New Fantasy Football Signatures and DB Updates

FFL Signatures
In time for the coming NFL season (and it's counterpart the Fantasy Football League season) I have reworked the normal forum signatures available into a new section dedicated to Fantasy Football. These are slightly shorter and wider than the normal ones and they use a standard 8 jerseys rather than the maximum 7 used on the regular ones.

Each signature is 80px high and 600px wide, and created as a transparent .PNG file. There are currently more than 20 different backgrounds available in addition to the default version. Some include the words Fantasty Football, some don't, and a few label your players' positions.

As with the original signature maker there is a specific "collect jerseys" option that will start a session and allow you to create your signature while browsing and searching the database. When you've collected all 8 of your players simply hit the "Ready" button and you'll be taken back to the creation page.

You can find the FFL Signatures page here.

Site Updates
BR7 has, as of today, finished his massive undertaking of redoing, fixing and adding jerseys for the entire NFL. I'm not sure what the total was but I'm going to guess in the area of 4-5,000 jerseys in total. This includes the alternates as well as white jerseys originally missing from the database, as well as a number of throwbacks and anniversary uniforms.

We are planning on having all of the new players, trades and roster additions up before the season starts (hopefully). The deadline to cut teams down to 53 players is Saturday the 30th. Which will give us about a week to get them up and on the site. If we miss anyone feel free to let us know in the forum.


As per a previous post, all of the current NHL jersey fronts are know in the database. In addition arock12 has put a big dent into getting MLB jersey fronts onto the site. So far he's added nearly 100 including current and older jerseys.

The jersey fronts are located in the T-shirts/Jersey Fronts section of the site and specifically under the category of Jerseys located here. In addition searching for a team name will bring them up on the regular section of the site with the normal jersey backs. These can be used with signatures, avatars and wallpapers.

This is still a relatively new part of the site so I'm trying to improve upon the functionality of the search and display parts.

Other Stuff
The forum has had a couple small changes made. There is now an announcements section for news etc, the ranks images have been updated, jersey counts have been fixed, as well a couple of other things.

I am finally getting some work done on the tutorials that have been put aside for months. To start with will be some overall "best practice" type posts and overviews. Followed by some more detailed instructions in regards to the jerseys themselves. For now these will probably be done for Illustrator, with additional programs coming later.

Hats...

2008-09 NHL Third Jersey Mock-Up Images Part 1

The much rumored return of the "third jersey" seems ready to become fact for the 2008-2009 NHL season. Images abound on the net featuring cell phone images, cryptic color changes and actual statements from teams. However the best information yet dropped on the hockey world (or at least those that take an interest in what the player's wear) has come from HockeyBuzz's Howard Berger who recently posted vivid descriptions of images he has seen of both the front and backs of the jerseys.


The complete post by Berger can be read here.


In the spirit of this site I've done my best to create images based on the descriptions given, some are more informative than others. The following are my interpretations accompanied by the text from HockeyBuzz...as well as some thoughts. This is part 1, the rest will come in a follow up post.


Atlanta Thrashers

"The club will introduce a dark red jersey with the word THRASHERS on the front, just above the player's uniform number, which will appear on both sides of the design. A broad white stripe will adorn each arm of the jersey with a dark red number in the stripe. A broad white-and-dark blue stripe will run down the sides of the jersey."
- I could be way off here, who knows if they'll be shoulder patches and the number may use either yellow, dark blue or even light blue edges. Anyway you look at it this is a departure from the Thrashers norm, and could actually end up looking pretty good on the ice...except for maybe that thing about the numbers appearing on both sides of the front.


Boston Bruins

"The Bruins will unveil an all black jersey with the club’s alternate logo on the front – a black bear with the word “BRUINS’ above it in a semi-circle. Two gold stripes will appear on the arms, with gold numbering above the stripes and on the back. "
- Video and images of these surfaced a couple of months ago, whether they are what the team will actually wear remains to be seen. The fact that these are "all black" really brings nothing to the table, what does is the use of the teams new alternate logo. It will be interesting to see how these turn out...and whether or not Boston straightens out their issues with the text and numbers which seem to vary between 2 and 3 different colors. If these are in fact simply "gold", then we might have something that really looks good. Nice to see a team go with the less is more option...something the Bruins did not do with the Pooh Bear jerseys.


Buffalo Sabres

"The Sabres will bring back their original road jersey the blue design with the round cross-sword logo on the front, and the three gold stripes on the arms and the bottom of the jersey. It's the uniform the Sabres first GM/coach, George (Punch) Imlach, requested; a design similar to that which Imlach's Maple Leafs had from the 1967 playoffs through 1969-70. And, it's the jersey Buffalo wore during road games from the beginning of the franchise in 1970-71 to the end of the 1995-96 season. Beginning in 1996-97, the Sabres switched to a black, red and white uniform, and completely redesigned their logo. Another redesign occurred prior to the 2006-07 campaign, with the team returning to its blue and gold color scheme."
- According to Disengaged in the forum, these will be the same blue as the current set and feature silver accents. I'm all for this, I'm not a fan of the overly complicated Buffaslug jerseys, I think you'll see sales of these probably go through the roof - which is what Reebok and the NHL are probably banking on. You'll also see more of that trend in the rest of the teams listed here.


