drupal theme design

[samwich]

So I was delving into drupal, and I have a pretty good understanding as to how the database, blocks, modules, etc. work together, but I would like to know how to modify my own theme.

I'm not familiar with css and php, so I was wondering if anyone had a good recommendation for either a book or a website to get me into web layout.

My goals as of now are to add a header, have a three column content area, created custom navigation tab images, create space for a logo, be in control of block colors, be in control of fonts (sizes and colors) and have it dynamically scale to the size of the browser window.

I feel like I need to know how to split up images in photoshop and lay them out, as I have seen that done on various themes, so I would also like to know how to split them, and reconstruct them on a webpage.

If anyone has any tips, hints, books, or tutorials I would appreciate it.

-Sam

 

[werther]

Even though Drupal recently went to 6, Drupal 5 Themes is a good book and most if not all of the information and methods used work in 6. The book shows you how to modify existing themes and create a complete new theme. However, without CSS knowledge creating a new theme would be quite difficult.

 

[watcherFR]

RoopleTheme

Hi samwich,

Have you checked out Roople Theme I have just discovered this myself but I went through the docs and it looks promising. You can position blocks & nodes to your delight. It supports multiple color scheme including one of your own choosing.

As far as doing your own theme, check out the official docs : Drupal 5 themeing guide

But I would suggest starting from an existing them you like or looks close to what you want and just change it. Changing it is fairly easy:
* page layout -> page.tpl.php file
* node layout -> node.tpl.php file or node-[contentype].tpl.php file
* look -> the various CSS files for the modules you are using

That's what I did and I saved a lot of time on one of the sites I built using drupal. Although, I have to admit since I am not a designer, I am not sure how attractive it is. I might start a thread here to ask for feedback...

 

[samwich]

Thanks for the replies. After looking over this topic for the past few days, I have found numerous new resources. I think I have successfully re-configured the Zen theme to meet my needs. It wasn't that difficult to get my head around some basic CSS, and then see the relationship between xhtml and the php template.