Editing Design of xkcd.com

[[File:xkcd_website.png|thumb|right|250px|The four segments on [[xkcd|xkcd.com]]]]{{TOC}}The '''design of [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com]''' includes four white segments. These segments are separated by a thin black border and a light blue-gray background color. Here is a list of the changes that have been made:

The design has changed many times over the years, but mainly in the beginning. Prior to [https://web.archive.org/web/20041024201125/http://68.57.186.221:8080/ October 24, 2004], the website didn't mention the name "xkcd" and didn't include any comics. During that time, the site's message simply stated: "I don't use this page for much. It goes un-updated for a long time, and I don't really change the content, though I'm thinking of putting together a good links page. For now I just mostly use this to host pictures.". Before [https://web.archive.org/web/20051018051614/http://www.xkcd.com:80/ October 18, 2005], the website was redesigned to be used to host xkcd comics. Between [http://web.archive.org/web/20060706040359/http://xkcd.com:80/ July 6, 2006] and [http://web.archive.org/web/20060710090528/http://www.xkcd.com:80/ July 10, 2006], the design of the website changed dramatically to one very similar to the current one.

==Links==
[[File:xkcd_links.png|right|150px]]
:''For more information, visit the [[Links|main article]].''

The first segment is at the top left of the page, and it contains links to navigate around on [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com] and his social accounts. There have been multiple changes to the links over the course of the site's history, with the last one being made in 2023. It states:
<b><!-- EDITOR NOTE: If the links change, update it bot below AND on [[Links]] and make a note on [[Links]] with the earliest web archive link of it.-->
:[https://xkcd.com/archive/ Archive]<br>
:[https://what-if.xkcd.com/ What If?]<br>
:[https://xkcd.com/about/ About]<br>
:[https://xkcd.com/atom.xml Feed]•[https://xkcd.com/newsletter/ Email]<br>
:[https://twitter.com/xkcd/ TW]•[https://www.facebook.com/TheXKCD/ FB]•[https://www.instagram.com/xkcd/ IG]<br>
:[https://xkcd.com/books/ -Books-]<br>
:[https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/ What If? 2]<br>
:[https://xkcd.com/what-if/ WI?]•[https://xkcd.com/thing-explainer/ TE]•[https://xkcd.com/how-to/ HT]<br>
</b>

==Header==
[[File:xkcd_header.png|right|150px]]
The second segment is the header, which contains the logo, the [[Tagline|tagline]], and the [[Header text|header text]]. The header is wider than the first segment but has the same height. The xkcd logo is positioned on the upper left corner and serves as a clickable link to the front page. The image used in the logo of xkcd is from the first panel of [[77: Bored with the Internet]], showing only the characters and the chair and the desk with a now old fashioned computer screen. The color of the text in the logo is a shade of grey/gray(spelling varies with location), with a hex value of #6e7b91, and an rgba value of (110,123,145,255).

===Tagline===
:''For more information, visit the [[Tagline|main article]].''

Next to the logo is the tagline, a short text that appears regardless of which comic is being viewed. There have been eight taglines displayed over the course of the site's history, with the current one being added in 2006. It states:

:A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

===Header text===
:''For more information, visit the [[Header text|main article]].''

The header text is updated whenever Randall has news to share. After the novelty of the news ends, the page usually goes back to its default header text, which states:

:xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

==Comic==
[[File:xkcd_comic.png|right|150px]]

This is the main segment where the comics are. On the front page, the newest comic will always be displayed. This is therefore changing, typically three times a week, but these changes are not considered a change to the front-page design. This segment is as broad as the two above together and as broad as the one below it has a rectangular shape most of the time but shapes itself after the [[482: Height|height]] of the comic. So, it can be very short [https://www.xkcd.com/1123/ like here] [[1123: The Universal Label]] and very long for instances [https://www.xkcd.com/1732/ like here] with [[1732: Earth Temperature Timeline]].

*This is where the comics are displayed.
**Above the comic is the title, in large bold letters. 
***As always Randall uses a small caps font. By copying text to another program without preserving the font format, it shows both capital and lowercase characters.
**Below the title and above the main comic image there is a row of buttons. These are fairly standard:
***The two outermost "to the limit" arrows, <nowiki>|<</nowiki> or <nowiki>>|</nowiki>, take the user to either the very first or the most recent comic.
***Next to those are the ''< Previous'' and the ''Next >'' buttons, taking the user to the two adjacent comics to the one currently displayed.
***In the middle is the ''Random'' button comic which chooses a random comic. 
****If the user is on the main page, the two rightwards-pointing buttons will not do anything as there are no newer comics than the one displayed already.
****Similarly, explicitly visiting the first or latest comics removes the utility of the respective directional choices.
**These buttons are repeated below the comic. For smaller comics this is not so relevant, but for taller comics this ensures the buttons are at hand both before and after any scrolling down that may have heen required.
**Finally, beneath the second row of bottoms there are two links.
***The first is a permalink to the current comic displayed on the page.
***Permalink is also used in some of xkcd's interactive comics see the [[1350:_Lorenz#Permalink|permalink section]] on [[1350: Lorenz]].
***The link is just<!--check for exceptions? --> the xkcd server address with the number of the comic. So, for the comic [[1791: Telescopes: Refractor vs Reflector]], the link would just be:
****https://www.xkcd.com/1791/
***The other link is:
****The image URL (for hotlinking/embedding):
****http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/telescopes_refractor_vs_reflector.png 
***Here the link is also on xkcd, but indicates that it is stored within a comics-specific logical subdirectory of the server, with individual filenames often in line with the comic title (though there are exceptions, especially where title clashes occur or the visible comic is actually a dynamic/composite rendering) plus the extension for the image-type, which is often .png but may be .gif or otherwise in some instances.

