Re: toolbars

[Erick Woods <erick ljm net>]

I think this should be taken farther, if possible.  Who needs to take a
look at it to make a change happen?  And the icons in Abiword are 16x16,
the same size as the Word icons.  It is the padding around the icons on
the button itself that is too much.

Erick 



On 14 Dec 2000, Ben FrantzDale wrote:

Date: 14 Dec 2000 08:23:38 +0500
From: Ben FrantzDale <bfrantzdale hmc edu>
To: Erick Woods <erick ljm net>
Cc: gnome-list gnome org
Subject: Re: toolbars

> Can someone please explain something for me?  I look at the toolbars in
> GNOME and they drive me crazy.  They take up way too much space.  If you
> compare spacing with Windows, it is really bad.  I use GNOME exclusively
> on my laptop.  I have limited screen space.  Every app uses way too much
> for toolbars that I like to have.  I have made an image comparing Word
> against Abiword to demonstrate this.  It can be found at:
> 
> http://www.erick.com/gtb.png
> 
> My point is not about the text adding to the size (although that is rather
> obnoxious, too), but the overall size of a button on a toolbar and the
> height if the toolbar in question.  Reviewing the picture I created shows
> that a standard text toolbar (file, edit, etc...) is 23 pixels high in
> Windows and 26 pixels in height in GNOME.  A graphical button toobar using
> small images in windows is 26 pixels high in Windows and 34 pixels in GNOME.
> Now, looking at the GNOME toolbar, there is a lot of wasted space on all
> sides of the image.  It is very obvious that Windows makes better use and is
> more efficient with screen real estate in this regard.  Add that together in
> GNOME and you have used 19 more pixels for Abiword's 3 standard toolbars
> than the equivalent toolbars in Word/Windows.  This is what I have a problem
> with. Is there a reason for this?  As you can see the difference is a total
> of 19 pixels for 3 similar toolbars.  That may not be many, but it is when
> screen real estate is limited.   Is it just a theme issue?  I have tried
> other themes and that doesn't seem to make a difference, but I have not
> looked at them as closely.  Just a lot of undesirable white space, IMHO.
> 
> Thanks!


This is caused by a combination of things... I think you'r right that
toolbars should be more compact than they generally are at the moment
but... If you set your font to the same size you have in windows you'll
gain a good 1/3 of that extra space back again. Perhaps the default
should be smaller?

The other issue is the icons... If you look at you'r screenshot you'll
notice that the bottom bar is being held thicker by the buttons---the
text dropdowns are not requiring a full 34 pixels---the icons are. It
seems that if those icons can be shrunk to something like 24 pixels
things you'd gain 20 pixels without changing the font...  

The icons are too big, though... there is a lot of extra space arround
them verticaly that isn't really needed... either the icons should fill
the space or the space shouldn't be there.

Hope that helps

--Ben