Carolina Hurricanes

"The Hurricanes will introduce a black third jersey, with red and white trim � different than their customary red home uniform with the black and white trim. Each arm will sport red and white angular stripes. The bottom of the jersey will feature a narrow white stripe and a thicker red one. In between, will be 10 white stars. The club's red logo on the uniform front is placed within a white triangle, presumably to honor the famed Research Triangle that dominates the Raleigh-Durham area."
- It was inevitable, the Hurricanes have never had a third jersey and now that they do it is...black. I was hoping for the grey color they have to work with, but what can you do. This image could be way off, it will depend on how much of a departure from their standard look it actually is. As for the ten stars - no they were not the 10th state admitted to the Union (they were the 12th). They were however the 10th state to secede from the Union. They are now the 10th most populous state. Maybe it's because they just finished their 10th season in the NHL. Who knows, it's a round number and maybe just looked good.


Chicago Blackhawks

"The Blackhawks will return to the predominantly black third jersey they have worn in recent years. A white stripe flanked by two red stripes will appear on each arm, and at the bottom of the jersey. A wide red stripe is featured at the tip of each arm. The traditional Blackhawks Indian-head logo appears, as usual, on the front."
- No surprises here...at all. These have always been popular and will no doubt continue to be even in Edge form. It would have been great if they had gone with one of their older jerseys, even the one they wore during the 75th anniversary season, but I don't think these will receive any negative responses from fans of the team.


Dallas Stars

"The Stars third jersey is simple" a white uniform with the word DALLAS crowned on the front, atop the jersey number, which appears on both sides. Parallel dark-green and black stripes appear on each arm. There are no stripes at the bottom of the jersey."
- Not sure on the shoulder patches, or the numbers here. I would assume black with green trim. Yes, I can hear you Texas...boring. These are a little (say a lot) too much like the current Stars' away jerseys. Why they opted to do this rather than utilize more of the green is anybody's guess. One has to conclude that they tried a number of different things before coming to the conclusion that this looked the best. I hope that when these are officially unveiled that there is something interesting about them that was some how overlooked, as they stand I don't understand the reason for a third jersey if all you do is exchange one color.


Edmonton Oilers

"The Oilers are going back to their glory days with the predominantly blue jersey Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier et al wore on the road while winning five Stanley Cup titles between 1984 and 1990. Orange shoulder piping will re-appear, along with a broad orange stripe at the tip of each arm. Two white stripes flanking an orange stripe are on the arms and near the bottom of the jersey. The original round Oilers logo, with the orange oil drip and blue team name, is on the front."
- Beats the living pulp out of what they are wearing as their main jerseys. Depending on how these look with the new fabrics they could be really sharp. No doubt people will buy more of these than the current dark blues.


New York Islanders

"The Isles are going back to their original road jersey from 1972-73, when they joined the NHL along with the Atlanta Flames. It is a royal-blue base, with broad orange and white stripes on the arms and at the bottom of the jersey. The uniform numbers as they appeared during the club's inaugural season are orange with white trim. Player names will also be orange. The Islanders switched to white jersey numbers after their dreadful first year in the league; when they compiled a 12-60-6 record worst, to that point, in NHL history."
- It is interesting that the Islanders chose these, rather than the almighty Cup era jerseys, but they did wear these once before a couple of years ago. The team's 40th anniversary is also coming up in a couple years and this could be a nod back to those. The one thing that could completely kill these is if the Isles finish dead last in the league this year...


Philadelphia Flyers

"The Flyers are also going for tradition, bringing back the predominantly orange jersey the club wore at home when it joined the NHL in 1967-68. White shoulder piping will again run the length of each arm, with orange numbers trimmed in black. A large black stripe is affixed to the tip of each arm. A broad white stripe adorns the bottom of the uniform. Number on the back is white. The Flyers stylized P black logo with the orange dot is on the front."
- (Speaking as a Flyers fan) I love these, and if I ever buy a Flyers jersey it will be this one and not one of the other two. I am part of the "Flyers should be orange" group, and the return of a historic jersey is exactly what one could have hoped for. Images of these have been tossed around the net that show these, and they have been both confirmed and denied. Why the white nameplate? Originally many teams only had names on their home jerseys, however televised games during the 70's would occasionally have both teams wearing the player's names. A lack of orange nameplates meant that the Flyers used the white ones they had. It could have been terrible, but it actually looked good. (At least that's the way I heard it...)