==Bottom segment==
[[File:xkcd_bottom.png|right|150px]]

=== Footer comics ===
:''For more information, visit the [[Footer comics|main article]].''

The footer comics are likely selected for representing the topics covered on xkcd. There have been five changes to the footer comics over the course of the site's history, with the last one being added in 2019. They are:

{| class="wikitable"
|+
|[[150: Grownups]]
|[[730: Circuit Diagram]]
|[[162: Angular Momentum]]
|[[688: Self-Description]]
|[[556: Alternative Energy Revolution]]
|-
|colspan="5" style="text-align:center;"| [[1732: Earth Temperature Timeline]]
|}

===Feeds===
Below the footer comics, there are three feeds links. These links consist of a RSS feed, an Atom feed, and, starting from [https://web.archive.org/web/20190206060904/https://xkcd.com/ February 6, 2019], a subscription link for receiving news via email. On [https://web.archive.org/web/20190611031920/https://xkcd.com/ June 11, 2019], the last two links were also added to the [[Links|links]] at the top for easier access. They are:

:[https://xkcd.com/rss.xml RSS Feed] - [https://xkcd.com/atom.xml Atom Feed] - [https://xkcd.com/newsletter/ Email]

===Comics I enjoy===
Beneath the two feeds there is a list of Randall's favorite webcomics with links:

:Comics I enjoy:
:[http://threewordphrase.com/ Three Word Phrase]
:[https://www.smbc-comics.com/ SMBC],
:[https://www.qwantz.com/ Dinosaur Comics],
:[https://oglaf.com/ Oglaf] (nsfw),
:[https://www.asofterworld.com/ A Softer World],
:[https://buttersafe.com/ Buttersafe],
:[https://pbfcomics.com/ Perry Bible Fellowship],
:[https://questionablecontent.net/ Questionable Content],
:[http://www.buttercupfestival.com/ Buttercup Festival],
:[https://www.homestuck.com/ Homestuck],
:[https://www.jspowerhour.com/ Junior Scientist Power Hour]

===Other things===
Beneath the "Comics I enjoy" section, there is another section of links to external sites. Since [https://web.archive.org/web/20190226192426/https://xkcd.com/ February 26, 2019] there have been three links. They are:

:Other things:
:[https://medium.com/civic-tech-thoughts-from-joshdata/so-you-want-to-reform-democracy-7f3b1ef10597 Tips on technology and government],
:[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/climate/what-is-climate-change.html Climate FAQ], [https://twitter.com/KHayhoe Katharine Hayhoe]

On [http://web.archive.org/web/20170321030609/https://xkcd.com/ March 21, 2017], this section was added to [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com] for the first time. It stated:

:[http://womenalsoknowstuff.com/ Women Also Know Stuff], [https://techsolidarity.org/ Tech Solidarity]

On [http://web.archive.org/web/20170715021703/https://xkcd.com/ July 15, 2017], the third link was added:
:Other things:
:[http://womenalsoknowstuff.com/ Women Also Know Stuff], [https://techsolidarity.org/ Tech Solidarity], [https://medium.com/civic-tech-thoughts-from-joshdata/so-you-want-to-reform-democracy-7f3b1ef10597 Tips on technology and government]

===Warning===
:''For more information, visit the [[Warning|main article]].''

The warning on xkcd was originally added to the site in 2006, but it was removed in 2016. It stated:

:Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).

===Footnote===
:''For more information, visit the [[Footnote|main article]].''

The footnote on xkcd is written in a very tiny font, which makes it very hard to read without zooming in. There have been two major footnotes displayed over the course of the site's history, with the current one being added in 2016. It states:

<small><b><i>
:xkcd.com is best viewed with Netscape Navigator 4.0 or below on a Pentium 3±1 emulated in Javascript on an Apple IIGS
:at a screen resolution of 1024x1. Please enable your ad blockers, disable high-heat drying, and remove your device
:from Airplane Mode and set it to Boat Mode. For security reasons, please leave caps lock on while browsing.
</i></b></small>

===License and copyright===
Randall allows people to use his comics for free as long as they do not make money on them and as long as they credit him with the work. 
There are two notes:

:This work is licensed under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License].

:This means you're free to copy and share these comics (but not to sell them). [https://xkcd.com/license.html More details].

"More details" is a link to [https://xkcd.com/license.html xkcd.com/license.html], which expands on what people are and are not allowed to do. It states:

:This work is licensed under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License].

:This means that you are '''free''' to copy and reuse any of my drawings (noncommercially) as long as you tell people where they're from.

:That is, you don't need my permission to post these pictures on your website (and hotlinking with <img> is fine); just include a link back to this page. Or you can make Livejournal icons from them, but -- if possible -- put xkcd.com in the comment field. You can use them freely (with some kind of link) in not-for-profit publications, and I'm also okay with people reprinting occasional comics (with clear attribution) in publications like books, blogs, newsletters, and presentations. If you're not sure whether your use is noncommercial, feel free to [mailto:licensing@xkcd.com email me] and ask (if you're not sure, it's probably okay).

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