Hard if not impossible to see which layer is selected

[Gear maker]

Affects AD and APh for every version since light mode was added. 

I'm not sure if this would count as a suggestion or a bug.  I also thought I'd entered it a couple years ago but I'm not finding it.

In dark mode it's easy to see what layer/groups contain the selected object.  The color changes from a dark gray (56 56 56) to a blue gray (57 63 70) and the expand/collapse arrows have a nice circle around them.  Fairly easy to see.

But in light mode the difference in color is much subtler, from the light gray (240 240 240) to a slight off white (234 237 241) that my poor eyes have a problem picking out.  And there is no circle around the expand/collapse arrows to increase visibility.  I find I have to use the Find in layer's panel much more than I'd like.   The UI Gamma adjustment doesn't seem to make much of a change in contrast.

Could the users of the light mode get a slightly more contrasting selection and a dark circle around the expand/collapse arrows?

                                   

Then to make matters even worse when first opening up the drawing.  The following examples have the same object selected as do the above examples.  There is no difference in layer colors in both light and dark modes until a layer selection is done.  And no circle in either mode.  So again the Find in layer's panel is necessary.

                                    

[walt.farrell]

Are you on MacOS or Windows?

If on Mac, what do you have your System highlight color set to?

I'm on Windows, and my highlight for the selected layer is significantly stronger than yours, in either UI.

[Gear maker]

13 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

If on Mac, what do you have your System highlight color set to?

Walt, my highlight color is the light blue that I believe is the default mac color.  I tried changing it to the green above the blue and I don't see an effect on the group holding the selected object.  I also tried a dark blue, still no difference.  What's the color used on your PC?

[walt.farrell]

or

The selected layer is a bright blue in either UI.

[Gear maker]

On 2/8/2021 at 7:56 AM, walt.farrell said:

The selected layer is a bright blue in either UI.

Walt, sorry I missed your answer.  What I am talking about is a buried selection.  Take the two layers make a group.  Expand the group, select one of the layers and collapse the group.  Now the highlighting is only a ghost of what it was.  And in the light UI it's a fainter ghost.  So faint I can hardly find it in a string of layers, as shown in the images above.  Mike

[walt.farrell]

6 minutes ago, Gear maker said:

Walt, sorry I missed your answer.  What I am talking about is a buried selection.  Take the two layers make a group.  Expand the group, select one of the layers and collapse the group.  Now the highlighting is only a ghost of what it was.  And in the light UI it's a fainter ghost.  So faint I can hardly find it in a string of layers, as shown in the images above.  Mike

Thanks for the clarification.

[carl123]

This is mine (Windows) which is clearly a lot better than yours. Which to be honest I would consider unusable for me.

If other users on Macs are not as bad as yours, I would check your monitor settings. (Brightness, contrast, calibration, etc)

 

[jmwellborn]

14 minutes ago, carl123 said:

This is mine (Windows) which is clearly a lot better than yours. Which to be honest I would consider unusable for me.

If other users on Macs are not as bad as yours, I would check your monitor settings. (Brightness, contrast, calibration, etc)

 

Mine look like yours in Photo, Designer, and Publisher, on both the iMac and the Macbook Pro.  Methinks the problem lies elsewhere.

[walt.farrell]

@jmwellborn, @carl123:

The case that @Gear maker is describing is more like this screenshot (from Windows):

Note the 2 groups that have the dark blue highlighting, which indicates that they contain a layer which is selected. The selected layer is inside the group I have marked in red. The issue is specific to collapsed groups.

Here's the Light UI version:

Now, envision as in Gear Maker's case, a longer list of layers and groups.

[carl123]

Hi @walt.farrell 

If you compare yours to the OPs you can see the difference

Both layers indicated by the arrowheads are highlighted but yours is significantly easier to see it is highlighted

 

[Gear maker]

@walt.farrell and @jmwellborn Both of yours would be acceptable.  Wish I knew what setting would cause the problem.  If I darken the display to see the highlight then everything else is unnaturally dark.  I tried playing with the display profile, but again the ones that darkened the highlight darkened everything else.

[prophet]

I'm on a Mac and have the same experience as the OP. The indication on the parent Group of a selected object is extremely faint. Changing the system highlight color does nothing.

[Jowday]

Select sublayer, collapse the lentire ayer, Windows dark theme (Windows and Affinity):

Okay easy to identify in this microscopic cutout - but not on the entire screen with many document and ui elements visible:

Notice the swatch and layer panel side by side - inconsistency - one selection is blue and another not.

[walt.farrell]

49 minutes ago, Jowday said:

Notice the swatch and layer panel side by side - inconsistency - one selection is blue and another not.

In the Layers panel, the "selected" layer is not in view. The highlight is showing for a different reason, and therfore it is a different color.  If the selected layer were visible (expand the group) it would have the same highlight color as the Swatch selection.

[Jowday]

4 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

In the Layers panel, the "selected" layer is not in view. The highlight is showing for a different reason, and therfore it is a different color.  If the selected layer were visible (expand the group) it would have the same highlight color as the Swatch selection.

Yep - but that is how it was made by Serif. Not how it should be.

[walt.farrell]

1 minute ago, Jowday said:

Yep - but that is how it was made by Serif. Not how it should be.

Just pointing out that you're comparing apples and oranges. Two different kinds of "selected" having two different highlight colors seems quite reasonable to me.

If you were to expand that group, and both the group and a layer inside it had the bright blue highlight you would commplain about that, as you wouldn't be able to tell which one is really selected.

[Jowday]

16 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Just pointing out that you're comparing apples and oranges. Two different kinds of "selected" having two different highlight colors seems quite reasonable to me.

Yeah, kind of. 🙂

Two colours... Not if it causes confusion - or is difficult to see. In this case often very difficult. We are not supposed to provide the solution; that is what a user experience designers are for.  

In this case Serifs use of colours is certainly not non-standard though. The contrast ratio is just too small. So we are dealing with a usability issue caused by a classic accessibility issue; too low contrast for they eye to decode or identify something clearly.

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, Jowday said:

The contrast ratio is just too small. So we are dealing with a usability issue caused by a classic accessibility issue; too low contrast for they eye to decode or identify something clearly.

I can certainly agree with that

It sounded as though you were proposing the highlght color should be the same, which would be confusing.

[Jowday]

23 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I can certainly agree with that

It sounded as though you were proposing the highlght color should be the same, which would be confusing.

I kind of did - but took a closed look at Designer and re-read the original posts. 🙂

I would still prefer the colour to have a hint of blue in it. But very subtle. Blue still represents “selection”.

[Gear maker]

1 minute ago, Jowday said:

I would still prefer the colour to have a hint of blue in it. But very subtle. Blue still represents “selection”.

They do have a "hint" of blue with an RGB of (57 63 70) and (234 237 241) but the hint is just a whispered hint.😁