[Digikam-devel] [Bug 121372] No way to modify font size for various text displays

[krienke at uni-koblenz.de]

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http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=121372         
krienke uni-koblenz de changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
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             Status|RESOLVED                    |UNCONFIRMED
         Resolution|INVALID                     |



------- Additional Comments From krienke uni-koblenz de  2006-02-08 08:49 -------
Well you forgot my main argument at least for me it is the most important: The personal preference if someone wants to have textinfo "good" readable or if he prefers small text using less space in an application that ideally needs a large display to show the information. 
When working on a photo or a set of photos in the imageeditor the sidebar can be used to display exif data which is really useful. However the text size used therein is in my setup quite large especially because some parts are formatted in bold face. My KDE default font size for my KDE applications is right for me. I did not yet see any reason to make it smaller or larger for any other KDE application. If I want to see all the EXIF infos in digikams sidetab (without cutting off text) I have to resize the tab to roughly 1/3 of my screen width. In the complete view of EXIF info I even have to scroll vertically to see all information. The font size could be 4 points smaller for the sidetab and the infos would still be readable on my display but they would eat up less space vertically (no more scrolling needed then) and horizontally leaving more room for the photo.

The problem is simply that KDE general font selection is used here for the sidetab, but the sidetab is something special in that it shows important infos about the image but at the same time it makes the image appear smaller. I want to have the sidetab as small as possible to have my image beeing displayed as large as possible but still having the EXIF infos visible and readable. But at the moment I can only do so by setting the fontsize of *all* my KDE applications smaller which seems not sensible to me. 

Its simply something different if you want to look eg at a KDE applications configuration dialog (where the KDE default font is also used for) and where you can use your complete display size to do this or if you want just to display additional infos in a box as small as sensible (for a certain users preference) with the constraint that making the box larger will make the photo smaller. Thats why in my eyes its not good to use *one* KDE default font for all situations.

Your argument that display resolution is not important since the display size is specified in mm is also not completely true. There is still a difference of a highres display say 1600x1200 and a lowres say 800x600. The difference is the resolution. On the highres display you can render smaller details (eg small fonts) more acurate than on a lowres display simply because you have more pixel to do so. So on a highres display a user might want to use a very small (but still "sharp" looking) font that another user on a lowres display would not want to use since it would look already blurred.
  
So again. To let an user use an application optimally according to his equipment and personal preferences you cannot use one singe default font that is used for all KDE applications because it cannot be optimal for all contexts. If you do so, you make an application like digikam less optimal than it could be. 
Why do you think one can specify different (from the global default KDE settings) font sizes and font shapes in other applications like kmail or knode? I think its the same reason: Let the user decide whats optimal according to his preferences and equipment. 

Rainer