Bug 457307

Summary:	Header colors should be a separate color instead of automatically applied
Product:	[Plasma] plasmashell	Reporter:	doncbugs
Component:	general	Assignee:	Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status:	RESOLVED INTENTIONAL
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	kde, nate
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	5.25.3
Target Milestone:	1.0
Platform:	Neon
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments:	header colors always override background color assets in header area

Description doncbugs 2022-07-30 17:56:53 UTC

SUMMARY
I've run into problems making Plasma Themes. Because header colors are always applied if there are assets that are background color in header/footer svg, it often ruins certain styles. For instance, I have wanted to make a a color-compatible theme that simply had more opaque headers and footers. Because coloring the headers of dialogs is hard-coded, them being present in the color scheme means the top of a dialog will always have a different color from the bottom, even if it was not intended.

Similarly, Aurorae could also benefit from access to header colors and may be able to solve the conflict of color-compatibility. Of course, that would require a lot of updates to it to truly resolve its problems.

Being able to pick and choose when colors are applied would improve the flexibility of plasma's theming and, in an ideal world, cut down on the need for numerous duplicate themes that are basically recolors.

In the case of the Willow Spectrum theme, using it with Breeze Light (which has a darker header) causes the header to become darker even though it would usually become lighter and easier to read due to background color.

Comment 1 Nate Graham 2022-08-01 16:51:10 UTC

Can you attach a screenshot that shows the problem, and attach a color scheme file and/or Plasma theme that causes it?

Comment 2 doncbugs 2022-08-02 01:18:06 UTC

Created attachment 151064 [details]
header colors always override background color assets in header area

I recall this being a natural consequence of how Niccolo added it? It was designed so nothing new would have to be added and it would set the header asset that was background color, but located in the header area of a plasmoid dialog, to the header's color. It was sort of a band-aid solution and didn't matter much at the time when headers were mostly just ~background color anyway.

The following two themes are very effective at demonstrating it. They are already on the store:
Color Scheme: Maw Sit Sit. Use Maw Sit Sit Header to get green headers for maximum visibility
Plasma Style: Willow Spectrum. Its headers are background color, but they become green when a theme like Maw Sit Sit is used.

Comment 3 Nate Graham 2022-08-02 16:51:20 UTC

Got it. Can reproduce.

In terms of the originally reported bug, the header color already is a separate color and it's not automatically applied to the Plasma theme; this only happens when you enable the color scheme setting that applies the accent color to titlebars.

So I believe this is intentional right now. Personally I kind of like the effect. If you want to avoid it, you can ship a color scheme that doesn't have Header colors in it with your plasma theme.

Comment 4 doncbugs 2022-08-04 23:51:49 UTC

(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #3)

> So I believe this is intentional right now. Personally I kind of like the
> effect.

Yeah, I guess I walked into that one showing you one of the more favorable outcomes. The saturation against a dark background can be fairly nice. However, when Breeze Light is in use, for instance, the header can become very dark, even looking 'dirty' with certain monitors (imo).

> If you want to avoid it, you can ship a color scheme that doesn't
> have Header colors in it with your plasma theme.

Well the problem is that my themes are generally designed to accept any color scheme, ideally with zero user input/modification required. Willow Dark and Willow Light are hard-coded. The end goal is cut down theme spam to the bare-minimum for the most customization.

I suppose why I would want the plasma theme to behave differently has to do with maintaining the functionality to have unique styles for each component and is probably a discussion that shouldn't be a bug report. I imagine this is a much taller order for rather esoteric need, but I do think it should _eventually_ be handled the right way.