-right, bottom-left. When specifying individual corner radii, it is possible to use measurements larger than 1em, up to 2 em which is a quarter-circle which takes up an entire side.

Input	Output
<span style="border:3px solid blue; {{border-radius|2em 1em 1em 0em}}"> Rounded corners </span>	Rounded corners

Images

It is possible to add images to your signature by using the following

Input	Output
[[File:Thanos.png]]

However, images contained in signatures may not be higher than 31 pixels. Users can scale images to 31px high without distorting them by using the code: [[File:Example.jpg|0x31px]]

Input	Output
[[File:Thanos.png|0x31px]]

Additionally, you can add text that pops up when your mouse hovers over the image.

Input	Output
[[File:Thanos.png|This is some example text.]]

Also, it is possible to make the picture link to a page other than that file's page, although when hovering over it, this will overrule the text in the previous note.

Input	Output
[[File:Thanos.png|link=Thanos|This is Thanos.]]	[[File:Thanos.png|link=Thanos|This is Thanos.]]

External links

Property: plainlinks

By default, all external links have an arrow next to them to denote that they take anyone who clicks outside the Wiki's network of websites, like this: Marvel. That arrow can be disabled using the plainlinks property. Unlike other CSS properties covered so far, this one is not part of the "style" attribute of the <span> element, but is part of the "class" attribute. It is important to note that putting a semicolon after the plainlinks property will disable it.

Input	Output
<span class="plainlinks">[https://www.marvel.com/ Marvel]</span>	Marvel

Other CSS properties must be applied using a separate <span> tag around the link name:

Input	Output
<span class="plainlinks">[https://www.marvel.com/ <span style="color:green; text-decoration:underline;">Marvel</span>]</span>	Marvel

Putting a signature together

As explained in the beginning, multiple styles can be combined in one <span> tag by separating them with semicolons. The first step to creating a signature is to decide on a border and background. This is a step-by-step guide to creating a sample signature for educational purposes, and is by no means the only way to make one.

Note: Replacing the between link spaces ]] [[ with non breaking spaces ]]&nbsp;[[ will help prevent the line breaking and causing the wrapping that is shown below:

Step	Input	Output
Decide on a border and background	<span style="background-color:red; border:4px ridge gray;">[[User:Example|Example]]</span>	Example
Choose images - the Wiki's signature policy forbids signatures with more than two images, animated images, and images which are too large.	<span style="background-color:red; border:4px ridge gray;">[[File:Thanos.png]] [[User:Example|Example]] [[File:Thanos.png]]</span>	Example
Apply formatting to the name using a separate <span> tag and other Wiki formatting	<span style="background-color:red; border:4px ridge gray;">[[File:Thanos.png]] [[User:Example|<span style="color:white;">'''Example'''</span>]] [[File:Thanos.png]]</span>	Example
	<span style="background-color:red; border:4px ridge gray;">[[File:Thanos.png]] [[User:Example|{{Color|white|'''Example'''}}]] [[File:Thanos.png]]</span>	Example
Add a link to the talk page in superscript and another <span> tag.	<span style="background-color:red; border:4px ridge gray;">[[File:Thanos.png]] [[User:Example|<span style="color:white;">'''Example'''</span>]] <sup>[[User talk:Example|<span style="color:white;">'''Talk'''</span>]]</sup> [[File:Thanos.png]]</span>	Example Talk
	<span style="background-color:red; border:4px ridge gray;">[[File:Thanos.png]] [[User:Example|{{Color|white|'''Example'''}}]] <sup>[[User talk:Example|{{Color|white|'''Talk'''}}]]</sup> [[File:Thanos.png]]</span>	Example Talk

See also

• Tesseract:Signatures, with rules and guidelines for customizing signatures.