Sage 7 UI - for improved readability

[stevech]

Sage 6's UI, with my large fonts, high-contrast backgrounds on menus (bold face type in white with dark blue background) - have better enabled a sight-impaired person here to use Sage.

Sage 7- Not good in this regard. I set the font size min to 22.
But there are still lots of items displayed in
small fonts
thin not bold face fonts in menus
grey font face on a grey background (!). One must highlight the item (with buttons) to even read it - across the room.

and so on.

Are there properties file edits I can do with Sage 7?
The biggest deal is the thin grey fonts on a grey background - low contrast. Does not work at 15 ft. from new model HDTV (LCD).
The channel names and program titles are low contrast, thin fonts, and are a small portion of the graphic in which the are located (rectangle). Need BIG, so item fills out its container. The font face text is not white; it's grey.

Looks OK 2 ft. from PC monitor, but that's moot.

See enclosure - and image you're sight-impaired and at 10-15 ft. from LCD TV. Note in the 2nd screen grab the large font for the recorded show description - not so in Sage 7 default. The folder icons that show that a collection of recordings are in a folder - in Sage 7, are very low contrast- almost invisible.
20% larger fonts inside the guide's boxes would help, and/or more contrast.

Hopefully there are some properties to alter in sage 7
I know that Sage 7 can fall back to Sage 6's UI - I tried that. But it would be nice to move along to Sage 7, esp. for improved functions like the photo slide show which is better in 7. Also.. not sure what property names to alter in Sage 7. In Sage 6, it was trial and error on these font changes.

[jorton]

Originally Posted by stevech

Sage 6's UI, with my large fonts, high-contrast backgrounds on menus (bold face type in white with dark blue background) - have better enabled a sight-impaired person here to use Sage.

Sage 7- Not good in this regard. I set the font size min to 22.
But there are still lots of items displayed in
small fonts
thin not bold face fonts in menus
grey font face on a grey background (!). One must highlight the item (with buttons) to even read it - across the room.

and so on.

Are there properties file edits I can do with Sage 7?
The biggest deal is the thin grey fonts on a grey background - low contrast. Does not work at 15 ft. from new model HDTV (LCD).
The channel names and program titles are low contrast, thin fonts, and are a small portion of the graphic in which the are located (rectangle). Need BIG, so item fills out its container. The font face text is not white; it's grey.

Looks OK 2 ft. from PC monitor, but that's moot.

See enclosure - and image you're sight-impaired and at 10-15 ft. from LCD TV. Note in the 2nd screen grab the large font for the recorded show description - not so in Sage 7 default. The folder icons that show that a collection of recordings are in a folder - in Sage 7, are very low contrast- almost invisible.
20% larger fonts inside the guide's boxes would help, and/or more contrast.

Hopefully there are some properties to alter in sage 7
I know that Sage 7 can fall back to Sage 6's UI - I tried that. But it would be nice to move along to Sage 7, esp. for improved functions like the photo slide show which is better in 7. Also.. not sure what property names to alter in Sage 7. In Sage 6, it was trial and error on these font changes.

I can try to help you create a custom theme.properties file to increase the fonts and change the colors of the grey ones, what theme are you currently using?

FYI - There are some fonts that won't scale up a lot as there just isn't room in the allocated space so most can be pushed up a bit but some won't change a lot if any. You would need to do a little studio work to make those changes.

Jeremy

[carlgar]

Originally Posted by jorton

I can try to help you create a custom theme.properties file to increase the fonts and change the colors of the grey ones, what theme are you currently using?

FYI - There are some fonts that won't scale up a lot as there just isn't room in the allocated space so most can be pushed up a bit but some won't change a lot if any. You would need to do a little studio work to make those changes.

Jeremy

If you come up with some type of visual impairment UI, I would be interested in seeing it. I currently only have minor issues with the UI. My main issue is with the recordings screen. I can usually determine the show name by knowing what shows are listed and and length of it. Worst case I have to get up and walk to the TV or just playing the show. I believe the only control buttons used on that screen is the plan and select button. I would like to see the 0-9 buttons used as a magnification factor for the selected show. The 0 and 1 buttons would restore the test to the normal size. 2-9 would increase the text from 200% to 900%. Actually, I would like to see this type of magnification on a lot of screens, but most screens may not know were the cursor is.

