Bug 174342

Summary: Icon spacing leads to tiny icons.
Product: [Applications] dolphin Reporter: Thomas Zander <zander>
Component: generalAssignee: Peter Penz <peter.penz19>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED    
Severity: normal    
Priority: NOR    
Version: 16.12.2   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: unspecified   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Thomas Zander 2008-11-05 15:09:15 UTC 
Version:           1.1.80 (using 4.1.68 (KDE 4.1.68 (KDE 4.2 >= 20081001)), compiled sources)
Compiler:          gcc
OS:                Linux (i686) release 2.6.25-2-686

In dolphin, in the icon view the folder icons are pretty small per default. When I make the icons bigger the icons still feel very small and there doesn't seem to be a zoom level that is satisfactory to the eyes.

I now realized the reason for this; when I make the icons bigger (for example 64 pixels or so) the white between each icon is disproportional large. (80 pixels in this case).

If you make the spacing between the icons to be much less the view just looks much better.  Especially in space constrained windows (file dialog for instance) this would make a huge difference to the appearance. And a very positive one.

For comparison; konqueror in kde3 had a 2:3 ratio. So 1/3th blank space. This is in dolphin kde4 more then reversed.
Comment 1 Peter Penz 2008-11-05 15:54:11 UTC 
Thanks Thomas for your suggestions. The icon space topic is quite problematic in KDE 4... One reason why Dolphin uses a relative big space between icons is to have access to the viewport for a rubberband selection or getting a context-menu without selecting an item. Please let me explain: In KDE 3 only the icon and and the text of an item acted as selectable area, sadly in Qt4 it is only possible having rectangular selection/hover areas. This means: if one item has a very long text, the the empty space left and right from the icon als act as selectable area in Qt4:

+-------------------------+
|        XXXXXXXX         |
|        X Icon X         |
|        XXXXXXXX         |
|This is a very long text.|
+-------------------------+

In Qt3 the selectable area looked like this:

        +--------+
        |XXXXXXXX|
        |X Icon X|
+-------+XXXXXXXX+--------+
|This is a very long text.|
+-------------------------+

So with KDE 3 it was even possible using a gap of 0 pixels to have access to the viewport, while in KDE 4 a gap of 0 pixels means having no access to the viewport if the file names are quite long...

I agree that it should be possible in Dolphin being able to configure the same sizes as during KDE 3 times. Maybe a smaller minimum text width should be offered?

Regarding the default size: The space used by Dolphin is quite similar to the spaces used in OS X Finder, Vistas Explorer or Nautilus. Personally I think the default spacing in Konqueror in KDE 3 was very small...

I'll play around a little bit before KDE 4.2, with the goal in mind being able to get an icon view like in KDE 3.
Comment 2 Peter Penz 2008-11-05 20:37:55 UTC 
SVN commit 880533 by ppenz:

Allow having a smaller text width for the icons view (Text size: "Small"), so that the same grid size can be achieved like in Konqueror for KDE 3. The default size for Dolphin will stay on "Medium".

CCBUG: 174342

 M  +1 -0      iconsviewsettingspage.cpp  
 M  +1 -1      iconsviewsettingspage.h  


WebSVN link: http://websvn.kde.org/?view=rev&revision=880533
Comment 3 Peter Penz 2008-11-05 20:40:09 UTC 
Thomas, I've just submitted a patch. If you go into Settings -> Configure Dolphin... -> View Modes, select the "Icons" tab and select:
  Text width: "Small"
you have a nearly equal grid size like in Konqueror for KDE 3.

Is this patch in your sense?