Phoenix Coyotes

"The Coyotes will unveil an all-new design a predominantly black jersey with a leaping desert-red coyote as the front logo. A large, dark-red stripe will run down the side of the jersey, broadening at the base. A similar dark-red stripe, only smaller, is affixed to the latter half of the arm, beyond the white numbers."
- If you want to see the leaping Coyote just look around the web... I'm not sure how close these will be to what comes out. I would personally want to put red around the numbers, but since Phoenix is one of the few teams that use no trim, maybe it's better to stick with that. I'm guessing the Arizona state patch will still be present, and not the Coyotes primary logo...since that would by coyote overkill.


Pittsburgh Penguins

"Kudos to the Penguins for staying with the jersey the club wore during the Outdoor Classic in Buffalo last Jan. 1st. It's a replica of the home jersey the Penguins wore starting in 1968-69, their second year in the NHL: Predominantly light-blue in color, with broad white stripes trimmed in dark blue on the sleeves and uniform base. A large, dark-blue stripe is at the tip of each arm. The neckline is dark-blue with the lace-up feature. The dark-blue, circular Penguins logo is on the front."
- No surprises here, and I think the Penguins have made a smart decision by adding these as a third jersey. They looked great during the Winter Classic and were obviously popular. If you haven't seen enough people wearing the Crosby version of one of these, prepare yourself for the onslaught of Malkin ones this fall.



Look for LA, Ottawa, San Jose, St. Louis, Tampa Bay and Vancouver in the next post. And maybe some thoughts on the 4 jerseys Montreal is planning on wearing next season...

Part 2 can be found here.

iPhone and iPod Touch Wallpaper Maker

I added a new creation tool for use with the jersey database over on JerseyDatabase.com for creating custom wallpapers for the iPod Touch and iPhone. It works in the same fashion the avatar and signature makers work, simply select the background you want to use and enter the player ID for the jersey you want to use and hit the Generate My Wallpaper button.

The wallpapers are generated at 320 x 480 pixels, which is the standard size both devices use. Once your image has been created and displayed you can simply save it to the desktop and import via iTunes, or if you are using your iPhone or iPod to view the page you can press and hold them image and you'll be given the option to save it to the device. From there you can directly set it by going to Settings/General/Walllpaper.

At the moment there are 14 different backgrounds to choose from, but I am planning to add more in the not too distant future. If anyone is interested in making some feel free to contact me and I can send you a template.

You can find the page for creating these here.

The Jersey Database Has Officially Moved

For a long list of reasons I have moved the jersey database that was a large part of HockeyWidgets.com to it's own website: JerseyDatabase.com. The new site is wholly dedicated to the jerseys and includes the new Wiki pages and more. By separating the two site I will better be able to concentrate on the content of each individually. HockeyWidgets will be dedicated to the widgets themselves, JerseyDatabase the jerseys, only the forum will remain connected to both.

For now there are still a lot of reminders and referring links on this site about the move, eventually these will be removed so if you have bookmarks please update them.

With any issues or problems please see the Forum or contact me.

Introducing Jersey and Player Wikis

As of today a whole new feature has been added to the jersey database located at JerseyDatabase.com. You can now read more about the jerseys, get links, see images and videos, as well as see an overview of all the jerseys and jersey styles for a player and team available in the database. There is a lot to of work to get done to bring things up to speed, but anyone and everyone is welcome to help by adding information, links, videos and images of their favorite players and jerseys. Simply login or create an account at JerseyDatabase.com and you'll have the ability to add to the Wiki pages. As soon as your entries have been checked they will be posted (more than likely within an hour or less).

To access a player's Wiki page simply click on this button next to a player's jersey thumbnail in the database. On this page you'll find a link for adding to that player's information.

For the moment the following information is available:
- Information specific to a player for a number and team
- External links for player (including stats and biographies)
- External links for leagues and events
- External links for teams
- Videos featuring the player specific to the jersey
- Videos featuring a team in a specific jersey
- Information about the specific jersey
- Images of the jersey from webshots.com or similar, with links
- External links to images of a specific player's jersey
- Complete list of all jerseys in the database for the player
- Complete list of different jersey styles for a team in the database

It is my hope that over time the database and the Wiki pages will give people a great place to search and find information about how players, teams, numbers and jerseys are all tied together.

JerseyDatabase.com BETA Released

After a few months of work and a lot of testing the first version of JerseyDatabase.com is now up and available for use. It is a site much like HockeyWidgets.com although it is completely dedicated to the jerseys in the database and makes it a bit easier to browse and use the different functions available.

At the moment it is still in a Beta or testing phase as I continue to add some more features to it. One thing that will separate it from the database on this site is that you can now create an account and create lists of jerseys on-line and share them with others. This will eventually be tied to a couple of different widgets and also include the ability to make calendars etc. For the moment you can create lists etc, more is coming..

As always, any and all feedback is greatly appreciated. I have attempted to keep things as simple as intuitive as possible and hopefully this will make it an easier site to navigate and use for people trying to find particular jerseys etc.

The forum link comes back to the forum on this site, since it really didn't seem to be a good idea to create a new one as both databases are identical.

So, without further ado, check out the new JerseyDatabase.com - here.

