Ballotpedia:Visual style guide

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Here's a collection of all the visual style standards we use here on Ballotpedia; consult our textual style guide for information on grammar and syntax. If you find an element that doesn't meet these standards, please take a minute to fix it.

Color

Tables and Headers

Background: #00008B

Text: "White"

Type	Title	Subject	Description	Result

Side templates

Background: Default

Darker Gray Background: #ECEBED

See example of Calendar template to the right

Ballot Calendar
January • February March • April • May June • July • August September • October November • December
Lawsuit news
Statute news
Initiative Gazette

Text

• Section titles should have the first letter capitalized and all others be lowercase (except proper nouns).
  • Ex. ==New section of importance== not ==New Section Of Importance==
• Page titles should be as lowercase as possible. This means:
  • The first letter should always be capitalized.
  • Anything other than proper names, such as the name of a person or ballot measure, should be lowercase.
  • State official titles should be uppercase for consistency (e.g. "California Governor")
  • See our naming conventions for standards on naming pages.
• The title of a government position, like "secretary of state," should only be capitalized when it precedes the name of the official, like Secretary of State Joe Smith. When referring to the title/position only, use lowercase. Note that this isn't the case for page titles, as mentioned above.

Code

• For consistency and ease of use, we're standardizing the following table code:

{| class="wikitable" style="background:none"
|-
! style="background-color:#00008B; color: white;" | Type
! style="background-color:#00008B; color: white;" | Title
! style="background-color:#00008B; color: white;" | Description
! style="background-color:#00008B; color: white;" | Status

|-
| [[Initiatives to the People (Washington)|IP]]
| [[Washington Lower Property Taxes Initiative I-1033 (2009)|Lower Property Taxes, I-1033]]
| Limit growth of certain state, county and city revenue 
| Certified for circulation

|}

This results in a table looking like this:

Type	Title	Description	Status
IP	Lower Property Taxes, I-1033	Limit growth of certain state, county and city revenue to annual inflation and population growth	Certified for circulation

Election results

For election results, use the template {{Outcome}}, which looks like this:

Proposition 13
Result		Votes	Percentage
Yes		4,280,689	64.8%
No		2,326,167	35.2%
Total votes		6,843,001	100.00%
Voter turnout		68.9%

The syntax looks like this:

{{Outcome
| title = Proposition 13
| yes = 4,280,689
| yespct = 64.8
| no = 2,326,167
| nopct = 35.2
| total = 6,843,001
| turnoutpct = 68.9
}}

The winning vote is automatically placed on top and bolded. Neat, huh?

Identity/Logo

• The Ballotpedia identity should only be used against a white background, unless the colors of the text are removed and set against a solid color background.
• Unless properly resized and specifically needed, the slogan should probably not accompany the identity. In other words, in most cases, opt to use the identity (i.e. "Ballotpedia") on its own.
• Always use the large version of the identity. The small version we created for the constraints of the wiki isn't fit for publication or other use.
• The dimensions must always be preserved. The identity should never be stretched in either direction to make it fit.
• If enlargement is needed, use the Photoshop file and increase the size of the text. Never, under any circumstance, take the largest version of the logo and simply make it bigger. This will pixelize your image, and the angels will weep for you.