Dark UI for Photo but light save/open finder window

[Mr Lucky]

Before upgrading to 1.7 I had a dark interface, but Affinity Photo still used the system light interface for the open or save finder window.

But it seems in 1.7 the finder window is dark also.

This is very bad news unless I can find the setting fix this is my eyesight is not great - I need dark in the Photo inr=erface but dark for the finder window is very difficult for me to find anything.

Please how do I get it it the way it was before? Thanks

[Lee D]

This was actually an issue in 1.6 as with some dialogues the correct mode (light/dark) wasn't loading. This has been resolved in 1.7, so those dialogues now call the correct UI mode based on what is set in Preferences > User Interface, the mode of the dialogues can't be individually set.

[Mr Lucky]

It was not an issue with 1.6, that's my whole point - it was working fine.

Or is this a classic case of mending something that isn't broken?

If someone wants a dark background for viewing the application they could do that. If they wanted a light background for viewing the finder windows they do that.

Now the Affinity dark/light preference encroaches on the Mac viewing presences and very bad for useability, especially people with not perfect vision. 

 

So there is now a superfluous setting also, which is to set Affinity the same as the Mac system. What is the point if it does that anyway (changes the open/save finder window) when you set  the Affinity preferences. Seems like someone hasn't thought this through and made changes just for the sake of fiddling with something that was fine.

[R C-R]

22 hours ago, Mr Lucky said:

It was not an issue with 1.6, that's my whole point - it was working fine.

It was not working correctly for Macs running Apple's dark mode, a new feature in macOS Mojave. Version 1.7 fixed that.

So if you are running macOS Mojave, turn off dark mode in System Preferences > General & see if you get better results.

[Mr Lucky]

This is the point. I have Mojave running in light mode, Affinity 1.7 in dark.

 

But when I go to open a file in Affinity, the finder window is in dark instead of light as defined in Mojave system preferences. If I wanted it dark when browsing for files to open I would have set dark on the Mac. 

[Sedu]

On 6/8/2019 at 10:28 AM, Mr Lucky said:

This is the point. I have Mojave running in light mode, Affinity 1.7 in dark.

 

But when I go to open a file in Affinity, the finder window is in dark instead of light as defined in Mojave system preferences. If I wanted it dark when browsing for files to open I would have set dark on the Mac. 

Hello, I have the same problem as Mr Lucky. I'm running Mojave in the light theme because it's more clearly to find files. In Photo, Publisher and Designer I would like to work with the dark UI because it has a better contrast for my work. Unfortunately it shows the open/save dialogue in the Affinity Settings choosen UI Color. The Affinity Color should'nt have any effect of my browser color! If i would like to use a dark open/save dialogue, I can choose it in my mac system settings.

[Pšenda]

In Windows it works the way you want it, but it seems pretty inconsistent - print dialog dark, printer properties light, ...

If Affinity would use its own file-opening dialog (and others), it would also be dark.

[markw]

So not just me then either!
I’m having the same issue; OS set to light mode but Finder window calls from Photo (1.7 & 1.7.1beta) and Designer (1.7) always display the resulting windows in Dark Mode.

[Friksel]

2 hours ago, Pšenda said:

In Windows it works the way you want it, but it seems pretty inconsistent - print dialog dark, printer properties light, ...

If Affinity would use its own file-opening dialog (and others), it would also be dark.

In Windows the print dialog is dark, because you're in Affinity and put Affinity in dark mode. But when the properties windows isn't generated by Affinity, but by your printer manufacturar, it's the driver on Windows providing that window. So if Windows is set to light, like it is normally, than the properties window is light. That's just the way it works on Windows. Nothing Serif can do about that AFAIK.

[Mr Lucky]

14 minutes ago, Friksel said:

In Windows the print dialog is dark, because you're in Affinity and put Affinity in dark mode. But when the properties windows isn't generated by Affinity, but by your printer manufacturar, it's the driver on Windows providing that window. So if Windows is set to light, like it is normally, than the properties window is light. That's just the way it works on Windows. Nothing Serif can do about that AFAIK.

That is fine, I wouldn't care about the print dialogue - the big issue here is the finder obeying Affinity rather than your Mac preferences. 

[Friksel]

5 minutes ago, Mr Lucky said:

That is fine, I wouldn't care about the print dialogue - the big issue here is the finder obeying Affinity rather than your Mac preferences. 

I understand @Mr Lucky, I was just reacting to @Pšenda here.

I'm no Mac user, so I don't know, but from what I read from you I think I totally agree with you and would find it frustrating too if some of the interface was suddenly white, while I put Affinity on dark. Especially when working at night. Hope for you guys it's solved soon!

[Pšenda]

3 hours ago, Friksel said:

In Windows the print dialog is dark, because you're in Affinity and put Affinity in dark mode. But when the properties windows isn't generated by Affinity, but by your printer manufacturar, it's the driver on Windows providing that window. So if Windows is set to light, like it is normally, than the properties window is light. That's just the way it works on Windows. Nothing Serif can do about that AFAIK.

