Bug 399968 - Suggestion on improving selection markers emblems' visual consistency
Summary: Suggestion on improving selection markers emblems' visual consistency
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: Breeze
Classification: Plasma
Component: Icons (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Platform: Other Linux
: NOR wishlist
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: visual-design
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2018-10-18 06:45 UTC by Tyson Tan
Modified: 2018-10-29 14:35 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In: 5.52


Attachments
Plasma Blue emblem-added (28.28 KB, image/png)
2018-10-24 12:25 UTC, Noah Davis
Details
Icon Red emblem-remove (29.10 KB, image/png)
2018-10-24 12:27 UTC, Noah Davis
Details

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Description Tyson Tan 2018-10-18 06:45:18 UTC
SUMMARY
I have 2 suggestions on improving the visual consistency of Dolphin's selection markers. Please allow me to explain them separately below.

1) A Square Plus selection marker:
Right now the "Plus" (+) selection marker in Dolphin is round. It creates visual inconsistency because almost everything else including the "Minus" [-] icon is sharp and rectangle. It really stands out right now as a green round icon and doesn't match anything else there.

2) Do not highlight selection markers with colors:
Right now the (+) icon turns green and the [-] icon turns red when cursor is over them. Again this creates visual inconsistency because KDE's visual style is very grey-white-oriented and low-key-elegant. The green and red used here are way too intense and they stand out in a bad way. 

Although they serve their functions, I think we can either: 
a) Turn it down a notch so they look greyish-green/red
b) Use blue instead of green, use orange-yellow instead of red
c) Use only transparency difference as over hints

Thank you!
Comment 1 Kai Uwe Broulik 2018-10-18 06:48:44 UTC
For that pretty much the "somewhat best fitting" icons were chosen in the iconset, never were dedicated icons created for this. I agree, this needs some polish. I even copied that to Folder View, to at least be consistently bad :)
Comment 2 Noah Davis 2018-10-20 22:30:42 UTC
Hello, I am currently doing work related to your request (improving the consistency and visibility of emblems), so I will see if I can make this work.

(In reply to Tyson Tan from comment #0)
> 1) A Square Plus selection marker:
> Right now the "Plus" (+) selection marker in Dolphin is round. It creates
> visual inconsistency because almost everything else including the "Minus"
> [-] icon is sharp and rectangle. It really stands out right now as a green
> round icon and doesn't match anything else there.

I will definitely do this.

> 2) Do not highlight selection markers with colors:
> Right now the (+) icon turns green and the [-] icon turns red when cursor is
> over them. Again this creates visual inconsistency because KDE's visual
> style is very grey-white-oriented and low-key-elegant. The green and red
> used here are way too intense and they stand out in a bad way. 

I know it's not your point, but green and red are the real colors of those icons. They go semi-transparent when the mouse isn't over them and I think they lose their color as well.

> Although they serve their functions, I think we can either: 
> a) Turn it down a notch so they look greyish-green/red

I'll experiment with that and changing the opacity of the background to make the colors have more light or dark grey based on the color scheme.

> b) Use blue instead of green, use orange-yellow instead of red

Blue instead of green might make sense, but I'm not so sure about orange/yellow since those colors are usually used for warnings and user input.

> c) Use only transparency difference as over hints

I'm not sure what this means.
Comment 3 Tyson Tan 2018-10-21 01:41:34 UTC
I thought the emblems were handled two separated ones for each. For example, I thought you have a grey (+) and a green (+) for "Add" and gradually switch between them when the mouse cursor is over or away from a folder.

Apparently, what you actually do is using only one green (+) emblem and desaturate  it when the mouse cursor is away?

So,

1) My last suggestion is to use grey emblem bases for both [+] and [-]
2) When the mouse cursor is over them, they have no transparency.
3) When the mouse cursor is away from them, they have some transparency
Comment 4 Noah Davis 2018-10-21 03:46:44 UTC
(In reply to Tyson Tan from comment #3)
> I thought the emblems were handled two separated ones for each. For example,
> I thought you have a grey (+) and a green (+) for "Add" and gradually switch
> between them when the mouse cursor is over or away from a folder.

There's probably some code in Dolphin or something to change the color. You can see the icons here (emblem-added, emblem-remove): https://phabricator.kde.org/source/breeze-icons/browse/master/icons/emblems/8/

> Apparently, what you actually do is using only one green (+) emblem and
> desaturate  it when the mouse cursor is away?
> 
> So,
> 
> 1) My last suggestion is to use grey emblem bases for both [+] and [-]
> 2) When the mouse cursor is over them, they have no transparency.
> 3) When the mouse cursor is away from them, they have some transparency

Like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHUiV6VKH3o
Comment 5 Tyson Tan 2018-10-22 01:26:16 UTC
Yes. Exactly that. Thank you!
Comment 6 Noah Davis 2018-10-24 12:25:48 UTC
Created attachment 115870 [details]
Plasma Blue emblem-added

(In reply to Tyson Tan from comment #5)
> Yes. Exactly that. Thank you!

Keep in mind that's not the final design. Because those icons may not be used exclusively for selecting files in Dolphin, It may make sense to keep their colors. Here's another version with Plasma Blue for emblem-added instead of the green it used to have.
Comment 7 Noah Davis 2018-10-24 12:27:22 UTC
Created attachment 115871 [details]
Icon Red emblem-remove
Comment 8 Nate Graham 2018-10-24 16:03:17 UTC
Those are fantastic! I love the design and border. Very nice. Color-wise, I wonder if the red remove emblem oughtn't use a different color--maybe yellow or orange? We usually use red for destructive actions or error conditions, but de-selecting something isn't destructive or an error. As far as I can tell, emblem-remove is currently only used in Dolphin.

This is something we're already not perfectly consistent about (e.g. red close buttons everywhere), so maybe it doesn't matter? Or maybe we should then fix those too...
Comment 9 Nate Graham 2018-10-29 13:18:57 UTC
Git commit 527704fbfb2dd85f352b058c0ce33b061c576fa3 by Nate Graham, on behalf of Noah Davis.
Committed on 29/10/2018 at 13:14.
Pushed by ngraham into branch 'master'.

Improve emblem contrast, legibility and consistency

Summary:
Added outlines to 16 and 22 px icons
Improved the legibility of 8px icons
Added new 8, 16 and 22 px versions of existing emblems
Improved the consistency of emblem icons
Related: bug 399356, bug 399357
FIXED-IN: 5.52

Reviewers: #vdg

Reviewed By: #vdg, ngraham

Subscribers: kde-frameworks-devel, #vdg

Tags: #frameworks

Differential Revision: https://phabricator.kde.org/D16421

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https://commits.kde.org/breeze-icons/527704fbfb2dd85f352b058c0ce33b061c576fa3
Comment 10 Tyson Tan 2018-10-29 14:35:56 UTC
Thank you for all the works. Can't wait to see them!