"How to Use Your Sig Graphic" & Sig FAQ

Discussion in 'Signatures' started by ARCHIVED-Seagoat, Apr 5, 2007.

  1. ARCHIVED-Seagoat Guest

    *** How to Use Your Sig Graphic ***
    Got problems with your new sig or need advanced help? See the next post, "Sig FAQ!"
    These are my instructions on how to use your signature graphic here on the EQ2 Official Forums or EQ2 Guild Forums. Please read them carefully, since omitting a step -- or not reading completely through all four steps -- might cause your sig to not be displayed properly, or at all!
    Important things to know:
    • The EQ2 Forums only give you 500 pixels across and 165 pixels down for your entire sig -- this includes images and text. Anything that extends beyond 500x165 will be chopped off!
    • You should try to keep your sig filesize as small as possible. Larger files mean longer page load times, which won't win you any friends.
    • It's the forum moderators' prerogative to zap any offensive, inappropriate, or overly distracting sigs.
    =====
    1. Before you can display a sig, you first have to obtain a sig!
    You can make it yourself with any one of various graphics programs, you can use a dynamic sig from the EQ2 Players website, or you can have someone here on the EQ2 Signature forum make a custom sig for you.
    If you're NOT using a dynamic sig from EQ2 Players:
    If you've made your own sig or had someone make one for you, you should save it to your hard drive in a place that's easy for you to find again. You can just save it in your "My Documents" folder, or you can create a special folder -- named "Sigs," for instance -- and save it there. Anywhere is fine as long as you remember where you saved it!
    =====
    2. Once you have a sig image, you need a URL.
    (If you're using an EQ2 Players sig, you already have a URL and can skip ahead to the next step.)
    This means you will have to upload your sig image to a website somewhere. There are a number of free image hosting websites that will allow you to "hotlink" to your image. Keep in mind that some private websites (like a guild site or a friend's site) might not allow hotlinking; if you want to use a private website to host your image, it's best to first make sure that hotlinking is allowed.
    Once your image has been uploaded, make a note of your image URL. It should look something like this:
    http://www.your-url.com/folder/imagename1.jpg
    If you type (or copy & paste) your URL into your browser's address bar, you should see a blank page with nothing but your image displayed. If you see anything else, you should double-check your URL.

    For example, this is one of my own image URLs:
    http://eq2.lunaclick.net/galleries/...e_1_500x100.jpg
    If you click on this link, you'll see that the browser address bar content is identical to this URL, and that there's nothing displayed but a single image.
    =====
    3. Next, you need some basic HTML code.
    The EQ2 Official Forums use HTML to display your sig, so if you want text formatting or images to show up in your sig, you need the proper code. Anything else will show up as just plain text.
    The most important HTML tag is the image tag, <img>. This tells the browser to display an image located at the URL you place inside the tag. There are some basic "attributes" to the image tag that you may find useful:
    • src
      • This is the image "source" -- your image URL. Required.
      • Usage: src="http://www.your-url.com/folder/imagename1.jpg"
    • width
      • The image width. Optional but recommended.
      • Usage: width="500"
    • height
      • The image height. Optional but recommended.
      • Usage: height="100"
    • border
      • The image border width. Optional but recommended. If set, its value should be "0."
      • Usage: border="0"
    • alt
      • The alternate image text, which is displayed as a placeholder until your image is loaded by your browser. Optional but recommended.
      • Usage: alt="This is my sig!"
    When you put your attributes inside the image tag, it doesn't matter what order they're in. Just make sure that your values are in "quotation marks" and that there's a space between each attribute, like this:
    <img src="http://www.your-url.com/folder/imagename1.jpg" border="0" width="500" height="100" alt="This is my sig!">
    The second HTML tag you might find yourself using is the anchor tag, <a>. You need to use this tag if you want your signature to be clickable; for instance, you may want it to link to your EQ2 Players character profile, or to your guild website. There are two attributes for the anchor tag that you MUST use:
    • href
      • This is the website URL that you want people who click on your sig to be taken to. Required.
      • Usage: href="http://www.your-guild-url.com/"
    • target
      • The target for the link. You should only ever use "_blank" or "_new" for the value. If you don't include a "target" attribute in your anchor tag, links in your sig will open where your sig is, in a tiny 500x165 space! Required on the EQ2 Official Forums; optional but recommended elsewhere.
      • Usage: target="_blank"
    Again, it doesn't matter what order the attributes go in, as long as their values are in "quotation marks" and there is a space separating them. With anchor tags, you MUST remember to "close" the tag to tell your browser that you don't want anything else in your sig linked; note the closing </a> tag after the image tag:
    <a href="http://www.your-guild-url.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.your-url.com/folder/imagename1.jpg" border="0" width="500" height="100" alt="This is my sig!"></a>
    =====
    4. Time to put it all together!
    Now we're ready to paste our code into our sig block.
    1. Go to the EQ2 Official Forums. If you're not already logged in, click the "Sign In / Change User" image at the very top of the page to login.
    2. Click the "My Profile" link near the top of the forum index page.
    3. In the second section, "General information about yourself," the last field is labeled "Signature."
    4. Type (or copy & paste) your sig code into the "Signature" field.
    5. Click the "Preview" button to see how your sig will look on the forums.
    6. When you're finshed editing your sig, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Submit" to save your changes.
    You don't have to post a zillion times to test your sig. In fact, you don't have to post at all! Changes to your sig affect every post you've ever made automatically. You can just view one of your old posts to see how your sig looks.
    If you really do want to test it, the "*** TEST YOUR SIG HERE! ***" thread here on the Signatures forum is the place to do it! Please don't start a new testing thread; it clutters the board.
    =============================================================
    Do you have questions or recommendations about the content of this post? Please share them by posting a reply here!
    =============================================================
  2. ARCHIVED-SapphireSniper Guest

