Blue Web 2 buttons for default vB skin
 

I've been looking for some buttons to replace the slightly ugly buttons that come with the default vbulletin skin. I wanted them to be roughly the same size as the originals.

Inspired by demgel's excellent black glossy buttons, and using the Silk icons, I made these for my own site.

The zip file contains a number of sets, with popular mattes. The Photoshop PSD file is also included.

Installation:

Simply upload the files to your forum/images/buttons and forum/images/misc directories. To uninstall, copy the originals back. :)

For standard vb colours, use different sets according to whether you use postbit legacy (when looking at a thread, the users info is on the left of the post) or the new postbit (where the posters info is above the post) and use the appropriate button set.

To use the PSD enclosed:

1. Make your changes.
2. Make sure there is no background selected.
3. Save for web and devices.
4. Select individual slices and set the matte colour (background you are going to have behind the buttons).
5. When you press Save, choose "All user slices".

The font used is Myriad Web Pro (not included in PS, but is included in Lightroom and Lightroom trials, if they still do them). PS will happily replace this font with Myriad Pro, which is very close.

I'm no designer, but I hope they are useful.

They can be seen in action here.

Standard colours:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2007/09/42.gifhttps://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2007/09/43.gif

Black:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2007/09/44.gifhttps://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2007/09/45.gif

Red by request:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2007/09/46.gifhttps://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2007/09/47.gif

Postbit legacy:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2007/09/48.gif

Postbit (new):

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2007/09/49.gif

Versions:

1.0 My first thoughts
1.1 Added some mattes
1.2 More mattes
1.3 Reduced the size of the small round buttons, added a black button set
1.4 Made "postbit legacy" and "postbit new" versions
1.5 Added buttons: thanks, px, reputation, included PSD in main file, small cosmetic changes to the buttons, added black buttons to the PSD.
1.6 Made some changes to the appearance (get rid of the softness at the bottom of some buttons and reduced the inner glow to look better on black), added some buttons and included some requested colours.

These are very nice looking buttons, and wanted to try them, but they don't download properly. They doownload as a .efw file instead of a .zip file.

Don't know why the download isn't working (works fine here - it's just an attachment on vb.org)... but PM sent anyway.

I marked as installed. Do you think I could have the PSD file for them?

When it's tidied up I'll put it up here.

Thanks, I appreciate it!

I have update the file to include sets with the following mattes:

White
Black
f5f5ff (pale blue standard vb post colour)
000066 (by request - dark blue)
Vb default (mix of pale blue, slightly darker blue and white to suit the default theme)

Thanks for taking care of this, but it's strange. I still keep getting that weird .efw extension when I try to download from here.

I like them, but maybe they should be more small.

Nice work, well done.

That's your CA antivirus making a mess of your ability to download. You can rename the .efw extension to .zip and it should work.

I wanted the main buttons to be the same size and the original ones, since I like them to be obvious. But yes, maybe the round ones need reducing a bit. Back to PS... ;)

Strange. CA AntiVirus never acted like this before. Oh, well. Thanks for the headsup on that Pottsy. Do you think you could make a black/dark version of these buttons to match black skins? Oh, I think it also would be better if the big buttons were the size of the buttons on this board. :D

I dont see how these are web 2.0?

I reduced the small round ones slightly, and I think you are correct!

Updated the version, and added a black set for good measure.

perfect thanks :)

I would still like the PSD for these. It would be a lot easier to customize them for my board without having to ask you to do so much.

Yeah would be nice to have it or would you like to translate all buttons to german, Pottsy? :D

Yikes!! :eek:

File now uploaded. Please do not redistribute it - it's for use on your own site only.

Thanks.

Thank you for sharing and of course I won't redistribute it :)

Thank you Pottsy :)

Would you mind including the PSD file for the black buttons as well? I also have another quetion. Could you give me some tips on how to save the individual buttons? I keep running into issues with the backgrounds.

I didn't save the file for the black buttons. Simply double click on the "f" on a button layer, and change the gradient (in gradient overlay) from a blue one to a dark one, by changing the two end colours. Then copy and paste the layer style onto all the other button layers.

To save the images, use "Save for web and devices". To change the matte, firstly select all the button images (slices) with the slice select tool (you need to hold Shift to multi-select) and then change the matte colour. Press save, make sure that at the bottom of the filename box only "User slices" is selected, and hey presto, a pile of lovely gifs.

This looks good. But in the vb default scheme matte report.gif infraction.gif ip.gif have a white border around them, while they are placed upon a blue background. Can you please create some with a default blue background?

wow !

very nice buttons

marked as installed :)

I've just checked the file attached to the thread and all looks ok. The gifs are all transparent, but it's the blend that just affects a couple of pixels. In the "white" folder, they all blend to white, but the round buttons including the ones you mention all blend to e1e4f2, and then have a transparent background. Make sure you haven't picked from the "white" folder by mistake!

It should all look exactly as per my screenshot - that shot was taken using the default theme and the graphics from the "vb default" folder in the download.

I have used the default scheme matte.
But your postbit is not default as your report button, etc is on the left on a light blue background, instead of on the right top of each post on a dark blue background.

I'm sorry - I didn't think of the new postbit!

New version added (1.4) with both postbit (new) and postbit legacy.

Thanks! Thats working (and looking) great.

I am missing the following buttons:
reputation.gif
px.gif (This comes from Paul M's Proxy to real IP hack )

Could you please add these?

Hey, Pottsy! Check out your buttons that I customized in action! Be sure to look at both skins too!

http://cuestaverdeforums.net/showthr...leid=8#post122

Updated to include buttons for those jobs.

Cool!

I applaud your excellent support!

And yes; Cuesta Verde Forums look very good.

I have a request which is not directly related to the buttons, but which would look awesome if available for use with the Blue web 2.0 buttons: I would love to have tab buttons which match the Blue web 2.0 buttons.

Bit tricky, because I like tabs to be pale.

Something like this?

Attachment 69541

The colours used are new colours, as they are not to be seen anywhere in default vb. I think that if at least some of the colours used would be standard colours, the tabs would look more in place.

Quite tricky to do, when you start blending and playing with transparency. Here's another go, but may not be final... ;)

Attachment 69543

Is there a special command I would need to save these individual buttons as PNGs?

In Photoshop, Save for web (and devices), and just use the PNG option.

Attached the german version of the blue buttons for standard background and (dark) blue background.

Other version will follow as I have the time for it.

Looking better. Can you add another go?

Heya, Pottsy. How did you go about resizing the individual buttons? I would like the large text buttons a littler smaller than they are now.

To resize, I just started again! You could just use Edit, Transform, Scale though.

These tabs are made from vb colours, and are the ones I have settled on for my forum:

Attachment 69673