Bug 402730 - Light fontstyles for headings are causing visual and legibility issues
Summary: Light fontstyles for headings are causing visual and legibility issues
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: libplasma
Classification: Frameworks and Libraries
Component: components (show other bugs)
Version: 5.53.0
Platform: unspecified Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Marco Martin
URL:
Keywords: usability
: 403365 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2018-12-31 15:19 UTC by Filip Fila
Modified: 2019-01-29 16:34 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In: 5.55


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Description Filip Fila 2018-12-31 15:19:35 UTC
SUMMARY
After updating to Frameworks 5.53, certain headings throughout Plasma have started using the "Light" fontstyle. 

This raises several issues: 

(1) light font styles can look wispy, creating legibility issues

(2) if Plasma doesn't find a "Light" fontstyle, it will use thinner styles such as "Thin, "Hairline" or "ExtraLight", further exacerbating the problem

e.g. test with DejaVu Sans which only has an "ExtraLight" variant.

or see Plasma turning on "Hairline" Lato if there is no "Light" variant: https://i.ibb.co/7JcdNTW/nightcall.png

(3) light styles can create a sharp discrepancy between labels, all the while not providing good visual hierarchy due to more important labels being thinner and less prominent

e.g. the eyes are drawn away from song titles: https://i.ibb.co/896scPN/Screenshot-20181231-160720.png

In Discover the attention gets shifted away from appliction names to their descriptions: https://i.ibb.co/DLsYyrP/Screenshot-20181231-160742.png

(4) whereas most fonts have Bold or Italic variants, a substantial proportion of them doesn't have a Light variant, which means we're not guaranteeing content distinction for all users

OBSERVED RESULT
Visual and legibility issues when certain headings use a "Light" fontstyle. 

EXPECTED RESULT
No visual or legibility issues.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: Manjaro Linux 
KDE Plasma Version: 5.14.4
Qt Version: 5.12.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.53.0
Comment 1 Nate Graham 2018-12-31 15:29:04 UTC
I very strongly agree. Using thin and wispy styles for headings and titles seems semantically incorrect since they have lower visual weight than their content. It's the opposite effect from what's expected and typical.

There's another implementation-specific problem: it often doesn't work. If the appropriate font variant isn't installed, Qt will try its best to fall back to what's available, an the user will either see eithera regular font weight (ruining the intended effect) or a super thin font weight (which is often borderline illegible).

I recommend at the minimum using a regular font weight, and potentially even going bold for at least levels 2-5 on the Heading component. Giving headings greater visual prominence is semantically and visually appropriate.
Comment 2 Nate Graham 2019-01-10 16:14:38 UTC
Git commit fdc9124687855e8f988c301a6a9b3646d41e9659 by Nate Graham, on behalf of Filip Fila.
Committed on 10/01/2019 at 16:14.
Pushed by ngraham into branch 'master'.

[frameworks] Do not use light font styles for headings (1/3)

Summary:
This patch turns off light font styles for some headings because they cause visual and legibility issues, as explained in the respective bug report.

FIXED-IN: 5.54

Test Plan:
**//Worst case scenario testing//** - font does not have a "light" variant and falls back to using a thinner one such as "hairline"

**Before:**
{F6520036}

{F6520035}

{F6520034}

**After:**
{F6520039}

{F6520038}

{F6520037}

**//Plasma defaults testing//**

**Before**:
{F6520778}

{F6520777}

{F6520776}

**After:**
{F6520781}

{F6520780}

{F6520779}

Reviewers: ngraham, #plasma, #vdg, #frameworks

Reviewed By: ngraham, #vdg

Subscribers: #frameworks, #plasma, #vdg, ngraham, abetts, kde-frameworks-devel

Tags: #frameworks

Differential Revision: https://phabricator.kde.org/D17905

M  +0    -2    src/declarativeimports/plasmaextracomponents/qml/Heading.qml
M  +0    -2    src/declarativeimports/plasmaextracomponents/qml/Title.qml

https://commits.kde.org/plasma-framework/fdc9124687855e8f988c301a6a9b3646d41e9659
Comment 3 Nate Graham 2019-01-10 16:19:03 UTC
Git commit e5d392cb79f9496dd5baeda5ede628d1b75ce84c by Nate Graham, on behalf of Filip Fila.
Committed on 10/01/2019 at 16:18.
Pushed by ngraham into branch 'master'.

[kirigami] Do not use light font styles for headings (2/3)

Summary:
This patch turns off light font styles for some headings because they cause visual and legibility issues, as explained in the respective bug report.

FIXED-IN: 5.54

Test Plan:
**//Worst case scenario testing//** - font does not have a "light" variant and falls back to using a thinner one such as "hairline"

**Before:**
{F6520053}

**After:**
{F6520055}

**//Plasma defaults testing//**

**Before:**
{F6520791}

**After:**
{F6520792}

Reviewers: ngraham, #plasma, #vdg, #frameworks, mart

Reviewed By: ngraham, #plasma, #vdg, mart

Subscribers: fabianr, rooty, #frameworks, ngraham, #plasma, #vdg, abetts, mart, plasma-devel

Tags: #kirigami

Differential Revision: https://phabricator.kde.org/D17906

M  +0    -2    src/controls/Heading.qml

https://commits.kde.org/kirigami/e5d392cb79f9496dd5baeda5ede628d1b75ce84c
Comment 4 Nate Graham 2019-01-10 16:26:02 UTC
Git commit dc901a1f0b5f6621bfa1c23e33dcfdf6246e7cb1 by Nate Graham, on behalf of Krešimir Čohar.
Committed on 10/01/2019 at 16:25.
Pushed by ngraham into branch 'master'.

[KWidgetsAddons] Do not use light font styles for headings (3/3)

Summary:
This patch brings back regular font styles for headings to KTitleWidget for the sake of consistency with QML and Kirigami, where they were also reintroduced in favor of better legibility.

FIXED-IN: 5.54

Test Plan:
Before:
{F6520054}
After:
{F6520058}

Reviewers: ngraham, #frameworks, #vdg, #plasma

Reviewed By: ngraham, #vdg

Subscribers: cfeck, filipf, kde-frameworks-devel

Tags: #frameworks

Differential Revision: https://phabricator.kde.org/D17907

M  +0    -29   src/ktitlewidget.cpp

https://commits.kde.org/kwidgetsaddons/dc901a1f0b5f6621bfa1c23e33dcfdf6246e7cb1
Comment 5 Gianluca Pettinello 2019-01-13 14:34:30 UTC
I like the thin character, looks to me professional.
Is it possible to have it under font configuration (e.g. use thin fonts) so that if somebody wants can use thin fonts?
KDE is configurability after all :)

Ciao
Gianulca
Comment 6 Nate Graham 2019-01-13 14:40:10 UTC
You already can, sort of. What you can't currently do is choose the font size/style etc. just for headings. That's something we do want to implement/
Comment 7 Gianluca Pettinello 2019-01-15 21:23:06 UTC
Thanks Nate for the(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #6)
> You already can, sort of. What you can't currently do is choose the font
> size/style etc. just for headings. That's something we do want to implement/

Thanks Nate
Comment 8 Nate Graham 2019-01-29 16:34:53 UTC
*** Bug 403365 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***