[jorton]

Originally Posted by carlgar

If you come up with some type of visual impairment UI, I would be interested in seeing it. I currently only have minor issues with the UI. My main issue is with the recordings screen. I can usually determine the show name by knowing what shows are listed and and length of it. Worst case I have to get up and walk to the TV or just playing the show. I believe the only control buttons used on that screen is the plan and select button. I would like to see the 0-9 buttons used as a magnification factor for the selected show. The 0 and 1 buttons would restore the test to the normal size. 2-9 would increase the text from 200% to 900%. Actually, I would like to see this type of magnification on a lot of screens, but most screens may not know were the cursor is.

Hey Calgar,

If it is necessary to make some basic visual tweaks to make the Standard Sagetv UI a little easier to read I will take a crack at it in Studio but as far as complicated UI stuff like zooming commands that's out of my knowledge/skill zone even if it is possible.

I'm mostly talking about a simple custom theme with simple bacground image and larger fonts at this point and, if necessary, an addon plugin (UI Mod STVi for the Standard UI only) to make any basic changes that can't be done via a theme.

Cheers,

Jeremy

[panteragstk]

I plan to overcome this issue by adding a projector and a 102" screen. Should make this problem a non-issue .

(sorry, couldn't resist)

[jorton]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

I plan to overcome this issue by adding a projector and a 102" screen. Should make this problem a non-issue .

(sorry, couldn't resist)

Stop procrastinating and get back to your music UI

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by jorton

Stop procrastinating and get back to your music UI

Touché.

[jorton]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Touché.

I did offer to help you, just let me know if there's anything I can do.

J

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by jorton

I did offer to help you, just let me know if there's anything I can do.

J

I haven't forgotten . I remember all who've offered. When i get to a point that I'm comfortable with what I'm doing you guys will hear from me. I'm still figuring things out in studio.

[carlgar]

Originally Posted by jorton

Hey Calgar,

If it is necessary to make some basic visual tweaks to make the Standard Sagetv UI a little easier to read I will take a crack at it in Studio but as far as complicated UI stuff like zooming commands that's out of my knowledge/skill zone even if it is possible.

I'm mostly talking about a simple custom theme with simple bacground image and larger fonts at this point and, if necessary, an addon plugin (UI Mod STVi for the Standard UI only) to make any basic changes that can't be done via a theme.

Cheers,

Jeremy

Apparently, you missed my initial request for a visual impairment UI. I asked for SPEECH output from Sage like the Windows narrator . I am just throwing out suggestions to anyone who shows a little intest in improving Sage. I think you may be overthinking what I want. I am not expecting a pixel level magnifier like the windows magnifier that works fine on the server or client systems. I am now looking for a solution for the extenders. On the recordings screen when the cursor is over a show where the select or play button is currently usable, you now also look for a number. If the number is 2, it could open up a new screen with a font that is twice the size and just show the information for that show and the title and or how many recordings there are. This morning I went to watch a recording and did not see that there were 2 recordings. Of course, Sage tried to play both but in the wrong order. I was half way through part 2 before I realized that something was not right. I have not looked at studio for several years so I am not sure how the font size is handled. If it is passed an a numeric value, this should be a fairly easy task . At worst case I would expect maybe some new special fonts would have to be added.
Comments are welcome, I am just thinking outloud. However, I don't want to hijack this thread from the original poster. I would like to hear their thoughts about whether this would be useful to them or not.

[jorton]

I didn't miss your post about the speech integration etc, it's just way out of my skill range . I was acutally just offering my help with the orginal posters issue with fonts and contrast nothing more at this point. I think I kind of know my way around the guts of the theme.properties files (I've been working on Diamond themes and doing some basics in studio for a about year now...) and think I can offer some assistance for the OP's issues. Yes most of the fonts can be taken care of with settings without a lot of work. If this is a theme/UI Mod it would work on extenders as well.

At this point I have my hands in quite a few things and given that I don't do real coding (java etc...) your more complicated requests are not something that I can help with, but I can handle some minor visual tweaking via a theme or a basic UI Mod for the OP's issues.

Cheers,

J

[stevech]

To those here who will help with Sage 7's UI. My screen grab examples, above, show that Sage 6 was tweaked by me to have better contrast and boldface/large type. Just altering Sage properties file entries, and/or creating new ones. A problem is that the relevant property names aren't documented by Sage as best as I can determine.

So a complex new UI design isn't needed, just help with the same tweaks. Such as changing the grey background to blacker or dark blue, and the font face to bolder most everywhere. Look too at the small font/low contrast text on the right side of the screen when looking at recordings in a folder. And the text that says how many recordings in a folder.

But the biggest issue is the EPG (guide) - in sage 7, default UI, versus sage 6 as I show above.
The 15 ft. UI design for HTPC should not be done while looking at a PC's monitor!

I'll buy the beers, and poor eyesighted person here will shout with glee.