Of course I know that. But I understand Serif is trying to unite it - that is, if the Affinity environment is dark, so that its own dialog and the systems dialog are dark.

Otherwise, this is exactly what you write:

2 hours ago, Friksel said:

and would find it frustrating too if some of the interface was suddenly white, while I put Affinity on dark.

 

Edit:
I hope to "fix" it in Windows, so that all dialogs have a uniform look.
Ideally with the option of turning off in preferences, so some users don't mind.

Edited June 11, 2019 by Pšenda

[TomM1]

2 hours ago, Mr Lucky said:

That is fine, I wouldn't care about the print dialogue - the big issue here is the finder obeying Affinity rather than your Mac preferences. 

I agree.

[Sedu]

All your posts sounds like it works well for windows users.
If you want to use a dark theme finder on a mac, you can switch it in seconds. Afinity doesn't need to apply any unchangable settings to the mac finder. It's not the end of the world either! Let us be surprised, how the following versions deal with it.  

[Mr Lucky]

I already have posted this here:

 

Sorry for double post but I now consider it a showstopper bug as this bad usability cannot possibly be intended. Mods would it be possible to merge the threads to make it a bug report?

I am still unable to use the updates, I really need my Mac finder to be light and for Affinity to be dark, this helps my poor eyes. But choosing dark for Affinity causes the finder window  to be also dark when searching for files to open or location to save as from within Affinity.

 

 

 

 

[Chris B]

I think you might have a point. I'll let dev have a look. 

[R C-R]

On 7/5/2019 at 8:44 AM, Chris B said:

I think you might have a point. I'll let dev have a look. 

I finally decided to switch my iMac from High Sierra to Mojave & now I have the same problem that @Mr Lucky, @markw, & others have with the Open dialog in all the Affinity apps always using dark mode, even when the OS is set to use light mode.

I don't know if there is any way to fix this -- I noticed that Pixelmator Pro does the same thing -- but if there is, it would be much appreciated.

[Mr Lucky]

1 minute ago, R C-R said:

don't know if there is any way to fix this -- I noticed that Pixelmator Pro does the same thing -- but if there is, it would be much appreciated.

There must be a way, other software works as it should, ie respecting that you may not want dark mode.

[R C-R]

Just now, Mr Lucky said:

There must be a way, other software works as it should, ie respecting that you may not want dark mode.

What other software that offers its own choice between light & dark UI modes does that? As I said, Pixelmator Pro behaves exactly like the Affinity apps in this respect -- if I choose its dark mode, then its open dialogs always use a dark appearance, regardless of how Mojave's appearance mode is set.

None the other apps on my iMac that have an open file capability offer a choice between light & dark UI modes so the issue never occurs.

[Mr Lucky]

5 minutes ago, R C-R said:

What other software that offers its own choice between light & dark UI modes does that?

I'm not sure how relevant that is to discuss what other software does or doesn't do when it comes to useability (Yes, it was me in the first place who mentioned other software respecting people's finder preferences). But for example in Logic Pro X when working in the piano roll I can choose light or dark there for the background and dark is my preference there, but the finder opens in light mode because that is my preference when browsing the files in my computer.

Two very different things - people may not like dark mode on the computer but the do in the software due to what it is they are seeing in the software interface and the contrast (or lack of it) they may want when working.

Anyway, I am not alone it seems quite a few people agree this is not good (including moderator who offered to discuss with devs.

 

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, Mr Lucky said:

Anyway, I am not alone it seems quite a few people agree this is not good (including moderator who offered to discuss with devs.

If it is not clear, I too am among those who would like to see the light UI in Affinity open dialogs whether or not the app is using its dark mode. I was just pointing out that another third party app (Pixelmator Pro) does the same thing as the Affinity ones, so maybe it is not as simple as we might think to implement that in apps other than those coded by Apple.

[TonyB]

52 minutes ago, R C-R said:

If it is not clear, I too am among those who would like to see the light UI in Affinity open dialogs whether or not the app is using its dark mode. I was just pointing out that another third party app (Pixelmator Pro) does the same thing as the Affinity ones, so maybe it is not as simple as we might think to implement that in apps other than those coded by Apple.

It's not hard and I agree the light UI in system dialogs when the OS is in light mode is much nicer.

[R C-R]

54 minutes ago, TonyB said:

It's not hard and I agree the light UI in system dialogs when the OS is in light mode is much nicer.

Great! So does this mean that "real soon now" we can look forward to light UI open dialogs in the Affinity apps ... unlike your (sort of) competitor Pixelmator Pro?  <insert tongue-in-cheek emoji here> 

[TonyB]

On 1/24/2020 at 3:50 PM, R C-R said:

Great! So does this mean that "real soon now" we can look forward to light UI open dialogs in the Affinity apps ... unlike your (sort of) competitor Pixelmator Pro?  <insert tongue-in-cheek emoji here> 

I'm just adding my weight to the request