Why BLUE?

Wildcat Media

Well-known member
Here is a question I have been dying to ask for years now. After I ask it, many here will probably wonder the same thing.

Why are most default forum themes blue?

The default vBulletin is blue; vB4 is a dark blue. My first phpBB2 installation was like a turquoise blue with orange highlights, and phpBB3 is a softer variation on that. SMF's default themes are blue in both the 1.1 and 2.0 versions, and even a few other systems I have tried are some shade of blue.

So here we are in 2011, and even XenForo's default is blue. :D

I prefer warmer, "earthier" color themes in my forums--two of my more recent forums use sort of a variation on caramel colors as the default. In a few cases, I have based a forum color scheme on a theme for the site (such as, on a band's official site, using the color themes from the CD booklet to skin the site and the forum).

But...why always the blue? Is it supposed to be more eye friendly? More professional? The blues here on XF are a bit softer than others. I particularly don't like the default darker greyish-blue that vB3 and SMF 1.1 use.

What are your preferred forum color themes?
 
Here is a question I have been dying to ask for years now. After I ask it, many here will probably wonder the same thing.

Why are most default forum themes blue?

The default vBulletin is blue; vB4 is a dark blue. My first phpBB2 installation was like a turquoise blue with orange highlights, and phpBB3 is a softer variation on that. SMF's default themes are blue in both the 1.1 and 2.0 versions, and even a few other systems I have tried are some shade of blue.

So here we are in 2011, and even XenForo's default is blue. :D

I prefer warmer, "earthier" color themes in my forums--two of my more recent forums use sort of a variation on caramel colors as the default. In a few cases, I have based a forum color scheme on a theme for the site (such as, on a band's official site, using the color themes from the CD booklet to skin the site and the forum).

But...why always the blue? Is it supposed to be more eye friendly? More professional? The blues here on XF are a bit softer than others. I particularly don't like the default darker greyish-blue that vB3 and SMF 1.1 use.

What are your preferred forum color themes?
I'm so tired of blue I could scream, lol.
 
I think because it is one of those cold nature colors on which human eyes can stay longer with calm and least pressure. Think of a yellow/red combination theme which is irritating for me at least, which can be used for banners, highlighted text but not regular text.
 
Blue is the colour of communication, it is also the most popular colour in the world being generally pleasing to the majority of people. Hence why it is so widely used in Software UI.

However I am firmly with Peggy on this one, blue makes me want to scream!!! I am so sick to death of blue themes :p LOL

Mind you I have just had a run of 3 Custom Skin designs all in various shades of Grey and Red hahaha and I am looking forward to my next project which is earthy greens and browns just for a visual vacation! :D
 
Jamie, that's an interesting link, and a good color primer for theme developers. I've known about the color wheel, but haven't consciously tried to do much in the way of opposites (two colors) or three colors equally spaced around the color wheel. I was often having to design around what a client wants, or trying to match something existing.

I'm personally sick and tired of blue anything. But that is probably because blue was my mother's favorite color, and just about every room in the house was blue!

I guess my favorite color schemes would use what are called earth tones: very subtle browns, tans, caramel-like shades, etc., with ample highlights to add excitement (a bright highlight here, a bit of white there, etc.). With the forum I'm converting to XF, I'm try

BTW, I always keep the original blue color theme in place when modifying a forum. I have found that quite a few forum members actually like the default blue themes. I may set another theme as the forum's default, but still offer up the original.

I highly dislike black themes--they are too hard for me to read. (I do not see well in the dark.) However, keep this in mind: I had one member, a prolific poster, who actually requested (on another forum) that we install a black-background theme. He is diabetic, and darker-screened themes were much easier on his eyes. I never would have thought of that myself!
 
BTW, I always keep the original blue color theme in place when modifying a forum. I have found that quite a few forum members actually like the default blue themes. I may set another theme as the forum's default, but still offer up the original.
even though im not big on blue, ive always left the default theme available as well, and on some sites i will use it myself. a default theme is usually easy to read, while some custom jobs may not be.

I highly dislike black themes--they are too hard for me to read. (I do not see well in the dark.) However, keep this in mind: I had one member, a prolific poster, who actually requested (on another forum) that we install a black-background theme. He is diabetic, and darker-screened themes were much easier on his eyes. I never would have thought of that myself!
i always keep a dark theme available as well. there always seems to be a group of people that like a dark background with light text.
 
...it's blue because xf (the software itself) has developed artificial intelligence and is now capable of greater than basic emotional states and truly feels bad for being so damn sexy that it actually became a murderer by killing all other shortcomings we know as competing forum software. These transpiring events have led to the current emotional state of xf which wears its feelings on it's sleeve so it has taken on the color of a choking smurf. I suppose it could be wear black on release of RC1 to show it's mourning for the loss of all the other old code out there that it has put out to pasture.
 
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We live in the year 20xx. ;)
 
...it's blue because xf (the software itself) has developed artificial intelligence and is now capable of greater than basic emotional states and truly feels bad for being so damn sexy that it actually became a murderer by killing all other shortcomings we know as competing forum software. These transpiring events have led to the current emotional state of xf which wears its feelings on it's sleeve so it has taken on the color of a choking smurf. I suppose it could be wear black on release of RC1 to show it's mourning for the loss of all the other old code out there that it has put out to pasture.
You are crazy, you know that? lol
 
I won't lie, I blue unlike my girlfriend that tells me to stop using it on my websites. In terms of colors thou red and black often says keep away or gives a bad message unlike the calming reassuring color of blue.

http://www.sibagraphics.com/colour.php

Couple sites out there give their opinion on colors and thou I can't find the good one I was looking for, the link above does give a someone good depiction of the pros and cons of colors in websites.

Marketing? Because most people like Blue? I don't know the real reason, but here is a link I found:

http://www.precisionintermedia.com/color.html

This is another good site. Thou I don't think people prefer blue because it's a lot of peoples favorite color. It is a calming, professional and reassuring color. Hopefully a few new colors will be invented soon with the same effect. ^ ^
 
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