the_pi Posted April 11 Posted April 11 Please give in the UI the active buttons in Dark Mode - especially in the left toolbar - a lot more background contrast or a different background-color! Even on HDR monitors, it's almost impossible to tell which tool is currently active, just by looking at the UI. This is even evident on your own Quickstart help pages, for example, Affinity Photo Persona Quickstart. The active tool only has a slightly darker background. In Dark Mode, the difference between the active and inactive tools is really hard to see. In contrast, this is handled very well in Light Mode (see attached screenshots). PS: This affects all Affinity Desktop Apps (at least on Windows, no idea about MacOS). Quote
Pšenda Posted April 11 Posted April 11 (edited) 3 hours ago, the_pi said: In contrast, this is handled very well in Light Mode (see attached screenshots). Unfortunately, Serif did not understand the basic principle of working with contrast in the user interface - in "light" mode, activity (clicking on an element) is indicated by "darkening" its background, while in "dark" mode, activity (clicking on an element) should be indicated by "lightening" its background, not, as Affinity does incorrectly, by darkening the background even further, which is then of course almost invisible. P.S. I'll add another thing - Serif is trying to stick to the concept of 3D perception of buttons (tabs), where light is used. That is, the pressed button is immersed, is more shaded, and therefore darker (for an active tab, it's the other way around). But the concept of 3D controls, where working with light makes sense, is already questioned in the current non-3D/flat UI, and therefore working with contrast and shadows of pressed buttons is problematic and not yet sufficiently visible. For example, here the 3D principle is handled quite well/correctly, because the unpressed button is raised above the panel surface, and is therefore brighter than the panel and than the pressed button. In the case of the Tool panel, however, the buttons are not displayed as 3D buttons, meaning that unpressed buttons are not lighter (on the contrary, they are completely dark like the panel color), and then pressing/darkening the button does not have enough contrast. A simple and often used way to improve the visibility of button selection (which, by the way, is based on the concept of 3D button drawing, where the edges of a raised or pressed button added an additional contrast element that improved the indication of the button's state). Edited April 11 by Pšenda the_pi 1 Quote Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.5.7.2948 (Retail) Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 24H2, Build 26100.2605. Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 24H2, Build 26100.2605. Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130.
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