Lots of updates to the database...

Over Easter I had a chance to fix and add a number of things in the database. There are a couple more things left to do, but the bulk is done. Here is a small run down of what's new:

Added a stats page that includes around 50 statistics from the database, including popular teams, numbers, jerseys and players. As well as most common names, counts, hits, created signatures and avatars plus more...

The "Who's New" and "Top Jerseys" pages now allow you to browse by lots of 100, so you are no longer limited to those displayed but can go backwards in forwards in the lists.

Page numbers are now implemented for search results of more than 100. This makes the loading faster and makes way for listings for teams with very large numbers of jerseys. (There will soon be nearly 2,000 Steelers players in the database.)

All search results now include a thumbnail of the jersey, this is not a smaller version of the regular sized one but a completely separate image. This make it easier to browse the results as well as increases loading times and the image quality in IE and Firefox.

You can now click on player names and team names as links to the results in the database that correspond to them. This saves having to do a new search when you find a player or team you want to see. To see the preview image of a jersey you now click on the thumbnail.

User created jerseys, of which there are nearly 3,000 now, are now clearly marked with a small orange jersey in the search results. Hovering over it will tell you the creator's name. Clicking on it will take you to their jersey page.

There are now small green plus buttons in the database that allow you to add to a jersey's popularity points in the database. Clicking on the button will add 1 point to their rank and also give the creator of the jersey positive feedback. You are encouraged to use these for jersey's you like, and especially if they are a completed request of yours.

Search result pages now include a "Sort by Popularity" and a "Sort by Date Added" button. The second will be especially helpful if you just want to know which jerseys were last added for a particular team.

Not exactly database related but the forum now includes some new icons...

Using the browse option in the database (the buttons with the jersey counts on them) will now simply show you a table of the teams available as well as the total number of jerseys for that team available. I removed the search area from these pages as well as the list of latest jerseys. This makes it more logical to use now that the number of teams have grown.

There is now a section for all of the mascots in the database. This will be continuously added to as we try and cover the more known mascots in the world of sports...

All listings of search results now include small list numbers that make it easier to see where you are in the results as well as find your way back to where you were. These will also tell you the exact rank of jersey by popularity etc if sorted that way.

Not available to everyone, but of interest to those who may want to be a contributor in the future, I have created User Control Panels for people actively making jerseys. These pages allow you to upload zip files and images, as well as enter your player's information. This greatly expedites the process for getting the jerseys actually into the database. In addition to this each person has a detailed list of the stats for their submissions as well as the ability to edit them.

I am now encouraging any future submissions to the site to first be posted in the forum in the "Feedback" section of "Making Jerseys". This is important since it gives people a chance to get some other opinions and possible help before doing an entire roster. It's never fun to redo 60 of these things if you forgot something...

www.jerseydatabase.com

This Weekend is Mascot Weekend

In response to a thread in the Requests section of the forum, this Easter weekend (starting tomorrow) will be officially "Mascot Weekend" as we try to get some of the better known professional mascot's jerseys into the database.

You can help by posting images featuring the backs of your favorite team mascots in the thread here, called Mascots Section. User sabrefangoalie92 has compiled some good lists of names and numbers to go. Wikipedia has a section of pro sports mascots found here. Here is the NHL's complete list with images. And don't forget Mascotnet!.

*Image features the greatest, and most useless, invention of all time: the hot dog gun.

Become an Affiliate

A lot of people contact me requesting to be able to use the jersey images from the database on their websites. In hopes of making the process a bit easier I've created an affiliate section here on the site, by becoming an affiliate you are given full permission to use any of the images on your web pages.

The section, found here, currently contains links to sites that have been featured on the widgets or in other ways have been associated with the website.

To become an affiliate simply send the image you would like used in your frame. As well as the address to your website to hockeywidgets_at_gmail.com

Where's my signature!

Dear friends,

Due to the unforeseen popularity of the Signature Maker that is available on this site I am unable to host the images here anymore. The amount of information that the server was being required to process has pretty much crippled the ability to use and navigate this website. The simultaneous connections resulted in not only pages not being able to be rendered, as well as errors, but also a lack of stability when it came to the images themselves.

You can still create the signatures in the same fashion, however you will first be required to save the image generated locally to your computer (on a Mac you can simply drag it to the desktop, on a PC right click on your signature and choose to save it.) Once you have done so you can use a free image hosting site such as photobucket.com or imageshack.us to upload it to the net and use it on a forum. I'm sorry about the inconvenience but I was really left with no choice due to the amount of server errors. Since I am no longer actually hosting the images here you are free to choose whether you want the site watermark or not. I'd appreciate it, but I can't force it on anyone. At this point I think most people know where to find where the signatures come from.

Please understand that this is for the good of everyone who wants to use the signatures and for the sake of those that don't but are using the same forum.

Thanks for being understanding,
KP
HockeyWidgets.com

If you can still see your signature I suggest saving it now, as it will soon be deleted from my server.
You can read more in the forum here.

