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The user controls system font and size. It looks fine to me? KDE is also basically the only usable non-power user desktop environment these days. The margins/pa

The user controls system font and size. It looks fine to me? KDE is also basically the only usable non-power user desktop environment these days. The margins/padding are a little big, but it's better than most modern applications that professionals produce.

cosmic_cheese 1y ago
I am not a designer, just a dev with a bit of a visual inclination, but I think what makes KDE’s typography feel “off” is missing steps in visual hierarchy due to how the different sizes relate to each other in screen (e.g. header vs body text), as well as font weights being a bit too homogenous. So its differentiation is too great in one way and not enough in another, which feels awkward. The font sizes being modifiable isn’t the issue.
- sho_hn 1y ago
  There's a community effort underway to develop a next-generation appearance based on a design system (and a new theme engine) that also includes a properly designed set of font weights. I agree this will be a big improvement. I love type design, and our typography in KDE being relatively scattershot has always been one of my pain points as well.
nyonyo 1y ago
https://i.imgur.com/jRiXEXE.png https://i.imgur.com/jRiXEXE.png Here's why no amount of mere customization can "fix it" Last screenshot is from Gnome settings serving as a strong contrast to the rest (KDE screenshots taken from the OP article)
- sho_hn 1y ago
  It looks like most of the margin differences you complain about are due to icons not filling out their square canvas/bounding box depending on the depicted object. This is generally how icons work, unless you go Android and slap a circle/squircle background on all of them. Which isn't to say things shouldn't be better, of course. There's currently a big multi-year community effort underway to overhaul how KDE's visuals are made, including adopting a modularized design system, Figma/PenPot and a new theming engine (Union) designed explicitly to serve the designer's needs. Along with the KDE Linux distro these are our two main next-gen efforts where we want a capability step change in our practice and product.
- ndriscoll 1y ago
  The screenshot from the article is for a single application that doesn't really have settings. The system settings panel does have a sidebar with separators, including group labels and contrast/color to make it easier to find things instead of a big panel of gray on gray. So... better than GNOME. Here's a screenshot I found: https://static1.ahelpme.com/public/media/tutorials/review-fedora-37-kde-plasma-system-settings-appearance-fonts-screenshot-8--2296ecec8a.png https://static1.ahelpme.com/public/media/tutorials/review-fe... You can also see that the KDE settings screen can fit more than 3 options at a time without scrolling, which is appreciated. That said like I said I do sometimes feel that their more modern themes have random extra spacing that would be nice to be able to remove. Better then all the other modern DEs though (except for power user window managers like i3), so in that way they've done a fantastic job. KDE is vastly more usable than the alternatives, including commercial.

cosmic_cheese 1y ago

I am not a designer, just a dev with a bit of a visual inclination, but I think what makes KDE’s typography feel “off” is missing steps in visual hierarchy due to how the different sizes relate to each other in screen (e.g. header vs body text), as well as font weights being a bit too homogenous. So its differentiation is too great in one way and not enough in another, which feels awkward. The font sizes being modifiable isn’t the issue.

sho_hn 1y ago
There's a community effort underway to develop a next-generation appearance based on a design system (and a new theme engine) that also includes a properly designed set of font weights. I agree this will be a big improvement. I love type design, and our typography in KDE being relatively scattershot has always been one of my pain points as well.

nyonyo 1y ago

https://i.imgur.com/jRiXEXE.png https://i.imgur.com/jRiXEXE.png Here's why no amount of mere customization can "fix it" Last screenshot is from Gnome settings serving as a strong contrast to the rest (KDE screenshots taken from the OP article)

sho_hn 1y ago
It looks like most of the margin differences you complain about are due to icons not filling out their square canvas/bounding box depending on the depicted object. This is generally how icons work, unless you go Android and slap a circle/squircle background on all of them. Which isn't to say things shouldn't be better, of course. There's currently a big multi-year community effort underway to overhaul how KDE's visuals are made, including adopting a modularized design system, Figma/PenPot and a new theming engine (Union) designed explicitly to serve the designer's needs. Along with the KDE Linux distro these are our two main next-gen efforts where we want a capability step change in our practice and product.
ndriscoll 1y ago
The screenshot from the article is for a single application that doesn't really have settings. The system settings panel does have a sidebar with separators, including group labels and contrast/color to make it easier to find things instead of a big panel of gray on gray. So... better than GNOME. Here's a screenshot I found: https://static1.ahelpme.com/public/media/tutorials/review-fedora-37-kde-plasma-system-settings-appearance-fonts-screenshot-8--2296ecec8a.png https://static1.ahelpme.com/public/media/tutorials/review-fe... You can also see that the KDE settings screen can fit more than 3 options at a time without scrolling, which is appreciated. That said like I said I do sometimes feel that their more modern themes have random extra spacing that would be nice to be able to remove. Better then all the other modern DEs though (except for power user window managers like i3), so in that way they've done a fantastic job. KDE is vastly more usable than the alternatives, including commercial.