[Okular-devel] [Bug 241490] New: 'facing pages' view mode produces inaesthetic variable space between pages

[James Fisher]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=241490

           Summary: 'facing pages' view mode produces inaesthetic variable
                    space between pages
           Product: okular
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: Ubuntu Packages
        OS/Version: Linux
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: wishlist
          Priority: NOR
         Component: general
        AssignedTo: okular-devel at kde.org
        ReportedBy: jameshfisher at gmail.com


Version:           unspecified
OS:                Linux

The "dual" view mode in Okular is, presumably, meant to emulate the layout of a
physical book. On this assumption, the positioning of the pages within the
window is currently done poorly. There is always space between the pages (this
gets smaller, but never disappears, as you zoom in), where in a book there is
none. Worse than the fact that there is space between the pages is that this
space is variable, changing the composition as one zooms. Even worse is that,
when zooming out sufficiently, any one page is 'closer' to the pages "above"
and "below" than it is to its facing page, meaning that the the natural way in
which the eye groups the pages (as two vertical columns) is different to their
natural grouping in a book (as pairs of facing pages).

It may seem pedantic, but this current logic for placing pages destroys any
design of the facing pages. For example, the
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canons_of_page_construction are based on the
assumption that the two facing pages are touching. This is not to mention such
things as carefully-designed two-page spreads -- in this case Okular
effectively chops someone's artwork in half.

The pages should in fact be displayed as touching in the gutter.  This is the
approach taken by Adobe Reader, for example.

For my part, I suggest that the pages are displayed literally pixel-to-pixel,
and that their visual separation into pages is done by altering the lightnesses
of the two touching columns of pixels.  For example, one column of pixels could
be made 20% darker, and the other could be made 20% lighter, giving the
impression of a groove in the page.

Reproducible: Always

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