Understanding colors

[Rich Shepard]

On Wed, 4 Dec 2002, Carol Spears wrote:

> this is my first day on this list.

  Welcome, Carol.

> i read this mail and remembered my font problem that xfce writing a
> ~/.gtkrc file instead of a ~.xfce/gtkrc file.  this is mozilla after
> encountering that file: http://carol.gimp.org/FONT-moz.png.

  Gee. I don't need reading glasses to see that font.

  I have ~/.gtkrc as 7278 Sep 24 12:00 and ~/.xfce/xfcegtkrc as 7708 Nov  7
16:16. I'm not supposed to edit it by hand, according to the warning at the
top of the file. I also have no idea which one is being used by xfce-3.8.18.

> when i read your letter, i thought i would be a hotshot with the xfce
> source i apt-got from debian earlier.  i typed ./configure --help.
> however, the proper option did not jump right out at me, but i bet it 
> is in there.

  Xfce lets us select a palettte of colors rather than the individual colors
as listed in the gtkrc of whatever vintage.

> i like xfce.  i think that someday, i might even like it a lot.  not
> being able to point it easily at a safer configuration file has been
> somewhat perplexing.  but that might be a problem of the debian
> maintainer, who also kept compiling it with the broken gdk.

  My only quibbles with xfce are the colored (instead of white) text entry
boxes in opera and jpilot. Other than those, the colors work OK for me.
Besides, I tend to find a combination that's easy on my eyes and leave it
for a year or two. Eventually I get the urge to look at something different
for many hours each day and I waste a bunch of time futzing with colors.
 
> maybe something in the styles area of your xfwmrc?  
> http://www.xfce.org/help/html/adv-wm-appearance.html

  No, there's nothing appropriate there.

  My entire issue is that the fg text color is not automatically switched
from black to white when the bg field color is changed from light to dark. I
could not care less if the entire jpilot display window(s) was a solid
color, as long as all text is visible and readable. It isn't. I don't care
if the URL address window in opera is black, white or red all over as long
as the text color has high contrast to it.

  I'm about to start writing the UI for my first, full-blown linux app and
I'll be using gtk+. So my interest is not only in making jpilot (in
particular) easier to read but to ensure that my application is easy to read
for others, just in case I decide to release it. (Before everyone writes to
ask, it's a contact manager and the overall structure follows that of the
one I wrote in Paradox in DOS years ago. I've tried using only the PDA and
jpilot, but it just doesn't give me the reporting and tracking I need.)

> maybe it is quickest solved with getting a different theme?

  All this does is change the colors, not resolve the lack of contrast
between bg and fg.

Thanks, Carol,

Rich

Dr. Richard B. Shepard, President

                       Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM)
            2404 SW 22nd Street | Troutdale, OR 97060-1247 | U.S.A.
 + 1 503-667-4517 (voice) | + 1 503-667-8863 (fax) | rshepard at appl-ecosys.com
                         http://www.appl-ecosys.com/