H2g2 - Skins

Skins

h2g2 has different skins that may be used to view the site. Users can set a preference to view the site in one or other of the skins when they are logged in.

• Classic Goo was the first skin. It has large white text on a blue background.
• Alabaster was the second skin. It features small black text on a white background with chunks of orange and green.
• Brunel was for a long time the default format for visitors who are not logged in. It has black text on white backgrounds. The border colours vary depending on what type of Entry is being viewed, and can be determined by creators of Entries by using special GuideML tags; the h2g2 Front Page in Brunel changes its colour scheme with its content.
• Plain was designed for Digibox, Palm and Pocket PC users who cannot load the graphic-laden alabaster, brunel or classic skins. It consists of a white background with minimal graphics.
• pda is intended for mobile phones and pdas on the mobile internet. This skin contains the Edited Guide, the Search function and a page noting that the BBC does not charge for use of the mobile site, but phone companies may do. The skin is graphic-light and articles are cut into sections at headers so that only the desired content may be downloaded. The pda skin does not allow registration with the site, and does not contain unedited entries or conversation fora.
• Barlesque was released as part of the site redesign in early 2011. It was part of the project to standardize all BBC pages. Not strictly a skin, it was not popular and could never be finished during h2g2's time with the BBC. It was re-released as 'Pliny' in 2012. Improvements and bug fixes are still being made and further technical development of h2g2 is planned.