On Mon, 23 Jul 2018 20:31:16 +0100 Peter Flynn <pe...@silmaril.ie> said:
> On 23/07/18 07:44, Pierre Couderc wrote: > > I have many problems with "big" screens (in pixels 1920x1080). > > Characters are very small. It is easy to change this in e itself > > using "scaling". > > > > But I have problems with many applications, vlc,thunderbird for > > example. Maybe it is because I miss some freedesktop utility or > > settings ? > No, it's a permanent problem with Linux systems: there is no way to > force individual applications to use a centrally-defined setting for > sizes, colours, etc. This is a disaster for the visually-impaired. > > The developers (or their frameworks) understandably believe that it is > *their* responsibility to dictate the font size (and a lot of other UI > parameters). > > Unfortunately they have misunderstood: the better approach is to allow > the USER to specify the font size globally, and have all applications > respect it. Some apps do allow you to change font size; many do not; I actually no. this is where users and many toolkits and apps get it totally wrong. so you specify font size. what about icons and other elements then? that is precisely why efl just uses a "scale" factor. a single number (1.0 being the default, 2.0 == 2x as big etc.) where everything that can scale is multiplied by that value, and that value is farmed out to the user to decide what works best for them. enlightenment has an option to calculate the scale factor based on dpi (with a base dpi of X == 1.0) using the real physical dpi to do it. this is one of the first questions enlightenment asks in its wizard giving you a whole bunch of options to choose from with previews so you pick what looks right. but this only affects efl/e. another way users/toolkits do this is "set dpi". you DO NOT SET dpi. dpi is a property o the screen (and its current resolution). SETTING it to get something to scale up is NOT right. now, if you do, apps that want to actually display something at a specific physical size on the screen (15x33mm for example) can't because dpi is now wrong. dpi is directly related to screen size, and querying screen size is now no longer a way to figure out what kind of screen you might have (~32"+ tv? desktop (~19-30")?, laptop (~10-17"), tablet (~7-10")? phone(~3-7") etc. (yes. things play guessorama based on these kinds of things to alter behaviour to fit that kind of device, but if you fake dpi then these guesses are going to be wrong). this why there has to be a separate sizing factor other than messing with DPI, thus why efl uses a scale factor like above that is separtate to dpi or font sizing, because really... "everyone is doing it wrong" (to be super simple about it). setting font size is wrong (for the purposes of "it's too small - i need it bigger!"). also font size is tightly tied to the font itself. at the same size different fonts can be vastly different in "visual size". the letters might be 1/4 the size visually given the same size for 2different fonts. try a lot of fonts and find out, so you pair a font size + font so the combo "looks right", then other than this, scale factor is probably the best solution, not setting dpi. > don't know of any which look to see if there is a global setting they > can follow. > > A frequent problem in usability tests is that the subject cannot see the > material because the font size is too small and cannot be adjusted > across all the applications uniformly: see > https://www.nngroup.com/articles/let-users-control-font-size/ > > But until we get a legal challenge from the visually-impaired community > under suitable legislation designed to enable them to use computers, > this will not change. For some reason, developers believe that it's not > their problem. well TBH, i doubt that would work because there are OTHER methods to solve this, like: just lower your resolution (brute force but will solve the problem), or use a magnifier tool (of which plenty exist). it's not nice solutions, but then most solutions for those impaired with something aren't wonderful - they get the job done mostly. but don't take the above as a disagreement that it's wrong to not be nice to those visually impaired who need "stuff to be bigger". the right solution IMHO is as above, and it's what EFL does, and at least across efl it works very well (as basically everything that should scale is tagged to scale, and if something was forgotten a report and a bug fix will solve it as its really a theme matter to tag things right) > e has a wonderful new-install-startup routine which lets you set the > sizes of various things like windows and fonts (I can't remember if they > can be set separately). It's a pity that other window managers hide this > functionality or fail to provide it by default. it's just a single size. it's intended for exactly the use cases you want - "make stuff bigger so i can see it" and you are asked to just select the thing that looks best to you. as above - it works across e/efl because it's designed to work this way. other toolkits imho are messier. gnome/gtk has a mix of "set font size", set dpi and "hi dpi display" which originally only allowed for integer scaling (2x, 3x, 4x etc.) as a wayland protocol. qt i think is dpi + font size too (when i say dpi, i mean "fake the dpi"). > ///Peter > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most > engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot > _______________________________________________ > enlightenment-users mailing list > enlightenment-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/enlightenment-users > -- ------------- Codito, ergo sum - "I code, therefore I am" -------------- Carsten Haitzler - ras...@rasterman.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ enlightenment-users mailing list enlightenment-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/enlightenment-users
