Qbittorrent new theme reverses colors ?

[alexdns1]

qBittorrent & operating system versions

qBittorrent: 4.5.0 x64 Operating system: Windows 10 latest Qt: 5.15.7 libtorrent-rasterbar: 1.2.18.0

What is the problem?

Colors are reversed in latest 4.5.0 theme where completed torrents are bright blue instead of black making it completely unusable for anyone that has used qbittorrent for the past X years ( where X can be since day 1 )

Also reddit thread https://www.reddit.com/r/qBittorrent/comments/z6a0ql/go_back_to_old_ui_on_v450/

Please provide a simple fallback theme to the old one ?

Steps to reproduce

No response

Additional context

No response

Log(s) & preferences file(s)

No response

[xavier2k6]

The completed icon colors & matching text were previously changed to look like below: Light Mode (Windows) Dark Mode (Windows)

There was some early user feedback that the completed color was too dark & it was changed along with other colors.

[alexantr]

New color theme on Windows is terrible. That gray color for paused and yellow gray color for queued are quite similar and confusing. And new bright icons everywhere are too bright.

[xavier2k6]

That gray color for paused and yellow gray color for queued are quite similar and confusing.

@alexantr Are you referring to the text color?

[alexantr]

@xavier2k6 yes

[xavier2k6]

@alexantr Thank you, any feedback on my above screenshots?

[alexantr]

@xavier2k6 I miss colors and icons from previous release.

Screenshot from Internet


[alexdns1]

@xavier2k6 sorry i dont understand your question ? are you saying that those 2 screenshots are how its supposed to look ? because it doesnt look that on any of my test PCs

For example completed is bright blue and not dark blue like on previous releases ?

[xavier2k6]

It was originally meant to look like those 2 screenshots but the color palettes were changed afterwards.

[alexdns1]

@xavier2k6 I understand that but you also have to understand that the new palette completely does a 360 where the completed looks like the old stalled uploading for example which for users who are using qbittorrent a long time is pretty confusing and bad. Also that bright blue is killing peoples eyes ( on reddit ) and mine :) Even my wife complained which is weird because she usually doesnt care

I couldnt find a single theme allowing me to revert those colors ... Have you considered releasing a stylesheet.qss or maybe a full theme pack to make it look like the old pre 4.5.0 version ?

[AlttiRi]

I want to turn back the old icons and colors.

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I don't like the new colors in 4.5.0. The colors in icons don't match with each other.

3 different blue colors, 4 different green colors. Is it a good color palette? It seems that'are just random colors that do not look nice with each other.

Especially, I don't like the new form and the colors of the download speed limit icon:

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But the more important thing is the bright blue text over a white background for complited and stopped torrents in the list. It's much less readable now that it was. I think it's too bright.

Save my eyes.

---

Also I would prefer a bit darker blue color for these (and others) icons:

[bottleblue]

There's too much blue. Blue font colors are too light and harder to see. The Seeding, Stalled Seeding, and Completed colors all look too similar. The Completed color in xavier2k6's screenshot looks better than it is now.

[Pentaphon]

@now-im some feedback you might want to see throughout this entire thread.

@xavier2k6 you may want to sticky this thread and use it as a master theme feedback thread so people can help fix the new theme.

@bottleblue I also think the original text colors were more informative than they are now. Completed text should be BLACK since there's no activity.

@alexantr I agree, I think the pause button should be orange-yellow. There shouldn't be any gray buttons.

[woj-tek]

Yeah, just got latest qB and while I admire will to improve the UI, I simply find it way to bright and colourful to the point where it's annoying to look at (and I'm somewhat colour-blind, sic!). 1) text on the torrent list could be just regular black (state expressed with status text + icon should be enough) 2) it would be nice to be able to configure "use monochrome" for icons - IMHO they would look better 3) icons for move up/bottom / move to top/bottom seems inconsistent (thickness wise); icons for active/inactive/stalled are the same with colour to differentiate... without the label they look virtually the same to me (I notice there is some difference in colour but couldn't make the difference solely based on that; same for (stalled) downloading/uploading - same icons with slightly different shade - IMHO quite difficult to distinguish and icons should serve as "quick visual clue"

Even though I'm on macOS, I kinda do like KDE's monocrhome/lines-only icons -- maybe those could be used? Or use native icons available under the OS (CF Symbols under macOS)?

[Chocobo1]

There was some early user feedback that the completed color was too dark & it was changed along with other colors.

@xavier2k6 Could you find the related post? Having similar blue colors for different states seems like a mistake to me.

[xavier2k6]

There was some early user feedback that the completed color was too dark & it was changed along with other colors.

@xavier2k6 Could you find the related post?

17757 was the issue. (BTW Qt 6.4.0 has had some dark mode palette/widget changes on Windows anyway)

Having similar blue colors for different states seems like a mistake to me.

This was done in the color palette change PR....which wasn't revisited personally for revision due to time constraints.

[Chocobo1]

https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/issues/17757 was the issue. (BTW Qt 6.4.0 has had some dark mode palette/widget changes on Windows anyway)

Thanks!