You will temporarily (the next day or two) be able to access your old signature by adding this to the address:
http://www.hockeywidgets.com/sig/old/sigs/YOURSIGNATURENUMBER.png

If it is too late to get your signature in the way named above, and you are truly in a situation where you need/must have your old signature, contact me with the image address and your e-mail address and I will try and locate it locally for you.

Contributor Run Down So Far

To give some credit where credit is due, here are the people who have contributed jerseys to the database. And which one's they have made:

Remy - Who made the Montreal Carabins and Universite Laval.


Clark - Who started the making of the EIHL jerseys with the Belfast Giants (and made multiple years for them), as well as the Nottingham Panthers and the Newcastle Vipers.


Vaytch - Made the Sagueneens jerseys.


Scooter - Who added more to the EIHL category with the Coventry Blaze, Edinburgh Capitals, Sheffield Steelers and also the red/black Sabres jerseys.


Andrew - Added the Manchester Phoenix, also of the EIHL


BR7 - Who is now the official Steelers jersey maker for the site, added close to 200 or so, including the 75th anniversary jerseys and numerous players from the past.


I'll be getting up some proper user contribution pages soon so it will be easier to keep track of your work.

Signature Maker Updated

I'm kind of amazed at the popularity of this thing, 1300+ signatures made in just about a week. This is the first of what will probably a number of updates.

The signature generator now features the ability to choose the number of jerseys to display, between 3 and 7. For people interested in more or less. (More than that and they are too wide, 7 is really the limit on most forums. I'd be hesitant to even go beyond 6. ) As it is, this is still pretty much a small beta project as it still has a lot of potential to be more developed with additional features and options. And, for some reason, it does occasionally hit a snag and not properly render a jersey. I haven't found the source for this, but I think it is server related.

The signature maker page is located here.

Examples for gauging width etc (not actual size):


With errors to report etc. please use the forum post found here.

NHL Trade and Roster Updates Done

As of now, this minute, all of the current NHL rosters including all of the trades should be up to date in the database. In total, including some older deals and call-ups from the minors, it was over 60 new players/jerseys (x 2).

If I happened to have missed anyone please let me know.

Forum Signature Maker (BETA)

I've wanted to create something like this for a while, and finally got to playing around with PHP's image creation/editing features and now have a functioning "Custom Forum Jersey Signature Generator". The current version is rather limited but will be expanded in the near future to add more options. So, for the moment you can call it Beta.

Basically, this will save people from having to link to multiple images on this site or do any offsite editing to create a simple signature with a few jerseys. You simply fill out the ID numbers from the Jersey Database in the form and hit "Create Signature Image". The output, for the moment, is a 480px by 105px transparent .PNG image composed of 5 database jerseys, like the Ovechkin one above. (As mentioned this will be expanded soon.) Once your image has been created you will also get the forum code to paste into the appropriate place in your user control panel, as well as the direct link to the image.

As a thanks for keeping the words HockeyWidgets.com on the image, I'll host these here on the site till further notice.

The generator is located here: Forum Signature Maker

Any and all feedback is welcome. There is a post in the forum for comments, bugs and suggestions here.

The Who's Missing Contest - Round 1

I recently received a request for Adam Graves to be added to the database and realized that some how in the course of making about 5,000 NHL jerseys for the jersey database I had completely missed him. Which leads me to realize that there are no doubt plenty of other players who deserve a place that I have also overlooked till now. And hence, this contest...

Your job is to find the most famous/greatest/deserving NHL player that is not yet in any way represented in the database. To enter you need only add your entries to the official contest thread located in the forum on the following page:
Who's Missing Contest Thread

One winner will be chosen from all of the entries that come in (feel free to enter as often as you like) and you are welcome to motivate your choices. The contest will run till March 1st. During the contest I'll try to add as many of the suggestions as I can.

Hopefully this will fill in some of the larger blanks when it comes to the elite of the NHL from the last 90 years - and I know there are some big names missing.

The winner will receive a personal jersey added to the database, a custom addition to their forum profile, their suggestions added to the database as well as a complete roster from the team and year of their choice.

Best of luck, now go out there and track down the missing legends...

JerseyDate available for Yahoo! Widgets

JerseyDate is a simple widget that displays the date using random jerseys from the database. You can manually change the jersey (the default setting) or you can choose how often you would like it to automatically change (between 5 minutes to every hour). There are a couple of options included here that aren't in the Dashboard version, namely the ability to change the color and opacity of the information panel that appears on mouse over. (You can disable this entirely as well.)

You can choose to show only a specific sport or to use all of the jerseys from the database, you can also choose to show only light or only dark colored jerseys. Please note that some combinations will not work currently, ie showing only light colored basketball jerseys as there are very few of these in the database at the moment.

The current jersey being shown will also appear in the dock, so technically you don't even need to have the jersey itself on your desktop for it to work.

