0x7c13 / Notepads

A modern, lightweight text editor with a minimalist design.
https://www.NotepadsApp.com
MIT License
8.8k stars 482 forks source link

[Feature Request] Improvement: Adjust cursor/caret color based on background #1387

Closed pseudoenigma closed 1 month ago

pseudoenigma commented 1 month ago

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

I love Notepads, it's great and feels very modern. I love using it to jot notes down because of the markdown support. The problem is, the blurred background which is so nice to look at makes it hard to see the caret/cursor when something bright/white is behind it. (Edit: I should mention, I'm on Dark Theme)

For example on a white background such as #FFFFFF, the color of the interface becomes #898989, and the caret itself is #7d7d7d. In bright environments, these colors are contextually similar enough to make it impossible to tell where the caret/cursor is on the screen sometimes. I've felt like the cursor disappeared entirely when it's not really true.

Describe the solution you'd like

I have noticed that on a dark background the caret is much brighter, a background of #111111 produces a #191919 interface and #e8e8e8 colored cursor. This means that the program already does adjust based on the background, but it seems more tailored for dark environments than bright ones.

I don't know how the cursor calculates the color but if it could just remain as bright as the text that's being displayed, that would be golden.

Describe alternatives you've considered

I don't know what kind of color curve would work best, but I have labbed it out and I found that if Notepads is sitting on a #eaeaea background it becomes quite nearly invisible. I assume the cut off is somewhere around there. Originally I was going to suggest giving the program a darker cursor once it reaches that point, but I realized that I could read the white text in that context perfectly fine. A darker cursor would not be a good idea.

Additional context

I've attached an image for your convenience, you can use this behind the program to test the cursor position. The middle color should make the cursor/caret disappear. I'm sorry if this problem has been discussed before but I didn't recognize any threads that have already talked about it.

notepads-background-tester

pseudoenigma commented 1 month ago

Okay funny enough after editing my post a billion times in embarrassment I tried out the Light Theme to find it does have the same problem when used against a perfectly black background.

Here's the tester for Light Mode users. Should be the same problem as above: once you reach the middle color the cursor becomes very hard to see. Again, I'm not sure what the solution is but I think we can agree it's a bit frustrating to use in this context.

notepads-background-tester

I believe the Dark Theme's problem is much worse, but I digress.

pseudoenigma commented 1 month ago

I'm closing this issue. I wrote this in haste, I didn't remember adjusting the opacity at one point. That is entirely the issue here and I can't expect a solution based on user error. After resetting the program back to stock defaults and testing with the default opacity level of 75%, I realized I made a big deal out of nothing! I had it way lower like 20% or something before. Big sorry if I wasted your time on this.