This was done in the color palette change PR....which wasn't revisited personally for revision due to time constraints.

Likely I made the mistake. And now it is corrected in #18094 (only the text color).

[alexdns1]

@Chocobo1 i think purple on white is not really a good palette. also i think forcing people to get used to something new after years of looking at the same thing is bad no ?

[stalkerok]

@alexdns1 the status completed in 4.4.5 also has a purple color, the only thing worth doing was making it darker. He's too bright.

upd. Oh yes, I remembered that it was made this way because of the dark theme.

[stalkerok]

But in fact, there are many variations of blue, you need to come up with something.

[xtemp09]

The new theme is ugly. How can I set the previous theme? I can't find the option.

[floppyD]

This theme is awful, come on.

[Pentaphon]

The new theme is ugly. This theme is awful, come on.

I wouldn't call it ugly. It just needs some tweaks with everybody in this thread making suggestions and it will become just as good as the original theme if not better. This new theme has more icons, making it more complete than the old one.

All we need to do is:

1) Decide on better color choices throughout the new theme that still work with both light and dark themes. 2) Make the pause button colorful instead of a dull gray.

The biggest issue I see is that overall, the theme relies too much on blue. We need more color variety throughout the theme.

[woj-tek]

@Pentaphon "de gustibus", but for my test the new theme already has way too much colour :-) good icons can work without any colour and still convey information.

[Pentaphon]

the new theme already has way too much colour

That's why I said we need to decide on better color choices. You can tell us specifically where we should tone down the colors.

I think people need to start giving specific constructive criticism to turn the theme into something better rather than all the "it's too colorful, it's too bright! it's too ugly!" comments so far.

[woj-tek]

That's why I said we need to decide on better color choices. You can tell us specifically where we should tone down the colors.

Already did that here: https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/issues/18078#issuecomment-1329797791 so simply didn't want to sound to repetitive. As I said - it's mostly due to matter of taste (and sometimes colour recognition issues) but I find icons that rely too much on colour too problematic as it's sometimes not distinctive (and adjusting colour palette simply won't work/solve this). To reiterate, good icons should start from monochrome, and they if someone wants something more fancy a colour can be added but as something optional and could help further distinguish icons, but not as sole thing to distinguish them. In addition, too much colour can also cause "visual noise" result in jarring experience IMHO.

[alexdns1]

@Pentaphon

That's why I said we need to decide on better color choices.

Here are the best color choices - the old theme. Any new theme - its not the best.

[lynxtaa]

I hope the new theme will be reverted.

For now I've switched to "Mumble Dark" theme from this repository as it suggested on reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/qBittorrent/comments/z6a0ql/comment/iy1263j

[psych0fred]

Issue: Whoever made the design changes is not competent enough to make design decisions and should not be designing software. Don't change the theme, just give people the ability to change the theme or colors if they so choose. It's not my intention to insult anyone, but this is design fundamentals 101. All you did was break what people were used to and give them the option to hate the product or rollback to a previous version. That's fundamentally poor design, hence, whoever made the decision is not competent enough to be making design decisions.

[bottleblue]

It'd be cool if the devs could include multiple themes for qbittorrent. Light and dark themes. The old theme can be part of them. I'd like a new default theme but one that's visually appealing, easy to use and look at.

[TheYMI]

Do text colors need to be the same both in light and dark mode? Having different text colors to match different backgrounds seems like a simple solution.

[Symbai]

Well, it was clear to me that this happens after I've seen all of these color / theme / icon PRs that show up every day here in this repository without getting truly tested. Personally, I recommend sticking to public UI guidance. Most of us are not UI experts, but many huge companies spent a lot of money trying to figure out what looks the best. There are guidance from Microsoft or Apple or Google about colors matching backgrounds and what devs should avoid. Deny every PR which is not following them. Only consider UI PRs if they show the changes in every single way. For example don't accept icon changes which only show screenshots of the new icons but screenshots of the new icon within qbittorrent with the state of: normal, disabled, mouse hovered, clicked. Because only then you can tell if the icon looks good or not. This is not a critic but a suggestion to avoid situations like this.

I'm glad I found this before upgrading. From the screenshots I've seen I totally agree with everyone here.

[Pentaphon]

Could you find the related post? Having similar blue colors for different states seems like a mistake to me.

Similar issue reported here where "stalled" is light green and "seeding" is darker green: https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/issues/18123

[meequrox]

It was nice when completed downloads were gray text. Now they're burning my eyes out.

[R-Adrian]

i also just upgraded to v4.5.0 about 30 minutes ago and my eyes hurt already ... text is light blue colour on a white background.... who had that weird idea for a torture device? At least there should have been an alternative included for those of us with less than ideal eyesight. :( Now i have to chase down some qbttheme file and hope it looks ok.

update: Lynxtaa posted a link above to another Github repository.... thank you!, The dark stylesheet theme from there works much better for me, it has a nice contrast ratio. https://github.com/jagannatharjun/qbt-theme

[xtemp09]

The new childish Xmas theme makes me puke. Guys, is there a qbtheme to return the old look & feel? I looked through the topic, yandexed this out, but couldn't find the old theme. The mumble-light/dark/dracula themes don't look like the old one.

