Related Articles and Text on Them

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  1. eugbug profile image66
    eugbugposted 4 years ago

    The related articles section at the bottom of pages has the names of articles overlayed on images. Unfortunately if we have text on our images, the combination of both ends up as a jumbled mess. What would be a solution to this? Put the name of the article underneath?

    https://usercontent1.hubstatic.com/15255862.png

    1. samanthacubbison profile image80
      samanthacubbisonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      I've passed this along, but it probably won't be addressed right away. Thank you!

      1. eugbug profile image66
        eugbugposted 4 years agoin reply to this

        Thanks Samantha. Flipboard do this, but I don't like the depressing black, and the all-caps is tabloidy and shouts out at a reader. Maybe a subtle pastel color could be used or just a white background around text with a simple, grey hairline border? I'm sure the graphic artists or whoever does your layouts know best.

        https://hubstatic.com/15256119.png

        1. samanthacubbison profile image80
          samanthacubbisonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

          Yeah, that doesn't look very appealing, but I get what you mean. I think the issue is that some people add text overlay and some don't, so this may be a good solution. But I'm not sure if our platform allows us to change the size so dramatically. That's related to the issue of how the main page vs. category vs. search page are all formatted differently.

  2. lobobrandon profile image65
    lobobrandonposted 4 years ago

    That would work and be a good solution. Another could be the addition of a filter on the images giving them a dark shadow so that the white text of the title stands out even in cases where the image already has some text on it.

    1. eugbug profile image66
      eugbugposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      That's the way I usually do it on images if there isn't a large enough dark region for light text or light region for dark text.

      1. lobobrandon profile image65
        lobobrandonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

        Yup, and it works well.

    2. samanthacubbison profile image80
      samanthacubbisonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      That would probably be easier to do than what Eugene suggested, but they are both good ideas. I'm sorry I can't just do this all myself, haha.

      1. lobobrandon profile image65
        lobobrandonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

        Haha no worries. What I suggested would take less than a minute to accomplish on a regular system. It's just one line of CSS code.

        1. eugbug profile image66
          eugbugposted 4 years agoin reply to this

          Would that produce a variable transparency layer over the whole image or can the coordinates of the corners be specified?

          1. samanthacubbison profile image80
            samanthacubbisonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

            Not sure, not my field. But I've sent the team your suggestions so we'll see. Our engineering staff is just so overwhelmed that it's hard to get any request that isn't life-threatening through, so I appreciate your patience.

          2. lobobrandon profile image65
            lobobrandonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

            I'm not sure I completely understand your question. Are you referring to the coordinates of the corners of the images themselves or their position on a page as a whole?

            My suggestion would add a transparency/filter to all images within a certain division with a particular class name or images with a particular class name. So the entire image would have the effect and the current white text would overlay on top of it just the way it is right now.

            1. eugbug profile image66
              eugbugposted 4 years agoin reply to this

              No I mean a layer that would be under text and whose transparency can be varied. It would only be necessary to alter the transparency of a rectangular section under the text. So the coordinates of the corners of the rectangle would need to be set. In Paint Shop Pro, I create a layer over the image background, draw rectangular panels on the layer, put text on top of the panels on a third layer and then vary the transparency of the selected panels to let only some of the background show through.

              1. lobobrandon profile image65
                lobobrandonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                That's also something that can be done. In this case you would have to add a background filter to the division bearing the text.

  3. Carb Diva profile image80
    Carb Divaposted 4 years ago

    Eugene - I've looked at your articles and it seems to me that the best way to format (or reformat) the Cover Photo is to place any text in the upper third of the image. Anything on the bottom half is going to be overlain by the titling inserted by Maven. (BTW you have some great articles!)

    1. eugbug profile image66
      eugbugposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks Carb, but that would be hard work. I have some title images like that but if Maven text is going to be on images, we're always going to be playing a game of Whack-A-Mole trying to move it to suit if the location of text changes. There's also the site category text at the top which has to be avoided. We could just leave text off images altogether.

      1. lobobrandon profile image65
        lobobrandonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

        "We could just leave text off images altogether."

        Don't overestimate the amount of traffic you get through the related articles section. You are almost certainly getting more traffic through social media shares of your informative image.

        Having an image with a description does not take away from the people clicking through on the related sections tab, but not having one would certainly reduce the chances of increased Pinterest traffic for instance.

        1. eugbug profile image66
          eugbugposted 4 years agoin reply to this

          Agreed, I was just sort of being devil's advocate on the matter smile

  4. eugbug profile image66
    eugbugposted 4 years ago

    There seem to be different formats for related stories on the various Maven sites. So presumably there are different templates available. For instance Horse and Rider does this, but I don't like the circles.

    https://hubstatic.com/15256276_f1024.jpg

    This is how it's done on Soundings, another Maven site. It's nice and simple.

    https://hubstatic.com/15256279_f1024.jpg

    1. lobobrandon profile image65
      lobobrandonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      I like the one on Soundings.

 
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