Review Request: Improved color scheme previews

Hi,

I am considering improving the color scheme previews in the colors KCM.
Attached is an initial patch for Matthias and others to review and comment
on. The code is prepared to:

* render bigger previews (up to 160x100 pixels)
* optionally hide the window decoration colors (in case you are going to use
Oxygen windeco, where the window borders do not really have a separate color)
* optionally include the inactive window decoration colors

I plan to have different "preview modes", and hopefully sorting.

See http://kdepepo.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/snapshot1.png for how the
previews look at the (default?) small size with active window decoration
colors shown.

This patch does not yet implement the multiple columns, I want some feedback
first.

Thanks,
Christoph Feck (kdepepo)

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Am Thursday 30 July 2009 14:32:05 schrieb Christoph Feck:
> Attached is an initial patch for Matthias and others to review and comment
> on. The code is prepared to:

Sorry, I ment Matthew Woehlke and others :)
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A Quinta, 30 de Julho de 2009 13:35:58 Christoph Feck você escreveu:
> Am Thursday 30 July 2009 14:32:05 schrieb Christoph Feck:
> > Attached is an initial patch for Matthias and others to review and
> > comment on. The code is prepared to:
>
> Sorry, I ment Matthew Woehlke and others :)
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I like it but still it could be better
I really liked the way it used to be wen we could select the item with the
mouse, I don't understand all the widgets names, and i guess Joe user can't as
well  
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Am Thursday 30 July 2009 15:07:29 schrieb Nuno Pinheiro:
> I like it but still it could be better

Could you comment on what could be improved? Thanks.

> I really liked the way it used to be wen we could select the item with the
> mouse, I don't understand all the widgets names, and i guess Joe user can't
> as well

The patch is only meant as a replacement for the current color previews, not
about how the colors are changed. That's a different issue, see bug 179973 :)

Christoph Feck (kdepepo)
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Christoph Feck wrote:
> Am Thursday 30 July 2009 15:07:29 schrieb Nuno Pinheiro:
>> I really liked the way it used to be wen we could select the item with the
>> mouse, I don't understand all the widgets names, and i guess Joe user can't
>> as well
>
> The patch is only meant as a replacement for the current color previews, not
> about how the colors are changed. That's a different issue, see bug 179973 :)

To be clear, I understood that as 'clicking on random applications', not
clicking elements in the kcm preview (which is indeed an outstanding
TO-DO; a patch for that would be greatly appreciated).

Additionally, I started work on re-writing the kcm documentation, which
should help a bit as well (though it will probably be a while before it
is ready, and then I need to talk to the doc team...). Also, tooltips
have been added to the preview.

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A Quinta, 30 de Julho de 2009 18:02:29 Matthew Woehlke você escreveu:

> Christoph Feck wrote:
> > Am Thursday 30 July 2009 15:07:29 schrieb Nuno Pinheiro:
> >> I really liked the way it used to be wen we could select the item with
> >> the mouse, I don't understand all the widgets names, and i guess Joe
> >> user can't as well
> >
> > The patch is only meant as a replacement for the current color previews,
> > not about how the colors are changed. That's a different issue, see bug
> > 179973 :)
>
> To be clear, I understood that as 'clicking on random applications', not
> clicking elements in the kcm preview (which is indeed an outstanding
> TO-DO; a patch for that would be greatly appreciated).

yep

> Additionally, I started work on re-writing the kcm documentation, which
> should help a bit as well (though it will probably be a while before it
> is ready, and then I need to talk to the doc team...). Also, tooltips
> have been added to the preview.

good to know that:)
also good toe hear again from you Mathew, we have some todo's in the main
gradient thing in oxygen, if you would like to help on that ;) ?


> --
> Matthew
> Please do not quote my e-mail address unobfuscated in message bodies.

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Christoph Feck wrote:
> I am considering improving the color scheme previews in the colors KCM.
> Attached is an initial patch for Matthias

Hmm, I am changing nationalities now... ;-)

> and others to review and comment on. The code is prepared to:
>
> * render bigger previews (up to 160x100 pixels)

Would it be possible to retain the current preview at small sizes? One
thing I like is that the foreground colors are crisp; in your sample
screenshot the text is blurred and therefore it is harder to judge what
is the text color. (The current previews are optimized for maximum
information content rather than prettiness. I like the idea of big,
pretty previews as an option, but...)

At minimum, I think I'd like to see some sort of 'hinting model' and/or
drawing pixels by hand so that the text is not 'muddy'.

Assuming we do this, could an icon size slider be added below the

> * optionally include the inactive window decoration colors

Screenshot of that? One way would be to draw an inactive window behind
the active one; if the active window could be made just a bit more
compact (maybe move the button back to where it is in the full-size
preview?), I think this could be made default.

> I plan to have different "preview modes", and hopefully sorting.

Yes, sorting would be good :-), /that/ is even on
kdebase/workspace/kcontrol/colors/TODO.

If you really want to get fancy, we could do:

Current     Default
-- User Schemes ------
Cobalt      Magma
        ...
-- System Schemes ----
Oxygen      Steel
        ...

> This patch does not yet implement the multiple columns, I want some feedback
> first.

The thing I often dislike about multi-column views is the horizontal
scrolling :-). Conversely, multi-column would make better use of screen
space. Does Qt allow a fixed number of columns with vertical scrolling?
(The idea being to determine a number of columns based on the width in
the resize event; obviously it is also okay if Qt does this for us.)

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On Thursday 30 July 2009, Matthew Woehlke wrote:
> Additionally, I started work on re-writing the kcm documentation, which
> should help a bit as well (though it will probably be a while before it
> is ready, and then I need to talk to the doc team...). Also, tooltips
> have been added to the preview.

you guys are my heroes for the week for working on this stuff :) seriously,
great to see these things getting teh attention they deserve.

