[Hitcher]

Right I've just tested Confluence, Alaska Revisited and XeeBo and can read the plots on all of them perfectly fine from about 5m away on a 50" TV. And my eyesight isn't as good as it used to be either.

[kyotocafe]

Right I've just tested Confluence, Alaska Revisited and XeeBo and can read the plots on all of them perfectly fine from about 5m away on a 50" TV. And my eyesight isn't as good as it used to be either.

I do agree. Those three are a perfect example of readability, as well as Fusion.
I also find more pleasant to be able to browse through menus, dialogues, plots, without having to make an extra effort to my eyes. I understand that there are people using XBMC with their monitors, but I don't think it is the general case.

[nemulate]

Right I've just tested Confluence, Alaska Revisited and XeeBo and can read the plots on all of them perfectly fine from about 5m away on a 50" TV. And my eyesight isn't as good as it used to be either.

But not everyone has a 50 inch tv! I had a 32 inch one just upgraded to 42 and it makes a hell of a difference even to my old eyes!

[Martijn]

But not everyone has a 50 inch tv! I had a 32 inch one just upgraded to 42 and it makes a hell of a difference even to my old eyes!

And you also sit 5m away or just 3 or 4? You have to take the distance into account to. I use Aeon Nox, have 42" and sit 3,5m away and no problem reading the plot (and my eyes aren't that good)

[Hitcher]

But not everyone has a 50 inch tv! I had a 32 inch one just upgraded to 42 and it makes a hell of a difference even to my old eyes!

No, but as I said I viewed it from a distance of 5m.

[freakalad]

I've tried a number of skins (currently using Aeon Nox on Eden, Ubuntu 10.4 64).

For the most part they're OK, but I think a config setting (even in advancedsettings.xml or font.xml), where I can I can set *ALL* fonts +/- n points, including subtitles, would be great.

I sit at least 5m from my modest screen.

Maybe in font.xml, something like:

Code:

<fontset>
    <font>
        <size>+2</size>
    </font>
</fontset>

What people "should" do & what they end up doing are 2 *very* different things - I've ended choosing my skin for it's awesomeness/eye-candy aesthetics, and not a skin that looks like an assistive device for the visually-impaired

[pecinko]

I've tried a number of skins (currently using Aeon Nox on Eden, Ubuntu 10.4 64).

For the most part they're OK, but I think a config setting (even in advancedsettings.xml or font.xml), where I can I can set *ALL* fonts +/- n points, including subtitles, would be great.

I sit at least 5m from my modest screen.

Maybe in font.xml, something like:

Code:

<fontset>
    <font>
        <size>+2</size>
    </font>
</fontset>

What people "should" do & what they end up doing are 2 *very* different things - I've ended choosing my skin for it's awesomeness/eye-candy aesthetics, and not a skin that looks like an assistive device for the visually-impaired

I would like to scale fonts and brake aesthetics in order to read better, but I have chosen a skin that does not look as "assistive device for the visually-impaired".

Interesting.

[freakalad]

Well, yes - why not?

If I can set such a "zoom" option, see what it looks like, *decide for myself* whether or not I want to keep it that way, & be able to simply revert it, or even increase it, I don't see why giving users this ability would be a bad thing.

Besides, we're talking relative increases/decreases here (+n points, +n%), so there is a point where it would still work, and a point where it simply starts looking like the dog's breakfast.

I have screen real-estate to burn, so this would be more a boon than a burden.

[pecinko]

Besides, we're talking relative increases/decreases here (+n points, +n%), so there is a point where it would still work, and a point where it simply starts looking like the dog's breakfast.

Yes, it sounds reasonable enough - in theory at least.

Let's see how it looks like in practice - open up any font.xml and manually increase font size by 15-20%. I believe it will get borked even with 10% increase, but what's the point of such insignificant increase, right?

You will be done in less than 10 min, just change tags like <size>20</size> to <size>23</size> or <size>24</size>.

