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Multi-Language Add-In for Visual Studio

Multi-Language Add-In for Visual Studio

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    • Visual Studio Retina Black Theme not supported

    Posted by nickniebling on Thu 19 of Dec, 2013 09:34 GMT

    Hi again,

    Sorry about all the topics. This is a "minor" issue and more of a FYI than a real bug report (but might evolve into a bug if it restricts usability).

    Retina / High Res Screen
    Got a new screen with 3200x1800 resolution. It's only 15" and it's very difficult to use apps that doesn't support high resolution screens. I have an external monitor I can use with FullHD resolution (so I have a work around). Texts does not fit into the header/data row height, when text is automatically enlarged. Icons is difficult to see (they are ½ the size). Popups looks very messy when positioning is done px by px, with the assumption of text size not changing too much.

    Dark Theme
    More pixels also mean more light.. And I would like to protect my eyes as this is my job for many years to come. So I'm now using the Visual Studio Black theme. Your tool doesn't inherit the theme settings and still displays black on white (and not white on black).

    Screenshot to see the issue..
    Well - I attached a screenshot, I think it speaks for itself (zoom out until "File", "Edit" etc. in top has same size in your Visual Studio - and then you will see the size I look at with your tool).

    Image

    jollans-retina-black.png (112.27 Kb)
    Reads: 22298
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    Posted by Phil on Mon 06 of Jan, 2014 17:53 GMT Germany

    I have tried to improve this in the latest version 5.0x.0078.

    There are several problems for me:

    • What to do with the coloured backgrounds (e.g. red for online translation, green for excel import)
    • What to do with Windows Forms controls
    • What to do with icons, which might look lousy against a different background


    I have decided to leave the coloured backgrounds (and foregrounds) unchanged. If the standard white background is used, then I have modified it.

    In particular the tab control is difficult. At present, I think I would have to make a completely owner drawn tab control. I have one fairly good example, but I can't use it without modification.
    For now, I have made no change to the tab control.

    In principle, I can give the toolbar a dark background, but most of icons are unrecognizable. Visual Studio seems to change black to white in menu icons when you select the dark theme (for example in the Menu-Icon on the Multi-Language Add-In).
    At present, that seems like too much work.

    I have also made no change to any dialogs.

    Phil

    Link

    Posted by nickniebling on Mon 06 of Jan, 2014 19:44 GMT

    Supporting black theme is really minor! More like: just for your information.

    However, the dialogs is one place you should consider spending some time. The text size is enlarged here, but widths of buttons etc. aren't following the same "stretch" pattern.. So this actually means you will have buttons with large text, where you cannot see all the text :-( To get a feeling of the problem, look at the screenshot previously shared. The header of the table is cropped the bottom of the text, because text is enlarged, but not the height of the header bar. In the example just mentioned, I know I can resize - but buttons can't be resized (and when text aren't resized automatically, it's almost impossible to read text as well.

    I know the next example is not your product, but I used this image to report similar issue for SSMS. Look at this screenshot and see how difficult small text is to read when resized to FullHD resolution (I'm sure you got a FullHD screen somewhere). And I see this on a 15" screen (only makes the text smaller).

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