Soyjak Wiki:Template Manual of Style

This page provides a set of basic pointers on the creation of templates. New users should avoid making templates because they are highly likely to be coal.

Templates are supposed to be used on multiple articles, therefore templates have a higher standard than articles.

Usecase

This is the single most important aspect of a template. Why should your new template exist and be used? Does it justify the vertical space taken up on the article? Is there another template that already has the same purpose? You need to consider these questions before you even begin making your template, or it may be deleted.

Certain kinds of templates, like "has connections to or written by" style templates, are regarded as superfluous.

Code

The template should not use inefficient code like spamming <big> multiple times instead of using font-size.
If possible, the template should be a single cell or div that does not use rowspan in order to minimize wasted vertical space brought about by cellpadding and cellspacing and improve readability.
The template should have a margin of 0.5em auto if it is a header or footer. This is simply to match the margins of most other templates.
All colors should be in hexcode and never in rgb() (unless you need opacity via rgba()).
Add suitable categories such [[Category:Template]] to the template page itself via <noinclude>. Make sure not to leave a newline between the noinclude and the template code or it might stack up with another newline from a different template being transcluded once it is on an article and cause an irremovable space to appear between templates and article text.
Use template parameters and parser functions in order to make the text of the template suitably customizable.

Visuals

The template should not have extremely saturated colors.
- On hexadecimal color, consider adding to the other values to reduce saturation, or subtracting from your main (highest) color value.
Do not use dark fonts on dark backgrounds or light fonts on light backgrounds.
- Otherwise it'll be hard to read.
- If your text is hard to read, increase the contrast between text and background colors on all three values, by at least 3 levels.
The template should not be excessively tall or wide.
The template should not be overly eye-catchy or flashy to the point that it looks headache-inducing or overstimulating to look at.
You should not make an "upgraded" version of templates unless necessary, as it will "award" the thing it is talking about.
Use suitable padding so that template contents do not encroach upon borders.

This is an example of what a bad template looks like: < - If you unironically make and/or use a template like this we will do unspeakable things to you.