[silverwoodchuck47]

These colors don't work at all. Please put it back the way it was or set it up so that I can revert. I downloaded a few themes and they don't work.

[glassez]

I downloaded a few themes and they don't work.

If you're really interested in this, you could easily make your own theme to redefine the colors you don't like.

[Pentaphon]

you could easily make your own theme to redefine the colors you don't like.

I agree with this but I also agree with the naysayers that the current theme still needs a lot of work and there should be a discussion on how to make sure the new default theme looks good on all platforms. There's a lot of little issues that got through the first PR that need to be fixed in 4.5.1 and onwards. I think @now-im and anybody else involved with the theme should gather all the existing feedback, create a WIP theme PR, ask for even more feedback and come out with a 1.1 version of the theme that fixes everything that is obviously bad-looking or broken.

This is of course, dependent on everybody complaining to actually participate in fixing the default theme instead of just saying "change it back!"

We have so many users but it's a wonder that we don't have a thriving custom theming community. I think most people don't really seem to care what qBittorrent looks like as long as it downloads and seeds correctly.

[alexantr]

If you're really interested in this, you could easily make your own theme to redefine the colors you don't like

I just downgraded qb to 4.4.5. Old design outweighed new features and fixes for me.

[Pentaphon]

Old design outweighed new features and fixes for me.

Current talk is headed in the direction of reverting to the old theme in 4.5.1 but nobody is sure yet.

[bottleblue]

If you're really interested in this, you could easily make your own theme to redefine the colors you don't like.

If it's so easy why hasn't anyone made the old design available for everyone to download? That would immediately solve the problem. Maybe it's not as simple as you think?

[dullahan2084]

My two cents on this.

I think a single foreground color scheme for both a light and dark background isn't going to work well on either. Even if one background is full white and the other full black you can only get a small margin of contrast above the minimum for the foreground colors. You can check here for example:

https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker

What some applications do for cases like this where colors are used for labeling is to let the users easily configure them besides application theming. For example Wireshark has a dialog for configuring the colors used in the packet list. The old classic Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines says this on page 265:

Color for Categorizing Information. If you use color to code categories of information in your application, try to limit the use of color elsewhere in the application. Using color to code categories—for example, to label or distinguish groups of items—can make information clear. Providing the user with a small initial selection of distinct colors—for example, from four to seven—and with the capability to change those colors or add more is the best solution.

On the same page it says this about the blue color (no wonder some users complained about the light blue):

Beware of Blue. The color that is most difficult to distinguish is light blue, which should be avoided for text, thin lines, and small shapes. Adjacent colors that differ only in the amount of blue should also be avoided. However, for things that you want to make unobtrusive, such as grid lines, blue is the perfect color.

[bottleblue]

* Licensing, copyright and agreements?

There are already a few themes available. If this was really an issue I doubt there would be any.

* Old design has flaws and isn't perfect for everyone?

Nobody said it was perfect but generally people were fine with it. If it's so easy to make someone would have simply recreated that theme as a temporary solution.

* v4.5.0 has more torrent status filters than v4.4.5?

So you're admitting it's not that easy?

[Pentaphon]

I think a single foreground color scheme for both a light and dark background isn't going to work well on either. Even if one background is full white and the other full black you can only get a small margin of contrast above the minimum for the foreground colors.

I agree. We ultimately need a default theme-light and a default theme-dark. Going with a single-mode theme was a mistake.

[thiendt2k1]

please roll back the previous theme option, I'm a light theme devoter, so i would not use black theme as an alternative and tolerate such changes that make my ability to check quickly which is done, which is running and pause to be removed just like this! At least give us the option to choose the new or the old one, not forcing everyone like this! Disappointing! Excruciating!! Pain in the a**(sorry for my language but i just cant help it)

[AsheIsAmazing]

I don't understand why changes were made in the first place. I liked it the way it was. Why is the new UI not a theme for the people who actually want it to look like that, and keep what we had and what works for most people as the default?

[Pentaphon]

I don't understand why changes were made in the first place.

It was an attempt to make a new default theme that works with light and dark mode, has all the icons qBit needs, and generally improves the look of the client. It did not succeed for several reasons, and they will probably try again another time with another theme, but without making the same mistakes as this time.

[akyag]

Maybe introduce the theme in a beta branch or something before pushing it to stable? get people's opinion etc. The current contrast ratio is pretty bad, the dark theme main window has a contrast ratio of 2.65 :/

[GithubUser5462]

Someone made a theme with white colored text to improve text readability with the dark theme.

https://datalars.com/2023/01/03/qbittorrent-v450-the-hitchhikers-guide-to-legible-text-2/

[Pentaphon]

Someone made a theme with white colored text to improve text readability with the dark theme.

https://datalars.com/2023/01/03/qbittorrent-v450-the-hitchhikers-guide-to-legible-text-2/

It' all going to be fixed in 4.5.1 anyway.