UI - background color for an active tool button is to indifferent from the inactive

[Martinoff]

Hi.

This is a minor UI problem, but doing lot of work in Photoshop/Illustrator over the years I feel a bit lost when working in Affinity Photo/Designer. I use the dark UI style, but the same goes for the light one. The background color on the tool button change so little between inactive and active that I sometimes m not sure if it is active or not. It is of course an extreme minor problem, but it gives me always the feeling that Photo/Designer is slow and unresponsive and make me miss Photoshop/Illustrator. Yes, I have tried all the options under Preferences when it comes to user interface, but I have not be able to change this to any better. The gamma option is the best, but I m still not able to get what I need. 

Maybe my eyes is getting old, but then I wish for an option to make it better for old eyes :) 

Thanks folks :) 

[firstdefence]

Welcome to the forum, other users have mentioned this issue, with not knowing whether a tool is selected or not so you are not alone.

[Martinoff]

Thanks for answering. It feels like a stupid question, but it is something about the workflow and for me a small adjustment to the background color of the active button will change alot, but of course it can be that I m so used to Photoshop that I just need some time with Photo. Anyway, thanks again

[R C-R]

FWIW, I first complained about the difficulty of seeing which tool or button is active sometime around the end of 2014 or the beginning of 2015, when the only Affinity app was Designer & it was only available for Macs. That was long before the apps got the choice of a light or dark UI which (I guess) was supposed to help with that but as you mentioned does not. 

[Cecil]

I also experience the same, even on Context Tool bar.  It’s very hard, for me, to know if Snapping is turned on or off.

[Martinoff]

It is good to know that there are others that experience this too, and that it is not only me that are "difficult". The color palette can not be difficult to change for the team

[lepr]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

FWIW, I first complained about the difficulty of seeing which tool or button is active sometime around the end of 2014 or the beginning of 2015, when the only Affinity app was Designer & it was only available for Macs. That was long before the apps got the choice of a light or dark UI which (I guess) was supposed to help with that but as you mentioned does not. 

It's incredible and disappointing that Serif have not improved the UI and, therefore, the UX with a slight increase in contrast between active and inactive. In fact, Serif are effectively giving the finger to users who would greatly benefit from a minor change, in my opinion.

[RM f/g]

I, too, would welcome the ability to actually see which (tool) button is pressed in dark mode.