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Am Thursday 30 July 2009 19:25:14 schrieb Matthew Woehlke:
> At minimum, I think I'd like to see some sort of 'hinting model' and/or
> drawing pixels by hand so that the text is not 'muddy'.

I tried experimenting with Qt options, and got
http://imagebin.ca/view/gIKI45Ao.html

Of course, this is not really usable, but you have your pixels back ;)
Some fine tuning with placement could work. If not, simply use the old preview
at the smallest size.

> > * optionally include the inactive window decoration colors
>
> Screenshot of that? One way would be to draw an inactive window behind

http://imagebin.ca/view/APIfOuTQ.html

This is 160x100, of course the text placement and spacing needs to change. I
just increased icon size for the screen shot.

> the active one; if the active window could be made just a bit more
> compact (maybe move the button back to where it is in the full-size
> preview?), I think this could be made default.

I intentionally made a largish empty space in the preview, so that you
immediately get that this is the window color even in smallest size.

That was actually the main motivation: to clarify which color is used for
which element.

> Yes, sorting would be good :-), /that/ is even on
> kdebase/workspace/kcontrol/colors/TODO.

When sorting by groups, dolphins category view comes to mind ...

> The thing I often dislike about multi-column views is the horizontal
> scrolling :-). Conversely, multi-column would make better use of screen
> space. Does Qt allow a fixed number of columns with vertical scrolling?

Sure, with a custom delegate you can get the list like layout (text besides
icon) even in icon mode.

Christoph Feck (kdepepo)
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Christoph Feck wrote:
> Am Thursday 30 July 2009 19:25:14 schrieb Matthew Woehlke:
>> At minimum, I think I'd like to see some sort of 'hinting model' and/or
>> drawing pixels by hand so that the text is not 'muddy'.
>
> I tried experimenting with Qt options, and got
> http://imagebin.ca/view/gIKI45Ao.html
>
> Of course, this is not really usable, but you have your pixels back ;)

Actually I am curious why you feel it is not usable. I think I prefer
this one to the previous one. (Anyway I was more thinking that the best
way to do this would be like the current preview, hand-paint a
predefined set of pixels rather than trying to draw actual text at
miniscule point sizes.)

>>> * optionally include the inactive window decoration colors
>> Screenshot of that? One way would be to draw an inactive window behind
>
> http://imagebin.ca/view/APIfOuTQ.html
>
> This is 160x100, of course the text placement and spacing needs to change. I
> just increased icon size for the screen shot.

Yes. The back window should be maybe a little higher and could be less
to the right.

My thoughts, seeing the spacing at this size:
- left-align text in the view rather than centering
- text could be "View Text" and "Selection" instead of "Normal Text" and
"Selected Text".
- Too much space left/right of selection, the left/right and bottom
margins should be the same or even less left/right than bottom.

Also the window decorations are all wrong, but I guess you know that
:-). I'm not sure if the window should be sunken (as in the above
screenshot), raised, or flat. I guess sunken looks best, but flat would
be "more accurate".

>> the active one; if the active window could be made just a bit more
>> compact (maybe move the button back to where it is in the full-size
>> preview?), I think this could be made default.
>
> I intentionally made a largish empty space in the preview, so that you
> immediately get that this is the window color even in smallest size.
>
> That was actually the main motivation: to clarify which color is used for
> which element.

True, it makes the whole thing taller though, unfortunately. Tradeoffs,
tradeoffs...

>> Yes, sorting would be good :-), /that/ is even on
>> kdebase/workspace/kcontrol/colors/TODO.
>
> When sorting by groups, dolphins category view comes to mind ...

That's exactly what I was trying to convey :-).

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Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> On Thursday 30 July 2009, Matthew Woehlke wrote:
>> Additionally, I started work on re-writing the kcm documentation, which
>> should help a bit as well (though it will probably be a while before it
>> is ready, and then I need to talk to the doc team...). Also, tooltips
>> have been added to the preview.
>
> you guys are my heroes for the week for working on this stuff :) seriously,
> great to see these things getting teh attention they deserve.

Yes, well, people (mostly Duncan) finally pestered me enough to look
around until I actually found the dockbook sources to update the doc ;-).

(It's about 50% done, but slow going because I'm not having lots of time
to work on it. One reason you're reading this is I'm calling it a night
on only my second writing session. Anyone that wants to help, please
speak up :-).)

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Nuno Pinheiro wrote:
> also good toe hear again from you Mathew, we have some todo's in the main
> gradient thing in oxygen, if you would like to help on that ;) ?

Yeah, I know, don't have much time for KDE these days :-( and have to
prioritize more than some times before. So don't know if I'd be
available to help. I can answer mail though; one of the lists I follow
(say, this one) is a better bet as I can rarely justify hanging around
IRC these days. (If you nag me via mail you are more likely to get a
reply :-).)

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A Terça, 4 de Agosto de 2009 01:28:53 Matthew Woehlke você escreveu:

> Nuno Pinheiro wrote:
> > also good toe hear again from you Mathew, we have some todo's in the main
> > gradient thing in oxygen, if you would like to help on that ;) ?
>
> Yeah, I know, don't have much time for KDE these days :-( and have to
> prioritize more than some times before. So don't know if I'd be
> available to help. I can answer mail though; one of the lists I follow
> (say, this one) is a better bet as I can rarely justify hanging around
> IRC these days. (If you nag me via mail you are more likely to get a
> reply :-).)

thanks for all your work, I understand remember it must be fun.
And I will do that :) you may count on it :)

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> Please do not quote my e-mail address unobfuscated in message bodies.


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