Control Center

The Control Center is the heart of the Foundry forge. The Control Center is integral in letting all of the other Foundry tools on the page talk with one another and provides you with control over shared settings and page styling.

Examples

The Control Center does not create any content based output on the published page, thus we don't have anything we can show you here as an example.

57_air force Fighter 2

Talk to me, Goose.

The Control Center is required to be placed on each page of your Foundry-based site. Many users will place the Control Center into a Partial so that its settings are shared over multiple pages, and when changed on one page they change on the others as well.

Settings

Parent Tool

Edit Mode

Show

The Control Center allows you to customize what is shown in Edit Mode to customize your experience. Here you can adjust what is shown or hidden in the Control Center itself, where you can show / hide the contents of the Icons, Elements, Breakpoints and Drop Zone sections. This can help minimize the space taken up by these items when you're not actively editing them.

We've also included the ability to show / hide the version number of the Bootstrap install that is included in Foundry. This is off by default, but when enabled will be shown below the Foundry version number in Edit Mode.

Additionally you can toggle the Edit Mode background on / off. We've added this option to make for a cleaner display of the Edit Mode experience and help the colors of the Foundry tools standout. When Edit Mode Background is turned on you'll also receive a color picker for adjusting this to your liking.

Base Margin

Many of the Foundry tools include an option to "Include Base Margin" when configuring them. The base margin is a small amount of margin that is applied to the bottom of elements to make things more visually pleasing and create a uniform spacing and flow to your pages.

The settings below allow you to adjust that Base Margin for the entirety of the page.

Units

Here you can choose the unit of measure used in sizing the Base Magin settings.

Breakpoints

These 6 fields allow you to adjust the sizing of the Base Margin for each breakpoint individually. This gives you a great deal of control over the design of your page.

Body Font

Anti-Alias Fonts (macOS)

Allows you to set your fonts to be anti-aliased in Webkit-based browsers. This allows the browser to smooth out the font, removing jagged edges and curves for a more streamlined look.

Please Note

Adjust body font settings below with CAUTION as they affect everything on the page. We highly recommend leaveing these as-is for the most part.

Font Family

Here you can override the base font for the entire page. By default we use the visitor's System Font for the base font, which we feel is the best approach and saves bandwidth and page loading time.

Font Style

Allows you to use one of Foundry's presets from the color palette or extended color palette, as well as the grey, white and dark preset values for styling the page's base font. You're also provided an option to choose a custom one-off color as well.

This style is applied to the entire page as the default underlying base font color. Generally the Foundry "Dark" setting, which is the default option, is a great choice as it is not completely black as that can aften seem too harsh when reading a webpage.

Font Size

Here you can adjust the base font size for the page. It is almost always best to leave this set to the default 1.0rem and instead alter the font size of individual elements on the page. The reason being is that this setting has an affect of the sizing of not only the base font, but other elements which base their size off of the default base font value as well.

Font Weight

Allows you to change the default weight of the base font for the entire page. It is almost always best to leave this set to the default setting of 400.

Font Line Height

Allows you to change the default line height of the base font for the entire page. It is almost always best to leave this set to the default setting of 1.5 as this setting has an effect on not only the base font itself, but other elements on the page that use the base font line height.

Headers Font

Font Family

Here you can override the base font for the headers on the entire page. By default we have headers inherit their font from the base font. If you'd like something different from the base font for all of your headers you can make that change here, or simply change it within the individual Foundry tools themselves.

Custom Header Tag Sizing

Here you'll find 6 different sections of settings for customizing the default sizing of the various header tags. Foundry has a set of default size values built-in, but you can enabled a custom sizing option for any of the 6 header tags indiviually.

When you enable one of these custom tag sizing checkboxes you'll be able to adjust the sizing for that header tag at each of the 6 responsive breakpoints. This gives you a great deal of control and versatility if you happen to need it.

Font Weight

Allows you to change the default weight of the headers for the entire page. The default value here is 500.

Font Line Height

Allows you to change the default line height of the headers font for the entire page. The default value for the headers line height is 1.5, just the same as the base font.

Paragraphs

This section allows us to customize some of the various aspects of elements found within the Paragraph tool on a page-wide basis.

Lead Weight

Allows you to customize the font weight of the Lead Paragraph setting that is found within the Paragraph tool. This can help set it apart from the rest of the paragraph.

Lead Line Height

Allows you to customize the line height of the Lead Paragraph setting that is found within the Paragraph tool. This can help set it apart from the rest of the paragraph. We usually recommend leaving this at the default 1.5 setting, but can be customized to your liking.

