Is there a best/easy way to do this?
All I can seem to do is pick a background image when I create one. And even then, the text area is just a white square that covers most of the image. Can't really see what's behind it that well, and it doesn't look good.
Help?
Hmm, it seems I've (sort of) solved the white square problem by using one of the default themes and then inserting a background image behind it.
But that still leaves an issue of not being able to customize that piece very much. For instance, mine is a bit hard to read, even with the textured layer over the background image: http://community.diabetes.org/t5/Recently-Diagnosed-New-Members/Myfoodadvisor/m-p/115973#M9646
(Edit: I've added my badge here so that others can see it easily.)
Here's a link to an old post I wrote about creating profile badges http://lithosphere.lithium.com/t5/Growing-Successful-Communities/Profile-Badge-background-picture-size/m-p/26512#M3130
looks like aside form figuring out the best option for legibility, the community also has a liquid layout which on larger screens (such as my work monitor) the author user info area gets stretched horizontally as well as the badge image. You may want to consider altering the css to make that specific element (lia-badge-container) a fixed width? Or depending on the badge image/background you use you may not have to do that.
I actually found and read that read before posting, but it didn't fully address what my issue was :)
For now, I prefer us keeping the liquid layout, though I will keep that in mind for further modifications. I'd noticed that, too.
Any thoughts on how the overlay can/might be further customized? Is it possible?