    Can we get this thread stickied instead of the other How to post your sig thread? It's much more clear :)
  3. ARCHIVED-Seagoat Guest

    *** Sig FAQ ***
    Got questions about obtaining a sig and how to use it? See the first post, "How to Use Your Sig Graphic!"
    These are some of the most frequently asked questions about using and customizing your sig on these forums. If you have a question, it's probably answered here! If it's not answered here yet, please post a reply to this thread with your question; not only will you get an answer (or three, LOL), but it will probably be added to this FAQ so that others can benefit from it as well.
    =====
    Q: I made changes to my sig on my profile page, but I still see my old sig!!
    A: This forum software displays signatures in a unique way; each user has their own sig "page," which is displayed inside an inline frame ("iframe") in each of their forum posts. Just like any other website page you view, your browser will try to cache it in order to improve page load times when you visit the page again. This is totally expected and normal behavior, but it can be frustrating when your changes are saved on your profile, but they don't seem to be taking effect in the posts themselves. The truth is, most other people are seeing your updated sig, but because you view a lot of your own posts, your browser is naturally trying to save you some time by caching the page.
    To force your browser to pull the latest version of your sig page from the forum server, just press Ctrl+F5 when viewing a thread in which you've posted. (This is also called a "hard refresh.") You should see the new version of your sig after the first try, but some browsers are stubborn and require a second hard refresh.
    It does now state on the "My Profile" page that changes to your sig may take up to an hour to apply, but try the hard refresh first. Ninety-nine percent of the time, that's all you need to do and no waiting is required!
    =====
    Q: My sig isn't shown at all on some of my posts, but it's shown just fine on others. Why is that?
    A: Your sig will not be appended to your post if you use the "Quick Reply" function at the bottom of the page when you're viewing a thread, or if you unticked the "Append Signature" box when you were composing your reply. (You can edit your post and tick the "Append Signature" box to make it appear, but you will have to do this for every affected post you want changed.)
    Also make sure that you select "Yes" on the "My Profile" page if you want your signature appended by default to every post you make using the "Post Reply" button.
    =====
    Q: All I see in my sig is the URL to my image!!
    A: Follow the "How to Use Your Sig Graphic" steps in the first half of this post. You must use HTML code in order for your sig image to display properly! This forum does not recognize BBcode ("[ url ],"[ img ]," etc.), and it won't automagically detect that your URL points to an image and insert the code for you.
    If you followed the steps above and are still having problems, make sure that you copied & pasted the code correctly, or that you retyped everything out yourself. If any punctuation is missing because the entire section wasn't highlighted when you C&Ped it, chances are that your sig won't display properly!
    =====
    Q: I'm trying to format the text I typed in my sig with HTML, but only some of it worked! I see some HTML tags as plain text, and what's this "[I cannot control my vocabulary]" stuff?
    A: Only certain HTML tags are allowed to be used in your signature, and all others will show up as plain text. The allowed tags -- at least the ones that we know of so far -- are as follows:
    • <p> - paragraph; you can add alignment to this as needed:
      • <p align="center">
      • <p align="right">
      • <p align="left"> (default alignment)
    • <img> - image; all common attributes seem to be allowed: (for more info on how to use the <img> tag, see the first post, "How to Use Your Sig Graphic")
      • width
      • height
      • src (required)
      • border (recommended: border="0")
      • alt
    • <a> - anchor (link); all common attributes seem to be allowed: (for more info on how to use the <a> tag, see the first post, "How to Use Your Sig Graphic")
      • href (required)
      • target (required)
      • title
    • <b> - bold
    • <i> - italic
    • <u> - underline
    • <font> - font; change the font face or size...this tag is deprecated in the HTML standard, but it's the only way to change the font face and print size that I've found on these forums:
      • <font face="Times">
      • <font size="2">
      • <font color="red"> or <font color="#ff0000">
      • <font face="Arial" size="3">
    Here are some tags that are NOT allowed; they show up as regular text:
    • <div>
    • <span>
    • <center>
    • <hr>