Custom Lead Font Size

When enabled you will be given 6 different fields for customizing the font size of the Lead Paragraph setting that is found in the Paragraph tool. This gives you the ability to set a custom font size for the Lead Paragraph option at each of the 6 responsive breakpoints.

Mark Background & Text

Foundry has special styling for the <mark></mark> tag pair. We provide an example of this tag pair in the Paragraph tool's settings that you can use as a reference when writing your Paragraph content.

The mark tag pair is used to highlight specific, relevant text within the page's content.

These two settings allow you to use one of Foundry's presets from the color palette or extended color palette, as well as the grey, white and dark preset values for styling the mark tag pair's background and text colors. You're also provided an option to choose a custom one-off color as well.

Keyboard (kbd) Background & Text

Foundry has special styling for the <kbd></kbd> tag pair. We provide an example of this tag pair in the Paragraph tool's settings that you can use as a reference when writing your Paragraph content.

The keyboard (kbd) tag pair is used to denote textual user input from a keyboard, voice input, or any other text entry device.

These two settings allow you to use one of Foundry's presets from the color palette or extended color palette, as well as the grey, white and dark preset values for styling the keyboard (kbd) tag pair's background and text colors. You're also provided an option to choose a custom one-off color as well.

Links

Decoration & Hover Decoration

Here we provide two drop downs that let you style how the text decoration, or underline on your normal links, and those links when hovered over, appear. You can choose to turn the decorative underline on or off for either, independent of one another.

Links Color & Links Hover Color

Allows you to use one of Foundry's presets from the color palette or extended color palette, as well as the grey, white and dark preset values for styling links on your page. You're also provided an option to choose a custom one-off color as well.

We offer two settings here – an normal style, and a hover style.

Underline Color & Underline Hover Color

Allows you to use one of Foundry's presets from the color palette or extended color palette, as well as the grey, white and dark preset values for styling the text decoration, or underlines on your links, for this page. You're also provided an option to choose a custom one-off color as well.

We offer two settings here – an normal style, and a hover style and they can be set independent of one another. By default we've matched these settings to those of the default colors of the link and hover link colors.

Underline Size

Here you can choose the size, or thickness, of the text decoration's underline for your page's links.

Underline Offset

Allows you to adjust the distance of the underline from the bottom of your linked text.

Site Background

Background Mode

Allows you to specifiy what type of mode you'd like to use for the background of the webpage as a whole. Below is a look at the availble style modes for the Site Background.

Presets

Allows you to use one of Foundry's presets from the color palette or extended color palette, as well as the grey, white and dark preset values. You're also provided a color picker for setting the text color.

Custom Styling

Provides color pickers for styling the Site Background, allowing you to choose a one-off specific color.

Gradient

Here you're given color pickers for the gradient's two colors, which will make up the Site Background's gradient. You've also got control over the angle of the gradient.

Image

Allows you to use an image for the site background for this page.

Image

This drop zone is where you'll provide the main, required image for the site background. You can use the following file formats for this drop zone, as well as the Retina Image drop zone, below.

  • JPG
  • PNG
  • GIF
Retina Image

Here you can optionally add a Retina Image, in addition to the required normal Image above, for high DPI displays.

Remote Image

Allows you to use a remote image for the site background for this page.

Image

This field is where you'll provide the URL to the main, required image. You will need to host your image file on your own server, using your FTP software to upload it.

Retina Image

In this field you can optionally add a Retina Image URL, in addition to the required normal Image above, for high DPI displays.

WebP Image

Allows you to use a WebP-based image for the site background for this page.

WebP Image

This link control is where you'll provide the URL to the main, required image. You will need to host your Webp image file on your own server, using your FTP software to upload it. Of all of the four image link controls in the General section of the settings, this is the one that is absolutely required.

Webp Retina

With this link control you can optionally add a Retina Webp Image URL, in addition to the required normal Image above, for high DPI displays.

Fallback Image

This link control is where you'll provide a fallback JPG version of your Webp image. This JPG will be displayed if the browser or device does not support the Webp format. If you're going to use a fallback, of the two fallback images, this one is required. You will need to host your JPG image file on your own server, using your FTP software to upload it.

Fallback Retina

With this link control you can optionally add a Retina JPG Fallback Image URL, in addition to the required normal Fallback Image above, for high DPI displays.

Horizontal & Vertical Origin

This lets us set the origin of the background image within the Background tool. You can force the image to "start" at a specific area of the background using these settings. The most common combination is Center for both settings. This is most often used when the Background Image Sizing setting is set to tile.

Background Image Sizing

Here you decide the method that will be used when having the image cover the background of the site. You can choose from the following options.

Cover

The Cover sizing mode will adjust your image's sizing crop to make sure that it always covers your Background area fully. This is the most popular and often used of these modes.