Point is - you can do this in web browser, not in UI like XBMC's.

[saitoh183]

Yes, it sounds reasonable enough - in theory at least.

Let's see how it looks like in practice - open up any font.xml and manually increase font size by 15-20%. I believe it will get borked even with 10% increase, but what's the point of such insignificant increase, right?

You will be done in less than 10 min, just change tags like <size>20</size> to <size>23</size> or <size>24</size>.

Point is - you can do this in web browser, not in UI like XBMC's.

In the Appearance setting there is a Font option. Would it be hard for skinners to include different font choices for people to select? This is why i use Back Row as skin because its the only one that has a font called Large that sets every font to a readable size without having to modify the xml or deform the look of the skin. I wish more skins had choices like that so people wouldnt be limited in there skin choices.

[wyrm]

In the Appearance setting there is a Font option. Would it be hard for skinners to include different font choices for people to select? This is why i use Back Row as skin because its the only one that has a font called Large that sets every font to a readable size without having to modify the xml or deform the look of the skin. I wish more skins had choices like that so people wouldnt be limited in there skin choices.

saitoh,

Yep at one point I had this in my skin as well. No body bothered with the smaller font and having two different sized fonts just messed up screen layouts. So I have now gone back to one (the larger one) font and things look a lot better for it.

The skinner has to specify sizing for ALL of the visual elements on screen. If you increase the size of the font too far from what the skinner intended (and allowed for) you have text chopped off or even not displayed at all.

I really doubt most skins have much wiggle room for increase fonts sizes. For example the smallest font used in my skin is 18 pixels high. If you increase that by 2 pixels, that's a 11% increase in size. So at the very least text is going to have scroll more often to fit in buttons etc, or it's going to spill outside of buttons as its too tall.

By all means take a skin you like and try adjusting the size of the fonts in the font.xml file and see just how quickly things go to shit.

Wyrm (xTV-SAF)

[saitoh183]

saitoh,

Yep at one point I had this in my skin as well. No body bothered with the smaller font and having two different sized fonts just messed up screen layouts. So I have now gone back to one (the larger one) font and things look a lot better for it.

The skinner has to specify sizing for ALL of the visual elements on screen. If you increase the size of the font too far from what the skinner intended (and allowed for) you have text chopped off or even not displayed at all.

I really doubt most skins have much wiggle room for increase fonts sizes. For example the smallest font used in my skin is 18 pixels high. If you increase that by 2 pixels, that's a 11% increase in size. So at the very least text is going to have scroll more often to fit in buttons etc, or it's going to spill outside of buttons as its too tall.

By all means take a skin you like and try adjusting the size of the fonts in the font.xml file and see just how quickly things go to shit.

Wyrm (xTV-SAF)

I get what your saying...back in 10.1 i had Night and i played around with the font.xml and got the size i needed to be able to view the descriptions properly and yes it spilled out in some instances. The problem with modifying the font.xml is that you have to redo it each time you update the skin. Well at least i have Back Row for now ...maybe going to try out Metropolis

[kyotocafe]

I get what your saying...back in 10.1 i had Night and i played around with the font.xml and got the size i needed to be able to view the descriptions properly and yes it spilled out in some instances. The problem with modifying the font.xml is that you have to redo it each time you update the skin. Well at least i have Back Row for now ...maybe going to try out Metropolis

Definitely Metropolis is a very good option since one of the skin's focus is to make it easy to read. I am finding it really pleasant in that regard.

[saitoh183]

Definitely Metropolis is a very good option since one of the skin's focus is to make it easy to read. I am finding it really pleasant in that regard.

Yeah i tried it but since it has no possibility of making extra menu items from favorites, its a deal breaker...oh well

[freakalad]

In the Appearance setting there is a Font option. Would it be hard for skinners to include different font choices for people to select?

Agreed - 5 options would be great: smallest, smaller, normal, larger, largest