You can download JerseyDate via the main widget page located here

2008 NHL All Star Game Jerseys Now in Database

Finally got these done. All 49 different jerseys for each player that was elected to the All Star Game plus the replacements. Mike Ribeiro replaced Henrik Zetterberg, Scott Niedermayer is replacing Sergei Zubov, Corey Perry replaces Paul Stastny, Marc Savard replaces Dany Heatley, Malkin is in for Crosby, and Tim Thomas replaces Brodeur.

I am still at a loss of sorts regarding the new All Star look. This year hasn't really changed much from last year, which may or may not be a good thing. I always liked the old orange and black look, although I think the nicest ones we've seen in the last couple of decades would be the one's worn when Philadelphia hosted (1991-92, during the 75th anniversary season). If you've not seen them they were supposed to resemble the sweaters worn during the very first All Star game, image here from Spirit of the Game.

Nonetheless, should be an interesting weekend what with this crazy trick shot competition and all....

You can find all the jerseys for this year's game in the database on this page.

Canadiens Web Calendar

There are a couple teams that truly lend themselves to these little calendars, the Canadiens with all of their retired numbers and legends are one of them.

The widget shown here will display the date using Montreal greats such as Richard, Lafleur, Geoffrion, Beliveau, Savard, Moore, as well as modern players such as Koivu, Kovalev and Corey Price.

To display the widget on a web page simply copy and paste the following code into the appropriate spot of your HTML code:

<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0" width="160" height="160" id="jersey" align="middle"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="false" /><param name="movie" value="http://www.hockeywidgets.com/flash/jersey.swf"> <param name=FlashVars VALUE="id1=0061&id2=0063&id3=10655&id4=0064&id5=0065&id6=9056&id7=0066&id8=2919&id9=0018&id10=0067&id11=9055&id12=2914&id13=0069&id14=9061&id15=0313&id16=11327&id17=11212&id18=10699&id19=2918&id20=2921&id21=0847&id22=9052&id23=2917&id24=10656&id25=9066&id26=9067&id27=9057&id28=10544&id29=0076&id30=10640&id31=10546"> <param name="quality" value="high"> <embed src="http://www.hockeywidgets.com/flash/jersey.swf" quality="high" FlashVars="id1=0061&id2=0063&id3=10655&id4=0064&id5=0065&id6=9056&id7=0066&id8=2919&id9=0018&id10=0067&id11=9055&id12=2914&id13=0069&id14=9061&id15=0313&id16=11327&id17=11212&id18=10699&id19=2918&id20=2921&id21=0847&id22=9052&id23=2917&id24=10656&id25=9066&id26=9067&id27=9057&id28=10544&id29=0076&id30=10640&id31=10546" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="160" height="160" wmode="transparent"></embed> </object>

You can make your own calendars using jerseys from the database by using the creation page here.

JerseyCal for Websites

You can now add a copy of JerseyCal to any website that will display Flash content. There is a creation page here, that will allow you to generate all the code you need. You simply fill out a form with the proper id from the database to correspond with the appropriate date and when you're done click "Generate Code". You can preview your widget once you've finished.

To put it on a website you need only to copy and paste the code into your HTML page. The widget created is 160px by 160px and runs on Flash 9 or higher.

Site Forum and Message Board - Now in Beta

I have finally taken the time to install a proper message board/forum on the site and after checking things countless times in different browsers on both PCs and Macs it looks like it's go. For the moment I'm going to call it Beta until I know for sure that things are working as they should.

To start with there are 6 different categories: Widgets, Jersey Database, Sports Jerseys (the real ones), Sports (in general), Misc (for everything else), and if you are registered on the forum you will have access to one called Making Jerseys. The last one is members only as it will offer template downloads, tutorials, as well as help in the learning and creation process of making the jerseys to be used in the database on the site.

The other forums will be all access for everyone (though read only for those not registered) and will hopefully help people solve and get answers to commonly asked questions. As well as give people interested in the site and similar interests a place to discuss different topics.

The forum is powered by phpBB, which is an Open Source and free message board "program". I did my best to fit it into the template of the site - so you'll notice that it is a bit smaller than most forums you may be used to. If you find anything truly troublesome or just not working let me know and I'll try and fix it.

Anyone who is a member of another forum should have no trouble figuring out how the different functions work, however there is an extensive FAQ. One thing I did do that most sites don't is allow Flash. However if it ends up being an issue or over complicating posts I'll remove it.

For those interested in being the Premier Members (and getting the honorable rank as such) you can visit and register for the forum here:
The Forum

Hope to see and hear from you there - and as always with any questions or issues feel free to contact me.

Jersey templates now available and more info...

This has been a long time coming, but you can now download the templates that are used to create the jerseys in the database. (There is a new section here.) Currently there are 7 styles available and that covers nearly all of the jerseys in the database. I will be adding more over time to give people some additional options.

