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I have a visual impairment that make it really hard for me to distinguish objects where the is little contrast. This new UI trend of one pixel borders is a big

I have a visual impairment that make it really hard for me to distinguish objects where the is little contrast. This new UI trend of one pixel borders is a big annoyance for me. I constantly click the wrong window. I actually wrote a Windows app to do something like this. It's sitting in my unfinished folder because I ran into too many issues to fix for a hobby project. The rectangle data for Windows apps seems to vary widely. I needed a bunch of different formulas to correct for the rectangles I was getting back from the WinAPI calls. One of my features was a different border color for each app. I tried various color rules, such as multiple copies of VSCode would each get their own shade of blue, or cycle through colors of the rainbow.

Jedd 4y ago
Microsoft Windows is abysmal on this front - I have to use Microsoft Windows 10 periodically, while most of my life is spent in KDE, and the disjoint is jarring. In KDE I can precisely control and set window border thickness and colour. In Microsoft Windows 10 (and I assume 11 has continued the trend at making this even worse) I can enable a very thin border, of a themed colour, and that border disappears when the window is no longer in focus. This means a couple of terminal windows (eg gitbash) have near impossible to discern edges when they're overlapping. On top of this, some Microsoft applications seem to break their own styling rules (Office apps, say) which I suspect is the kind of issue that stalled your project.
- Ayesh 4y ago
  Yeah, I recently started to use KDE Plasma with Fedora (after Gnome left a sour taste), and the amount of customizations it allows is mind-blowing. This may be common knowledge, but as a newcomer to KDE, these very precise controls are quite a fresh breath from OSs like Win10/11 and Mac OS. Reminded me of those Windows 98 shell customizations. Windows seems to be going backwards when it comes to customizations; there are only a few customizations allowed in Windows 11 now.
- vladvasiliu 4y ago
  Windows 11 seems a bit better on this front than 10. I don't use either very often (mostly for gaming and sometimes at work) but I have yet to see the active window having the same color as a background one, or even be unable to tell where one window stops and the other begins.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- Archelaos 4y ago
  > In KDE I can precisely control and set window border thickness and colour. What I do not comprehend is the logic behind why Windows does not support such in my view easy to implement choices.
  - ntauthority 4y ago
    It does, under the accessibility options. 'Contrast themes' allow fairly fine-grained customization, still, and a lot of legacy values that have been there since Windows 95 are still supported otherwise to some extent albeit sometimes hidden.
    - Jedd 4y ago
      I've hunted through Ease of Access (as it's called in Win10), and trawled through forums, trying to find a superior solution -- but the best I could find, and manage, is shown here: https://imgur.com/a/WgzR8j3 https://imgur.com/a/WgzR8j3 Obviously with a busier amount of text on fore / rear terminals, and more than just two terminals -- that lack of a clear border becomes a massive confusion. If you've found a better configuration, please do share.
anaisbetts 4y ago
Windows has several high-contrast themes built-in (and in Win11 they are quite a bit more aesthetically pleasing than they used to be), you can actually even toggle between normal and high-contrast via a keyboard shortcut.
marginalia_nu 4y ago
> I have a visual impairment that make it really hard for me to distinguish objects where the is little contrast. This new UI trend of one pixel borders is a big annoyance for me. I constantly click the wrong window. I have excellent vision and constantly struggle to figure out where GUI elements begin and end. Like... Windows 95 has distinguishable UI elements figured out. They had clear borders, and it was easy to figure out if something was a button or input field, if it was enabled or disabled, buttons had icons and text, the use of depth was great too. When and how did it go so wrong? It's not like there's a sudden shortage of screen space. That was a GUI that worked on a 640x480 monitor.

Jedd 4y ago

Microsoft Windows is abysmal on this front - I have to use Microsoft Windows 10 periodically, while most of my life is spent in KDE, and the disjoint is jarring. In KDE I can precisely control and set window border thickness and colour. In Microsoft Windows 10 (and I assume 11 has continued the trend at making this even worse) I can enable a very thin border, of a themed colour, and that border disappears when the window is no longer in focus. This means a couple of terminal windows (eg gitbash) have near impossible to discern edges when they're overlapping. On top of this, some Microsoft applications seem to break their own styling rules (Office apps, say) which I suspect is the kind of issue that stalled your project.

Ayesh 4y ago
Yeah, I recently started to use KDE Plasma with Fedora (after Gnome left a sour taste), and the amount of customizations it allows is mind-blowing. This may be common knowledge, but as a newcomer to KDE, these very precise controls are quite a fresh breath from OSs like Win10/11 and Mac OS. Reminded me of those Windows 98 shell customizations. Windows seems to be going backwards when it comes to customizations; there are only a few customizations allowed in Windows 11 now.
vladvasiliu 4y ago
Windows 11 seems a bit better on this front than 10. I don't use either very often (mostly for gaming and sometimes at work) but I have yet to see the active window having the same color as a background one, or even be unable to tell where one window stops and the other begins.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
Archelaos 4y ago
> In KDE I can precisely control and set window border thickness and colour. What I do not comprehend is the logic behind why Windows does not support such in my view easy to implement choices.
- ntauthority 4y ago
  It does, under the accessibility options. 'Contrast themes' allow fairly fine-grained customization, still, and a lot of legacy values that have been there since Windows 95 are still supported otherwise to some extent albeit sometimes hidden.
  - Jedd 4y ago
    I've hunted through Ease of Access (as it's called in Win10), and trawled through forums, trying to find a superior solution -- but the best I could find, and manage, is shown here: https://imgur.com/a/WgzR8j3 https://imgur.com/a/WgzR8j3 Obviously with a busier amount of text on fore / rear terminals, and more than just two terminals -- that lack of a clear border becomes a massive confusion. If you've found a better configuration, please do share.

anaisbetts 4y ago

Windows has several high-contrast themes built-in (and in Win11 they are quite a bit more aesthetically pleasing than they used to be), you can actually even toggle between normal and high-contrast via a keyboard shortcut.

marginalia_nu 4y ago

> I have a visual impairment that make it really hard for me to distinguish objects where the is little contrast. This new UI trend of one pixel borders is a big annoyance for me. I constantly click the wrong window. I have excellent vision and constantly struggle to figure out where GUI elements begin and end. Like... Windows 95 has distinguishable UI elements figured out. They had clear borders, and it was easy to figure out if something was a button or input field, if it was enabled or disabled, buttons had icons and text, the use of depth was great too. When and how did it go so wrong? It's not like there's a sudden shortage of screen space. That was a GUI that worked on a 640x480 monitor.