Bug 325883

Summary:	It is hard to discern the activated and inactivated element in a bright background in the new Air Plasma theme.
Product:	[Unmaintained] plasma4	Reporter:	Ukyoi <ukyoi>
Component:	general	Assignee:	Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status:	RESOLVED UNMAINTAINED
Severity:	normal	CC:	alavarre
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	4.11.2
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Arch Linux
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments:	This is an example of the problem.

Description Ukyoi 2013-10-11 11:24:25 UTC

Air plasma theme becomes more flat in 4.11. I can't tell it's better or not but there is a new problem: It's hard to distinguish the activated element in a bright background.

For example, it's really hard to notice the activated activity with the activity bar (Win+Q). (I'll upload a picture to show that more clearly) And of course the problem can affect not only the activity bar but also the pager, the task switcher and lots of things. 

I know Air is a light theme, but working with a bright background is a pretty frequent situation (e.g. When the text editor is behind the panel). Would it be possible to add a more subtle visual cue?

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
0. Use the Air plasma theme.
1. Put a bright background behind a panel.
Actual Results:  
It is hard to discern that which is the activated element.

Expected Results:  
Add a more subtle visual cue to indicate the activated element.

Comment 1 Ukyoi 2013-10-11 11:25:43 UTC

Created attachment 82786 [details]
This is an example of the problem.

This is an example of the problem.

Comment 2 Andy Lavarre 2015-08-10 11:57:57 UTC

The Task Switcher background should be significantly darker than the selected window icon, or vice versa.

This problem seems to be independent of the theme. It exists in several themes. For example Oxygen with 

     	Kickoff → Window Behaviour → Task Switcher → Visualization 

set to Small Icons, but it exists in other visualization options, including the text options, e.g., Informative.

The real problem is that the background color of the task switcher is very close to the color of the selected window icon.

As a result, it is hard to see the selected window icon change when you click Alt and then consecutive Tabs. It does move the selected window icon but it is hard to see the change. 

I spent quite some time trying to change Task switcher themes (KDE 4.14.9) and in doing so discovered what appears to be another bug: 

You can change 

	Kickoff → Window Behaviour → Task Switcher → Visualization to various settings, but not all actually come into effect when you click Apply.
	
		The following take effect immediately:
			Small Icons
			Grid
			Informative
			Compact
			Large icons
			Present windows clone
			Scaling
			Thumbnails
		
		The following have no visible effect:
			Cover switch
			Flip switch

Comment 3 Nate Graham 2018-06-08 18:36:37 UTC

Hello!

This bug report was filed for KDE Plasma 4, which reached end-of-support status in August 2015. KDE Plasma 5's desktop shell has been almost completely rewritten for better performance and usability, so it is likely that this bug has already been resolved in Plasma 5.

Accordingly, we hope you understand why we must close this bug report. If the issue described  here is still present in KDE Plasma 5.12 or later, please feel free to open a new ticket in the "plasmashell" product after reading https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved/Bug_Reporting

If you would like to get involved in KDE's bug triaging effort so that future mass bug closes like this are less likely, please read https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved#Bug_Triaging

Thanks for your understanding!

Nate Graham