Re: [Usability] Gtk+ Font Dialog improvements

[Tim Evans <t evans aranz com>]

Henrique Carvalho Alves 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-thing-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.

A few things I noticed, which may be specific to win32:

The "Typeface" list for many windows families (Verdana for example) is 
"Oblique", "Normal", "Bold Oblique", "Bold".  When switching to those 
families Oblique is always selected.  If it's going to revert to 
anything when selecting a new family it should be Normal.  Ideally it 
should try and stay with the previous typeface selection, even switching 
between Oblique and Italic depending on what's available.

The family list is by far the largest, at least on my machine, yet has 
the least vertical space.  Is there any way that this list could be bigger?

The common fonts list may be wrong at least for Vista.  A good common 
set might be:
 - Calibri, already there and is the Vista default sans-serif font.
 - Cambria replaces Times New Roman as the default serif font.
 - Consolas replaces Courier as the default monospaced font.
 - Segoe UI is the new default UI font, replacing Tahoma and Verdana.
Personal opinion, but I think these new Vista fonts are a lot better 
than the older ones and users should be encouraged to use them.  I guess 
the older fonts could be kept in the list for backward compatibility, 
ideally at the bottom of the list.

--
Tim Evans
Applied Research Associates NZ
http://www.aranz.com/