Re: Gtk+ Font Dialog improvements

[Alberto Ruiz <aruiz gnome org>]

Hello there,

I did some work[0][1] time ago and I actually wanted to talk about
improvements on the dialog with Behdad during Guadec, although the
schedule went against us.

I want to point out that the most common usecase for the font
selection is often dismissed. People just want to look for a font that
would look good for a particular piece of text. I think that the
current dialog fails to maximize the previewing capabilities in
detriment of showing all the options available in a textual way. To
give some examples of the problems:

a) When browsing fonts, the first thing the user would set is the
typeface, and the size. However the size is the only setting that is
kept after changing to another font, the typeface goes always back to
regular, which is VERY annoying.

b) Most times, the user won't know which particular value does he want
for the size. This is most times a guess work, this guessing implies
clicking on every number, and eventually scrolling up or down until
getting to the point the user is happy about it. This is VERY annoying
too!

c) Same problem as the size applies to the Typeface.

d) When a user browse families, ideally, a preview would be shown in
the family list, behind the family name. (I know this is an issue
performance wise, and this is exactly the point that I wanted to
discuss with Behdad)

Some suggestions that come to my mind to adress some of these issues:

* Removing the size list. It is not useful as it is and wastes loads
of space. The numbers themselves are not that meaningful at a fist
glance. Most times you just want to check more or less what's the
right size. A combination of slider+spinbox would do a better job
usability wise.

* Merge the typeface and the preview, showing previews of every
typeface. (Pending issue with this approach would be solving the
preview text editing).

* Remembering the typeface selected after changing from one family to another.

* Family class combobox to be a search box with filtering (a la
thunderbird), the treeview textfilter is not the most discoverable
thing and it's a click away from the filter box.

* Showing a small preview of the text on the family list as inkscape
does in its toolbar when editting text on the canvas.

[0] http://aruiz.typepad.com/siliconisland/2008/08/font-selection.html
[1] http://aruiz.typepad.com/siliconisland/2008/08/font-selectio-1.html

2009/7/20 Henrique Carvalho Alves <hcarvalhoalves gmail com>:
> On Sun, Jul 19, 2009 at 1:55 AM, Henrique Carvalho Alves
> <hcarvalhoalves gmail com> wrote:
>>
>> There was discussion on this some time ago, and the discussion got lost.
>> I'm trying to raise interest
>> on this issue again.
>>
>> I did a mockup for a new gtk+ font chooser, as I find the current one
>> lacking from usability aspects,
>> and wanted to gather some feedback. If there's any interest, please read
>> the rationale at my blog:
>>
>> http://hcalves.tumblr.com/post/144502395/one-th
>> ofing-i-dislike-on-gtk-its-the-current-font
>>
>> The mockup is functional and implemented in Python + Glade. It's available
>> at my Launchpad:
>>
>> https://code.launchpad.net/~hcarvalhoalves/+junk/gtkfontdialog
>>
>>
>> I would appreciate feedback from user and developer viewpoints, and
>> further discussion for
>> improving the dialog.
>
> Just to ping the thread - I committed some changes today, now dialog
> behavior and features are matching my original intentions regarding the UI
> and features, with one issue left: the use of an appropriate,
> internationalized text for preview. The issue is better discussed on the
> blog post.
>
> I wanted feedback from someone more experienced in the Gtk+ stack and C,
> willing to implement this mockup, maybe a branch or patch against
> GtkFontSelection(Dialog), and leveraging pango_language_get_sample_string()
> for providing a better preview text.
>
> _______________________________________________
> gtk-devel-list mailing list
> gtk-devel-list gnome org
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gtk-devel-list
>
>



-- 
Un saludo,
Alberto Ruiz