skin.txt
-MediaWiki's default skin is called Monobook, after the black-and-white photo of
-a book, in the page background. This skin has been the default since MediaWiki
-1.3 (2004). It is used on Wikipedia, and is popular on other sites.
+MediaWiki's default skin is called Vector. Vector was introduced in
+the 1.16 release (2010) and has been set as the default in MediaWiki since
+the 1.17 release (2011). This replaced the popular skin, Monobook which
+had been been the default since MediaWiki 1.3 (2004). Vector is now the
+default skin on Wikimedia Projects.
There are three legacy skins which were introduced before MediaWiki 1.3:
* Cologne Blue: A nicer-looking alternative to Standard.
+The other skin that is widely used (and is the MediaWiki default before 1.17)
+is Monobook.
+
+* Monobook: Named after the black-and-white photo of a book, in the page background.
+This was introduced in the 2004 release of 1.3
And there are four Monobook-derived skins which have been introduced since 1.3:
* Modern: An attractive blue/grey theme with sidebar and top bar.
-
== Custom CSS/JS ==
It is possible to customise the site CSS and JavaScript without editing any
This feature has led to a wide variety of "user styles" becoming available,
which change the appearance of Monobook or MySkin:
-http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Gallery_of_user_styles
+http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Gallery_of_user_styles
If you want a different look for your wiki, that gallery is a good place to start.
MediaWiki extension, enabled via LocalSettings.php. This is done by adding
it to $wgValidSkinNames, for example:
-$wgValidSkinNames['mycoolskin'] = 'My cool skin';
+$wgValidSkinNames['mycoolskin'] = 'MyCoolSkin';
-and then registering a class in $wgAutoloadClasses called SkinMycoolskin, which
+and then registering a class in $wgAutoloadClasses called SkinMycoolSkin, which
derives from Skin. This technique is apparently not yet used (as of 2008)
outside the DumpHTML extension.