All of the downloads are available for Photoshop (all CS versions), Illustrator (CS, CS2 and CS3), as well as the open source vector format SVG. There are many programs available that can handle these three different file types, some are free such as Inkscape for vector formats and GIMP for pixel formats. If you have any problems with the files let me know. They should render in without any problems, however I am unable to predict their appearances in different applications other than those that I own.

The templates appear just as they do to the right. They include all of the layers and masks and I tried to label them as best I could. You will need some time and practice to figure out where to put what, but I hope to post some tutorials and example files in the not too distant future to make it easier to understand. The texts (name and numbers) are basic system fonts and are present to give a rough idea of where to put them.

You will find resources to help you with the creation process in the links page located here.

My hope is that by offering the templates people will have the chance to create jerseys that they'd like to see in the database and help add to the site. Feel free to contact me with any questions you might have.

User Submissions to the Database

For a number of reasons I haven't made it possible in the past to add your own jerseys to the database, but as it is impossible for me to keep up with requests and in general make all the jerseys on planet earth you can now get your own creations added to the database.

The first batch that I received, created by Remy, were 75 jerseys for the Universite Laval (Quebec) football team. All submissions can be found in their own section via the button you see above. They are still shown via searches and will work with all of the widgets available here. The only difference being that ID numbers begin with the letter U.

If you are interested in having your creations added you can do a couple of different things. If you've already made some using either a template similar to those used for the site or your own you can simply send them to me an e-mail using a .zip file. Or if you are interested in making them using the same templates used here you can contact me and I can give you more information. There is an old template and PDF tutorial (that needs to be updated) via the Tutorials link found on the first page of the site, if you are just interested in learning the basic techniques.

Basic Information
The files all have to be 158 px wide BY 131 px high. They must be saved as .png's with transparency using "Save For Web" or similar to keep the sizes down.

I can't post anything that involves coprighted materials, so no logos that are distinguishable and no obvious ads or sponsors.

I'd highly reccommend using Adobe Illustrator for these, you will achieve much better results with crisper lines etc., Photoshop and other non-vector image programs will work, however I don't have any templates available for them.

If you aren't sure about the files you are sending send an example first.

I can't post everything. The key to the database is that it represents reality (albeit in a abstract way). The jerseys need to be accurate and I reccommend using real images to work from. Number and letter fonts should also be as close to those actually used as possible. Try and make your images the best you can.

Besides college teams I am only posting proffessional leagues. No high school or similar teams.

All submissions need to be verified and checked before I can post them, so it can take some time before they appear.

Images remain your own and you can freely offer them on your own site and keep your own list etc. Keep local backup copies and any original templates that you use.

Basically, if you have any questions, just contact me and I'll help as best I can.

Jersey Database Updates

I made some changes over the last week to the jersey database in the hopes of making it a bit easier to use. You can now search by particular sport thereby limiting the number of results. I also changed the way the image search works. (For getting use out of this I reccommend a broadband connection and using a web browser OTHER than Internet Explorer...) The results are now shown more compact to make it a bit easier to scroll through them and find what you are looking for. Seeing as it was a bit irrelevant I also removed the extra images that were used with the text results, this should make the load times a bit quicker.

I hope to improve the preview method in the not too distant future so that the page doesn't reload...

The New Old Hockey Jerseys

Times change and things go forward, and sometimes you have to go back and bring things up to speed. In this case I will be updating all of the old versions of the hockey jerseys in the database. There are around 3,000 of them I think. They stem from an original template made almost 2 years ago and really don't reflect the appearances I'm going for. Granted I've never strived after making things look realistic, but I want enough of the features of real jerseys present to make them identifiable. To do this the old versions with the bent sleeves have to go...

Once this process is through, could take a few months, I'll reopen the requests and should be able to easier create new jerseys to accomadate them. Till then if you have special requests please use the contact form.

The first of the new jerseys is one I've been meaning to make for ages now, Gordie Howe (10595 ) on the 1979 Whalers, he is followed by his sons Mark and Marty (10596 and 10597). And the oft requested Ron Francis (10598) in Whaler green.

Site updates, NHL rosters, behind the scenes....

As of now every player currently in the NHL has a home and away jersey in the database. Six weeks of work is finally finished (till the trades start rolling in...) You can click the images to the right to see what 1700+ jerseys looks like...in mosaic form.) What does this mean? Well, it means that I can start updating the older hockey jerseys in the database with a better vector template and bring things up to speed. This is the reason why the requests are currently closed, since I don't really have the time to fullfill them it's best to wait.

Over the next couple weeks I also plan to do some work on the actual site, not just the content, but the actual layout and setup of the sections. I hope to improve upon the current database to add some more options and simplify the output. As well as add some new areas, such as Top 100, user submissions, etc. All of the new widgets currently record which jerseys are used and shown, which allows for an overview of who's popular and who isn't. This is actually a pretty interesting thing to look at since it changes quite often.

There will be a couple of new widgets coming out in the not too distant future, one of them wil be a rather drastic overhaul of the rather ancient HockeyFan widget...it's time has come and gone.

