Re: Messing with the colour palette

Greetings "Jonny Johansson&quot; < jjn%40telia.com">jjntelia.com>
On 01/09/2007 at 15:32 you wrote concerning
Re: [PageStreamSupport] Messing with the colour palette

Hi Jonny,

JJ>>; Is there some magic location where one can go and adjust how the colours on
JJ>;> the PageStream screen will appear?

JJ> In other words; you have a ghosted, low contrast colour scheme
JJ> defined for inactive windows or gadgets? Is this the case for all screens,
JJ> or only the Pagestream one?

Only in PageStream is the contrast so poor. In other applications, I usually
know where to fiddle with the colour palette in order to adjust the display,
but not sure where to do this in PageStrea -- if it possible.

You used the term 'ghosted'. That's not relevant to PageStream's display. Simply
that everything is displayed in various tones of grey (gray ???) and hence
active buttons require careful visual examination to detect that they are
active.

JJ> I haven't got AOS4, but I do have VisualPrefs,

I found one rather strange reference to VisualPrefs, namely:

DH0_OS40Final:Locale/Catalogs/german/Sys/prefs.catalog )

JJ&gt; whose author is the man behind much of the OS4 GUI work, so if things are
JJ&gt; similar, as I guess, you should only need to use the system GUI prefs,
JJ> to alter the pen settings for the screen in question (or system wide,
JJ> if that is necessary - as I said, I know little about OS4).

That seems like a usefull suggestion. It has been a while since I've messed with
Sys:Prefs/GUI
but that might be useful. Those settings are system wide, I think, but will give
it a try. Good idea. There a lot of knobs in there so it may take a while to
figure out which ones affects PageStream in a useful way.

LATER:
Went into 'Sys:Prefs/GUI' and in the 'Subsystem' area selected 'Colors'. Then
highlighted the entry

Pens = Shine Description = Generic bright edges

and changed the existing color, a version of White or faint Grey, to some
brilliant colour like Magenta.

WOW! What a change! YAM absolutely 'shines' now -- some nasty people would say
it is grossly garrish -- and PageStream's Toolbar is amazingly much easier to
read. The Toolbox at least looks vigorous, but no easier to see which button is
active, and the Edit Palette is quite improved in some small ways (the tiny
arrows are now clearly visible). It is still difficult to see which of the ¶
C P B I U ..... buttons are active. If only I could find the proper 'Pen'
to change the background colour when such a button was active. But I'm not
there yet.

Overall, a massive improvement for my eyes!

JJ&gt;> Mode = Radeon 9000:1280x1024 32 bit ARG
JJ&gt;> Display DPI X 65 Y 55

JJ>> which is the default (I guess). I've fiddled with other values but wonder
JJ>> where I would find the "best" settings for my Samsung SyncMaster 191r (19"
JJ>>; job). I imagine it is in manual somewhere -- and I have a manual for it --
JJ>;> but what would the topical heading be? Display DPI !?!?!?!?

JJ> Sombody will no doubt correct me if I am wrong, but it should simply
JJ> be a question of measuring the width and height, in inches, of the physical
JJ> screen area, covered by graphics and divide the grahics X and Y resolution,
JJ> respectively, by these measurements.

Well that's neat and simple and ...... As width of screen = 14.875&quot; and height =
12&quot; then you are suggesting:

DPI for X = 1280/14.875 ~= 86.05
DPI for Y = 1024/12 ~= 85.33

hence 86x85 should be about right! Tried that but the result is equivalent to
zooming in a bit compared to the default setting of 65x55. I guess if I want
better resolution, then I should buy a better monitor.

Cheers Don (Green Dragon)
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Don Ferguson wrote:

>You used the term 'ghosted'. That's not relevant to PageStream's display.
>Simply that everything is displayed in various tones of grey (gray ???) and
>hence active buttons require careful visual examination to detect that they
>;are active.

Ah - well, with VisualPrefs (at least), you can set different pens for
active windows and inactive ones (not just the title bar fill), so that you
may have the inactive ones stand out less. This is what I was referring to.
(the edit palette being inactive, while you are working in any other window)

>LATER:
>Went into 'Sys:Prefs/GUI' and in the 'Subsystem' area selected 'Colors'. Then
>;highlighted the entry

>Pens = Shine Description = Generic bright edges

Hmm, shine and shadow should, for maximum contrast, be white and black,
respectively, with halfshine and halfshadow some shades in between those
extremes and the button "foreground"; colour, making for nice soft frames.

There may also be a bunch of options (there are in VisualPrefs)
that say things like "use only halfshine for bright edges"; and suchlike,
that you could untick...
There may also be a selection of ways to draw active buttons - the
old normal one being a simple reversal of shine and shadow, so that
the button looks recessed instead of raised.

Lots of pens to set - I'm fond of the default blue fill
(depressed button/selected text), with yellow fill text - stands out
well and if someone finds it garish, well, tough.

>Well that's neat and simple and ...... As width of screen = 14.875&quot; and
>height =12" then you are suggesting:

> DPI for X = 1280/14.875 ~= 86.05
&gt; DPI for Y = 1024/12 ~= 85.33

>hence 86x85 should be about right! Tried that but the result is equivalent to
>zooming in a bit compared to the default setting of 65x55. I guess if I want
>;better resolution, then I should buy a better monitor.

Ah, well yes - it only tells PS how big a pixel is in real life, so that
your A4 page really is A4 physical size on the screen, at 100% zoom. Never
seemed really important to me.

That 65×55 sounds like it refers to some nasty old TV-set, with
its tall pixels.

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