FreeCAD looks for a new default background color

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uwestoehr
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FreeCAD looks for a new default background color

Post by uwestoehr »

Dear FreeCAD users we are looking for a new default background color and want to collect your proposals here.

Why?:
Many of us encountered that the first reaction of especially new users on our current default background vary from "old-fashioned" to "like Win XP". This is of course disappointing. Once the current background color was set up, it was modern. So we need to find out what is fresh/modern today.

How?:
Reply in this thread and send us the background color you use and that has been proven for you suitable in daily life. Please take this example file to make a screenshot:
Background-Color-Test.FCStd
(7.48 KiB) Downloaded 109 times
, limit the vertical image size of the screenshot to 500 px and attach it to your reply. Also provide the HTML color code of the color gradient or single color. (The next post shows as example the current background color.)

Please have in mind the following points:
- it should be something that suits the most
- it should look "fresh" but not tire the eyes in daily/hour-long work

There is only one restriction: for color gradients the eyes are tired the least when there is a horizontal gradient because this imitates looking at a horizon and are eyes are used to this. (For gradients with a left-right preference, mankind is divided in left- and right-handers and also divided between those with a stronger left than right eye etc.) Therefore please use a horizontal gradient.

Procedure?:
The plan is to
- first collect the different proposals.
- then the developer's team judges the proposal based on usability, technical aspects and psychology to find e.g. the 3 to 5 most popular ones.
- the selected colors will e used to each make a color pack based on this. Color pack means hereby adjusted colors that the essential workbench colors have a suitable contrast to the background. (essential workbenches: Sketch, Part, PartDesign)
- the final vote gives a new default color, the runner-ups will be provided as color packs so that every user can use them with just a few clicks.
(This is the rough plan can be fine-grained.)

p.s. the example file for the screenshot is a grey cube since grey will most likely stay the default for 3D objects
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uwestoehr
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Re: FreeCAD looks for a new default background color

Post by uwestoehr »

Current default background color is this:
FreeCAD_FpXjpdtFJ8.png
FreeCAD_FpXjpdtFJ8.png (26.05 KiB) Viewed 4890 times
Top color: #333365
Bottom color: #9797aa
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uwestoehr
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Re: FreeCAD looks for a new default background color

Post by uwestoehr »

My proposal:
FreeCAD_RdXbHMCU2m.png
FreeCAD_RdXbHMCU2m.png (23.12 KiB) Viewed 4891 times
Top color: #9696aa
Bottom color: #d4d4c8
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Kunda1
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Re: FreeCAD looks for a new default background color

Post by Kunda1 »

I like the proposal. But I think for documentation reason (thinking about tutorials and tutorial makers)...that we postpone background color changes to v1.0 release
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Re: FreeCAD looks for a new default background color

Post by thomas-neemann »

i like this color
Bildschirmfoto_2022-10-17_09-35-57.png
Bildschirmfoto_2022-10-17_09-35-57.png (44.82 KiB) Viewed 4753 times
Bildschirmfoto_2022-10-17_09-36-54.png
Bildschirmfoto_2022-10-17_09-36-54.png (11.6 KiB) Viewed 4753 times
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adrianinsaval
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Re: FreeCAD looks for a new default background color

Post by adrianinsaval »

Kunda1 wrote: Mon Oct 17, 2022 3:00 am I like the proposal. But I think for documentation reason (thinking about tutorials and tutorial makers)...that we postpone background color changes to v1.0 release
If we change only background color or use very similar colors for other stuff there is no real impact on documentation, besides that just because we have a 1.0 release it doesn't change anything about our documentation "workforce", the situation will be the same wether it's 0.21 or 1.0 or 5.75, I say stagnating on this serves no purpose so we should do it anyways.
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MisterMaker
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Re: FreeCAD looks for a new default background color

Post by MisterMaker »

Dark
Image
Light
Image
Both super boring, but I am not a profesional UI designer so better just copy it from someone who is then create something that sucks. :twisted:
I btw adjusted the sketcher colors for the light version.
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uwestoehr
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Re: FreeCAD looks for a new default background color

Post by uwestoehr »

Kunda1 wrote: Mon Oct 17, 2022 3:00 am I like the proposal. But I think for documentation reason (thinking about tutorials and tutorial makers)...that we postpone background color changes to v1.0 release
This thread here is meant to collect different colors that people found being usable for their work with FreeCAD.

Therefore please only post your proposals here.

Once we got different colors, we (developer's team) will judge them by technical, practical and psychological aspects. Then there will be a new thread to discuss the selected proposals. So the decision making will be a multi-stage process.There is no hard timeline yet.
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Re: FreeCAD looks for a new default background color

Post by sliptonic »

With all respect, discussing the background color in isolation probably won't lead to a decision that makes people happy.

I suggest that we take a different approach:

We're working toward a 1.0 release. It would really be nice if we achieved 1.0 with a more usable and polished UI. We already have some excellent themepacks and we have time to improve them even more.

Let's talk about a new default themepack (not just a background color) and then also ship the current theme as "FreeCAD classic". If we were to do that, how should we pick the new default? What criteria should we use?
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Re: FreeCAD looks for a new default background color

Post by ragohix769 »

uwestoehr wrote: Mon Oct 17, 2022 12:13 am My proposal:
FreeCAD_RdXbHMCU2m.png

Top color: #9696aa
Bottom color: #d4d4c8
I like that default color, just my 2 cents.
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