-BTC-
(New tutorials coming out tonight ^_^)
You should also give the tools you use, because doing it on
SMF Preview editor probably the worst experience one would have
I did
(ie.
here) and yeah I'm using 'SMF Preview editor'
Lesson 11: "Advanced Character Saving Techniques part I" THE BIGGEST NIGHTMARE
SLEEPLESS NIGHTS & HOURS SPENT ON SQUEEZING THE CODE...
4K LIMIT
But don't give up! There are several ways to face the pure evil ^_^ of 4k limit.
(it's not so evil at all 
The character limit is not so noticeable in the signature designs for the Members and Full Members, where 4k characters is definitely enough.
The nightmare begins when designing the signature for Senior, Hero and Legendary members
Well ... it's not a real nightmare - it's more like a challenge
Let me share with you some character saving techniques which I'm using to fight with the demons of 4k limit
I will try to make a kind of a list so it's easy to read (hopefully).
Hint 1: You don't have to close every tag in a table column.You don't have to close each of the tags. You can replace it with another tag.
For example instead of closing the color tag you can just change the color to a different one with a new tag.
[center][table]
[tr]
[td]
[font=Monospace][size=20px][color=#3a75bf]█[color=#7b2d2d]█[color=#382877]█[color=#3a6921]█
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table][/center]
[center][table]
[tr]
[td]
[font=Monospace][size=20px][color=#3a75bf]█[/color][color=#7b2d2d]█[/color][color=#382877]█[/color][color=#3a6921]█[/color][/font][/size]
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table][/center]
Hint 2: You don't have to close any tags before closing the table column tag.You don't have to close the font, size etc. (any) tags before you close the table column tag.
[center][table]
[tr]
[td]
[font=Monospace][size=20px][color=#3a75bf]█
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table][/center]
[center][table]
[tr]
[td]
[font=Monospace][size=20px][color=#3a75bf]█[/color][/font][/size]
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table][/center]
Hint 3: Set the main color as the first one...While you're drawing something in BBCode - a logo etc. - try to determine the color that occurs most often and put its tag to the front.
When another element requires a different color, change the color and close the new color tag at the end of that element.
Next characters will be under the power of the first color
It's easier to show on the example ^_^:
[center][table]
[tr]
[td]
[font=Monospace][size=2px][color=#3a75bf]
█████████████████████████████████████
████████[color=#765aa2]█████████████████████[/color]████████
████████[color=#1d847f]█████████████████████[/color]████████
█████████████████████████████████████
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table][/center]
[center][table]
[tr]
[td]
[font=Monospace][size=2px][color=#3a75bf]
█████████████████████████████████████
████████[color=#765aa2]█████████████████████[color=#3a75bf]████████
████████[color=#1d847f]█████████████████████[color=#3a75bf]████████
█████████████████████████████████████
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table][/center]
[center][table]
[tr]
[td]
[font=Monospace][size=2px]
[color=#3a75bf]█████████████████████████████████████
[color=#3a75bf]████████[color=#765aa2]█████████████████████[color=#3a75bf]████████
[color=#3a75bf]████████[color=#1d847f]█████████████████████[color=#3a75bf]████████
[color=#3a75bf]█████████████████████████████████████
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table][/center]
Hint 4: Put the font face/font style tags to the front...When you're setting the font style and you want to use it until the table column ends put any styling tags to the front.
But not before the URL and (if) align (center/left/right) tags. I know it sounds a bit complicated....
So let me bring up the examples
[center][table]
[tr]
[td]
[center][url=https://bitcointalk.org][b][font=Arial][size=25px][color=#000]The example text.[/b]
And an another line of text.
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table][/center]
I just closed the 'Bold' tag and involuntarily with 'bold' tag closure other tags in range of 'bold' tag were closed.
But if we move them out of the 'bold' tag range they will retain their properties
[center][table]
[tr]
[td]
[center][url=https://bitcointalk.org][font=Arial][size=25px][b][color=#000]The example text.[/b]
And an another line of text.
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table][/center]
Same amount of characters as an example 1 - different results.
Too much writing to mention all possible situations in which you can use it in various ways to save some characters.
Let's focus on the most important thing to remember:By closing any tag inside the table column, you close all tags within the range of the closed tag.
[center][table]
[tr]
[td]
[center][font=Arial][size=15px][b][url=https://bitcointalk.org]A bit more advanced example[/b]
[url=https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1727100.80]The Second line - And another link but same font face/size without bold.
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table][/center]
[center][table]
[tr]
[td]
[center][b][url=https://bitcointalk.org][font=Arial][size=15px]A bit more advanced example[/url][/b]
[url=https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1727100.80][font=Arial][size=15px]The Second line - And another link but same font face/size without bold.
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table][/center]
[center][table]
[tr]
[td]
[center][b][font=Arial][url=https://bitcointalk.org][color=#12d][size=15px]A bit more [color=#000]ADVANCED[/color] example[/url]
[url=https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1727100.80][size=8px][color=#000]The Second line - [color=#12d]AND[/color] another link but same font face + bold
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table][/center]
[center][table]
[tr]
[td]
[center][url=https://bitcointalk.org][b][color=#12d][font=Arial][size=15px]A bit more [color=#000]ADVANCED[color=#12d] example[/url]
[url=https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1727100.80][b][font=Arial][size=8px][color=#000]The Second line - [color=#12d]AND[color=#000] another link but same font face + bold
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table][/center]
It is difficult to determine clearly how to use the range of closed tags for our benefits - everything depends on the design and needs - in different situations, we can use it in a variety of ways.
Hint 5: Align tags close other tags...[table]
[tr]
[td]
[color=blue][font=Verdana][size=16px]Test text example
[center]Test text example bottom
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
Hint 6: Replace transparent elements with a white space...I mentioned about it few months ago in a
post.
[center][table]
[tr]
[td]
[font=Monospace][size=10px]█████ █████
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table][/center]
[center][table]
[tr]
[td]
[font=Monospace][size=10px]█████[color=transparent]░░░░░░░░[/color]█████
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table][/center]
It's not all the techniques that can save the characters, but now I'm going to sleep.
Today I'll come back with another portion of lesson
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