And, finally, now that I have a couple minutes of spare time I can get to the contest for jersey number 10,000. That will be up sometime today.

Misc. Jerseys Round 5: Red Dwarf

If we were to assume that any member of the crew of Red Dwarf actually had some athletic skill we would have to believe that the sport in which they would partake would be Lister's beloved Zero-G football. And so, I give you the team as it could appear long into the future playing an ancient sport. I think that Jim Bexley Speed would be proud of the Dwarfers.

You can get the jerseys for use with the widgets in the Misc. section here.

Misc. Jerseys Round 4: View Askew

Kevin Smith is a hockey fan. I assume. In just about every one of his films he manages to work in a jersey or hockey related something. In Clerks it is fairly obvious, in Mallrats Fanboy, aka Walt Grover, aka Walt Flanagan, is seen wearing a View Askew Vulgarians jersey in front of the comic book shop (available for purchase here), in Chasing Amy they go to a game, Dogma has the Stygian Triplets, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back also has the View Askew Vulgarians jersey, and in Clerks II Randal is wearing a hat for the Leonardo Reapers.

From left to right, Randal's CCCP jersey from Clerks, these were used during the late 80's early 90's by the Soviet Union. They are just about impossible to find at this point. Dante's Penguins jersey from Clerks, granted they didn't have names on the back in the films... Leonard Reapers jersey, these are available from the View Askew shop here, and yes they are all numbered 37. The last one is Fanboy's View Askew Vulgarians jersey seen in Mallrats, and yes it is also numbered 37...

In the future I may do a whole set using the characters from all the films using the old Devils jerseys seen in Clerks.

You can get the 4 available ones in the Misc. Section of the Jersey Database here.

Misc. Jerseys Round 3: The Beatles

It was announced today that Paul McCartney's entire catalog of music will soon be available on iTunes, and in as such one immediately jumps to the thought that The Beatles recordings may also one day soon be available there. (For those of you Beatles fans who don't already own everything they ever recorded...)

Also, if one goes in for dates, two weeks from today marks the 40th anniversary of the original release of Sgt. Pepper. So, with that in mind, round three of the misc. jersey posts are the boys from Liverpool...not in Liverpool FC jerseys unfortunately....but rather in their infamous old swimming costumes (originally from a photo shoot in 1963.)

You can get them for use with the widgets in the Misc. section of the database, or by clicking here.

Misc. Jerseys Round 2: Major League

It was inevitable that these would eventually make it into the database, and so, for fans of the film and the Indians...seven of the more prominant members of the team. Including Willie Mays Hayes, Pedro Cerrano, Rick Vaughn, Jake Taylor and even the skipper Lou Brown.

I know I'm missing the rest of the team, but getting the numbers and names may involve a little more research than I was prepared to do at the moment. (In other words getting a copy of the actual film...) If anyone wants to fill in the rest of the roster, with names and numbers, I will be glad to make the rest.

One thing that is a bit strange about the jerseys they use in the film is the font used for the numbers, I tried to come close to it, but it is definitely not a font you'll find on any baseball jerseys in the Majors, none the less...bats with hats...

You can get them for use with the widgets here: Major League Jerseys

Misc. Jerseys Round 1: The Goonies

Well, to sort of mix things up and get more jerseys into the miscellaneous section of the site I'm going to start a series of posts relating to them. These will probably be all over the board when it comes to the subject matter, but I like to think that they are worth a place in the "non-serious" section of the database.

The first round includes all 8 Goonies from the film. (Put in the database using their actual names from the film.) The font used is called, well, Goonies, and is available for free at dafont.com And, no, that is not Chunk's high score in Pole Position on the left sleeve.

You can see all of them here.

Requests are welcome...

Requests for the Database

Many people have sent in requests for the database and if they haven't appeared yet, well, I haven't forgotten about you. I have reformatted the site with the intention of being able to have more time to answer these and get more work done on adding to the database and improving the quality of the mini jerseys contained within it.

A lot of people want to know what the deal is with the lack of basketball jerseys and, fear not, they are coming. It has just taken a while to find a format for them that will work based on their size. I hope to start adding more of these in the near future,

At the moment there are a couple of priorities based on a number of different factors; the NFL rosters need to get done as I intend to put out an updated version of the NFL schedule widget before the summer. There will most likely be a CFL widget done at the same time, so look for CFL jerseys soon as well. NHL requests are something that I want to try and get done while the playoffs are going on, and after that the rest of the baseball teams.

Soccer/football jerseys are probably the most widely requested and I hope to get some time to start making more of these in the near future. The Premier League requests are on a bit of a hold because they will all be changing in the next month or so to a different font. There are some long standing requests for other teams that I'll try and work on when time permits.

Thanks for all the patience those of you who have been waiting and wondering.

To keep track of things I have provided a page with a list of all current requests. If you have made a request and don't see it on the list then feel free to submit it again. It's possible that I may have missed a couple.

The complete list is available here: Current Requests