Subtle Patterns Bookmarklet

Dev tools

css preview bookmarklet

SHOW HN2013

347points
52comments
#24of 1,739 in 2013
Top 2%of 2013 by points

How HN took it

MixedNo clear lean

21 positive, 9 neutral or asking, 4 mixed, 7 critical, out of 41 comments about the project. Thread score +0.38.

Execution: 2 for, 4 againstIdea: 4 for, 0 againstDesign: 0 for, 2 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 1 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Fast and useful for picking backgrounds

    From 3 comments
    • SubtlePatterns has been a great resource for me -- especially when I'm trying to turn something around really quick -- and this bookmarklet makes the process of selecting a good…
      jawns on HN
    • This is really timely and really damn useful. The bookmarklet in particular is great. Nice work!
      damncabbage on HN
    • Sick! Picking SubtlePattern backgrounds has always been a tedious process, will be using this across all my stuff.
      ngokevin on HN
  • Simple and easy to use

    From 2 comments

Objections

  • Does not work on HTTPS sites due to insecure asset loading

    From 3 comments
    • The bookmarklet tries to load the script and possibly other assets (I didn't check) from an insecure domain. This will cause any sane browser (I'm using Chrome) to block those…
      jtokoph on HN
    • Looks useful, but unfortunately doesn't work on sites that require https.
      spellboots on HN
    • Awesome! Much needed. Though I'm seeing some requests blocked in Chrome (maybe AdBlock? or something else) when trying to use the bookmarklet on an HTTPS site.
      holic on HN
  • Does not work on some sites

    From 1 comment
    • Hi! This couldn't have come at a better time as this is something on my ToDo list. However the bookmarklet isn't working on my site. The URL is www.randomdailyness.com. Any…
      Nowyouknow on HN
  • Only applies to body; no custom selector

    From 2 comments
    • This is pretty amazing! If only I could apply this to something other than body for a certain site, I'd be set!
      technojunkie on HN
    • You rock. This is crazy useful for trying out styles on stuff i'm building. I'd echo one of the suggestions here, there needs to be a way to apply to non-body elements.
      justjohn on HN

Requests

  • Apply background to non-body elements or a CSS selector

    From 3 comments
    • This is pretty amazing! If only I could apply this to something other than body for a certain site, I'd be set!
      technojunkie on HN
    • That's pretty sweet. Being able to give it a css selector though, now that would rock!
      ollysb on HN
    • Really handy tool, thanks! I second the suggestion of allowing the background to be applied to another element.
      robbles on HN
  • Keyboard navigation and random button

    From 2 comments
    • I found it less usable than Subtle Patterns - reason is to switch to new background, I have to 'click', where as on Subtle Patterns I can scroll and see more backgrounds (given…
      BayAreaDev on HN
    • This is great! Any chance of a random button to join next/previous?
      mcintyre1994 on HN
  • Image manipulation such as blur or hue

    From 2 comments
    • Nice work Brad, This is really cool. Now I want to hook something like this up to an A/B testing framework and see if I can improve site metrics simply by swapping out the…
      bradsmithinc on HN
    • Yes, pixel noise can be annoying. But it can be easily removed with a couple of clicks in Photoshop. Even simply resizing the pattern to 50% (some of the patterns are HUGE, and…
      kijin on HN
  • Preload image to avoid flash

    From 1 comment
    • Thanks for sharing, this is cool. Is it possible to preload the image before applying the style? The flashes to what I think is the normal bg image and image loading progress…
      Bockit on HN

Questions

  • What is planned for the future, more patterns or customization

    From 1 comment
    • Cool man! What in store for the future? More Patterns? Customizable anything?
      jjm on HN

Alternatives named

  • Subtle Patterns website

    From 2 comments
    • I found it less usable than Subtle Patterns - reason is to switch to new background, I have to 'click', where as on Subtle Patterns I can scroll and see more backgrounds (given…
      BayAreaDev on HN
    • SubtlePatterns has been a great resource for me -- especially when I'm trying to turn something around really quick -- and this bookmarklet makes the process of selecting a good…
      jawns on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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