    Apparently, the "style" attribute is on their "naughty words" list, since every time you try to type...
    <span style ="border-width: 1px;"> (mentally remove the space from between "style" and "="...)
    ...you wind up with:
    <span [I cannot control my vocabulary]"border-width: 1px;">
    Inline styles would be a great way to format our signature text, but until they're allowed, we'll have to settle for using the <font> tag, even though it's obsolete.
    =====
    Q: I only see a portion of my sig!!
    A: These forums only allow you an area 500 pixels across and 165 pixels down for your signature -- that means text and images must all fit inside that space. Anything that extends beyond those dimensions will be chopped off. You'll need to remove some text and/or resize your sig graphic in order to fit everything in the allotted area.
    =====
    Q: My sig is distorted (squashed, very tiny, or pixelated)!!
    A: There are two possible causes, and the two can even occur simultaneously. Here's a breakdown of possible scenarios:
    1. Your sig is squashed (too narrow either in height or width).
      • You need to check your HTML code. Your width or height is probably incorrect, resulting in the image displaying with the wrong dimensions.
      • Example code: <img src="http://eq2.lunaclick.net/galleries/mine/Riannon_Frostfyre_2_500x100.jpg" border="0" width="300" height="100" alt="The width is incorrect!">
      • Resulting image: [IMG]
    2. Your sig is very tiny.
      • You need to check your image URL. The URL you're using is probably to a thumbnail of your sig image. This happens most often when accidentally copying the thumbnail URL instead of the original image's URL from an image hosting website (such as Photobucket, ImageShack, Flickr, etc.).
      • Example code: <img src="http://s149.photobucket.com/albums/s62/eq2graphics/th_Riannon_Frostfyre_2_500x100.jpg" alt="The URL is incorrect!">
      • Resulting image: [IMG]
    3. Your sig is pixelated.
      • You need to check both your HTML and your image URL. You're probably using the URL to the thumbnail image but the dimensions of the original image.
      • Example code: <img src="http://s149.photobucket.com/albums/s62/eq2graphics/th_Riannon_Frostfyre_2_500x100.jpg" width="500" height="100" alt="This image is totally messed up!">
      • Resulting image: [IMG]
    =====
    Q: How do I get a picture of my character to show up on my EQ2 Players profile and signature?
    A: That image is called a paperdoll. You can take a paperdoll screenshot in-game by using Shift+PrintScreen.
    It's saved in your EverQuest II directory on your hard drive, and it's named "paperdoll_charactername.jpg" (unless you've turned off your JPEG format in your screenshot options; then it should be named "paperdoll_charactername.tga").
    The game will overwrite the paperdoll every time you press Shift+PrintScreen! This means you can only take one at a time, so look in your EQ2 folder to make sure you don't want to keep the one that's there before taking a new one.
    To make it appear on your EQ2 Players character profile and signature, you need to take the following steps:
    1. Go to the EQ2 Players website. (Sign in if you're not already.)
    2. Click "Characters" in the menu on the left .
    3. Click the character's name in the menu on the right of the character you want to upload a paperdoll for.
    4. In the tabs above your character profile, click the red "Admin" tab.
    5. Below the "Admin" tab, click "Manage Images." [This is NOT the same as "Manage Screenshots!"]
    6. Under the "Profile Image" header, click "Browse..." and locate your character's paperdoll image.
    7. Once the filename appears in the text box next to the "Browse..." button, click the "Upload to Server" button.
    Tada! You should now see your paperdoll image on your EQ2 Players character profile and signature!
    If you don't like the way paperdoll screenshots look (who does??), you can always request that a paperdoll be made for you by one of the artists on the Signatures forum. Any 170x305 image will work, really.
    =============================================================
    Do you have questions or recommendations about the content of this post? Please share them by posting a reply here!
    =============================================================
  4. ARCHIVED-BMouse Guest

    Hi Guys,

    Thanks for ya walkthrough for Sigs.....finally been able to create a sig of my own. The problem I have now when I put it into my Profile, is the dimensons shrink to 150 by 50 pixels. Yet when I created, save, and then uploaded the signature to my URL site it was 500 by 100 Pixels. Any Ideas on what I have done wrong, for it to shrink? Ended up taking it off my prfile until I am able to get size sorted out.

    hmmm might have to re-read Sig walkthrough again....anyways...any feedback is good.