PLEASE NOTE. Your image will be scaled and cropped to ensure it covers the entirety of the site background.

Contain

Contain mode scales the image as large as possible within its container without cropping or stretching the image.

PLEASE NOTE. While your image will not be scaled or cropped to ensure it covers the entirety of the site background, this may leave you with empty space.

Tile

Tile repeats the image, at its natural size, across the background of the area. The image is repeated both vertically and horizontally and will be cropped.

PLEASE NOTE. Depending on the image being tiled, some portions of the image maybe cropped, but your image will not be scaled.

Rounded Corners

Custom Border Radius Presets

Throughout Foundry's tools you'll often find presets for applying rounded corners, or border radius values, to elements of your page. This is a handy way to keep things consistent and makes for quicker site building.

Foundry has its own built-in defaults for these presets, but if you'd prefer to provide your own custom border radius values for the Rounded Corners presets you can enable this feature and provide them.

You'll be given 5 fields for setting your custom values for each of the 5 Rounded Corner presets.

Preset User Shadow

Throughout Foundry's tools you'll often find controls for applying drop shadows (box-shadows) as well as text shadows to various elements on your page. These controls usually have a few presets to choose from, in addition to a custom one-off setting.

One of the presets is "Preset User Shadow (Control Center)." That option pulls in the values and color from this sizing and shadow color picker below. This allows you to make a custom shadow preset that will be availble page-wide.

Sizing

This setting allows you to adjust the positioning, size, spread of your custom user preset shadow.

Shadow Color

Heres you can change the color of your custom user preset shadow using a color picker. You're also able to adjust its opacity within the color picker as well.

HTML Comment

Credit Foundry

When enabled an HTML Comment is added to the code to credit Foundry as the framework that was used in building the page.

Child Items

Within the Control Center tool, we've made it so that certain libraries are not loaded unless you specifcally ask for them to be. This cuts down on unused code and will help create faster loading, cleaner pages.

Icons

Here you can choose which font icon library you'd like to use on your page. We've included two widely used, and very nice looking libraries for you to pick from – the Bootstrap Icons library and the free version of the FontAwesome 5 library. You can also simply delete the child item in this section and no icon library will be loaded for this page.

We highly recommend the Bootstrap Icons library if you're using one. It is much more lightweight than FontAwesome and contains nicely designed, modern icons.

Additional Elements

This section allows us to load several different child items for styling various page elements. You can learn about each of them below.

Standard Color Palette

This child item is where Foundry will pull its main color presets from that is used extensively throughout all of the included tools.

You can adjust each of these colors using the provided color pickers in its settings, or drag-and-drop a color palette from the Foundry Palette Laboratory site.

Additionally the Standard Color Palette child item allows you to enable / disable a palette, which means you can have more than one in your Control Panel and enable or disable certain ones to try out various color combinations when designing your site.

Since the Standard Color Palette is one of the most used options, we've made it possible to dock it to the bottom of the Edit Mode window using the Sticky Style Guide toggle. Clicking on the style guide at the bottom of Edit Mode allows you to change the colors from anywhere on the page as well.

For more information on the Palette Laboratory, you can checkout its documentation page.

Extended Color Palette

In addition to the Standard Color Palette child item we've also incorporated an Extended Color Palette as well. The defaults for the Extended Palette are always available, but by adding the child item to the Control Center you can customize each of the extended colors.

Each of the 10 color options has 9 color variation presets to choose from. You can fine tune the available extended colors by selecting a different shade of that color using the drop down controls.

Additionally, like the Standard Color Palette child item, the Extended Palette allows you to enable / disable a palette, which means you can have more than one in your Control Panel and enable or disable certain ones to try out various color combinations when designing your site.

Enable Tooltips & Popovers

If you intend on using Tooltips and / or Popovers on a page you can add this child item to the Control Center. Doing so loads the necessary javascript for these items. By not loading them unless you're using Tooltips and Popovers we save bandwidth and increase our page loading speed.

Within this child item we also have controls for adjusting the styling on these items as well.

Browser Theme Color

The Browser Theme Color child item lets us suggest a color to the visitor's browser to customize the display of the page or of the surrounding user interface within the browser.

Within this child item we can customize the color using a color picker.

Breakpoints

This column is simply used as reference. Since Foundry now has 6 responsive breakpoints we wanted to provide a quick way to reference the page / device widths associated with each breakpoint.

Drop Zone

When the Control Center's Drop Zone option is enabled, we provide an area inside the Control Center where you can add other Foundry tools. This is most often used in conjunction with Typeface, and allows easier combining of elements that will be lumped together in a Partial for example and reused throughout the site.

IMPORTANT. All contents in this drop zone WILL BE published when you publish your site.