Re: Selecting colors for selected text

[Tuomas Kuosmanen <tigert gimp org>]

On Sat, 2001-09-22 at 16:44, amw18 home com wrote:
> Hello Alex-
>
> Alex Larsson wrote:
> > 
> > In the latest gtk+ tree we've made some changes in the way selected text
> > is shown. If the widget with the selection has the focus the selection
> > will show with one color (fb/bg[SELECTED]), and if it is unfocused it
> > will use another color (fb/bg[ACTIVE]).
> > 
> > I picked two new colors for this, both are black text on light blueish
> > background. I sort of like the unfocused color, but we really need someone
> > with a bit more graphics talent to pick the colors.
GAL uses a light gray for the unfocused widget selection (best place to check it out is in Evolution message list actually.

I think MacOS has something similar, though I cannot check right now. Anyway, it seems to work quite well, and it still doesnt distract the eye from the focused window.
> The part of graphics talent that's needed may be no more than common
> sense.
> The human eye is drawn to:
>    the irregular shape versus the regular,
>    the brighter hue versus the paler,
>    the greater contrast versus the weaker
> Discard shape which is not controllable.
> Use the brighter hue and the greater contrast to reinforce the focussed
> item
> rather than compete against it.  (At all costs don't use hue and
> contrast
> to draw attention to items that don't have focus).
I agree with this too, unfocused stuff should be pale, but still should show the selection, just less saturated. 

I think the gray that is approx. the same brightness value than the selection color might be quite ok for the unfocused selection.

> Choose your colors on this basis and you'll do as well as graphics
> experts.
Stuff will maybe be usable this way, but things should also look pleasant to the eye. Thus it makes sense to have colors that match well together and give a pleasant look. But anyway... :)

Tuomas

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