    Cheers ears

    Kiwi
  5. ARCHIVED-BMouse Guest

    Hi again Guys,

    I have re-read the walkthrough. I noticed that you talked about width and Height. Mu URL Link dod not have that in it. So....When I copied, and pasted URL link into my Profile, I was then able to adjust the width/Height etc in profile. Great:).....but when I adjusted the Height/Width to 500 by 100 it appeared blurly as heck......haha....sigh, am getting there slowly. Might get it right....eventually.



    Kiwi
  6. ARCHIVED-SapphireSniper Guest

    Hi! We'd love to help you but you've removed your sig from your profile. Obviously because it's not working at the moment but we can't see the code and sig unless you put it back :)
  7. ARCHIVED-Seagoat Guest

    BMouse wrote:
    Keep in mind that the "width" and "height" parameters of your image are optional...if you leave them out, the universe won't implode. ;) I recommend using them when you can as a kindness, but the way these forums display signatures makes it an insignificant kindness.
    That being said, your width and height won't be provided anywhere in the URL; that's simply the physical location of your image on whatever server it's living on. If you're viewing your image with your browser, right-click on your image and select "Properties" from the context menu. You should see a "Dimensions" label with numbers to the right of it. Those are your image's width and height, respectively, measured in pixels. These are the values you need to use if you add the "width" and "height" parameters to your sig HTML code as I described above.
    If you're viewing the image on your hard drive, right-click and select "Properties," then click the "Summary" tab. The width and height of your image in pixels should be shown there.
    Hope this helps clear things up a bit for you. :)
  8. ARCHIVED-HighFructose Guest

    So this is what I have in my sig block: <a href="http://baneofchaos.org/" target="_blank"><img src="http://eq2players.station.sony.com/signature?characterId=641231205" border="0" width="500" height="100" alt="Yo"></a> and it shows up in the preview correctly, but not in the live forums... am I being dumb, or does the system just not like me?
  9. ARCHIVED-Seagoat Guest

    I'm seeing it just fine... Kudae, Bane of Chaos, Mistmoore, Fae, 41 Conjuror, KVD: 50, Quests: 172, NPC Kills: 3976
    Your browser will typically cache your sig page, so try hitting Ctrl+F5 to force a refresh. :)
  10. ARCHIVED-SapphireSniper Guest

    With the EQ2 Players sigs, I've noticed that they take awhile to show up here. If you're sure you have added it correctly to your profile, go away for 15 to 20 minutes then check. :)
  11. ARCHIVED-Seagoat Guest

    I've just udpated the OP and added a "Sig FAQ" that will hopefully help out a bit. Please let me know if you can think of anything that needs to be changed or added. :)
  12. ARCHIVED-Ramius613 Guest

    Just curious what the coding is to make your sig switch to different sigs you may have? I have a couple of sigs for different toons, and would like to show them off.
  13. ARCHIVED-Seagoat Guest

    Hehe, there's a link in my sig entitled "Random Sigs." ;)
  14. ARCHIVED-frostbytex Guest

    Hmm I think I followed in instructions and I want to use this as my sig

    <br><img src=http://eq2players.station.sony.com/signature?characterId=779923206 border="0">

    "<br><img src=http://eq2players.station.sony.com/signature?characterId=779923206 border="0">"

    but I seem to not be able to do so

    Any thoughts?

    Oh I can see it on My Profile in the preview area, just not on the forums, no matter how much I refresh
  15. ARCHIVED-Seagoat Guest

    Usually a refresh is all you need, but sometimes yes, the note in your profile about it taking up to an hour to show on the forums is true.
    Don't fret; they always show up eventually! ;)
  16. ARCHIVED-frostbytex Guest

    Just did thanks, must have been the delay ;(
  17. ARCHIVED-Dubyasdad Guest

    hello im the one that just sent you a pm but wanted to let you know im here as well.
  18. ARCHIVED-Seagoat Guest

    Updated the OP to reflect the new allowed sig size of 500x165.
  19. ARCHIVED-TwinklingEyes Guest

    Okay..I've had my sig posted here before. Only it has been awhile and I wanted to replace it. So, will someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong and why it doesn't show. I know it is something simple and I'm just missing it! Thanks!!
  20. ARCHIVED-Seagoat Guest

    You have to use HTML code, as outlined in the step-by-step process in this thread's first post. :)