Bug 148086 - Automatic icon theme should take dark mode into account
Summary: Automatic icon theme should take dark mode into account
Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: UI (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
7.4.0.0 alpha0+
Hardware: All All
: high enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: UI-Theming 148764 Dark-Mode 153229
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2022-03-19 16:48 UTC by Mike Kaganski
Modified: 2024-10-14 12:10 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
LibreOffice Version Info - General Look of Window (76.99 KB, image/png)
2023-02-08 22:23 UTC, BikeHelmet
Details
Dark Mode Icons on Dark Background Colours (deleted)
2023-02-08 22:24 UTC, BikeHelmet
Details
Dark Icons on Dark Background (32.03 KB, image/png)
2023-02-08 22:55 UTC, BikeHelmet
Details

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Description Mike Kaganski 2022-03-19 16:48:43 UTC
The automatic icon theme (Options->LibreOffice->View->Icon Theme->Automatic) most not only consider OS/environment (e.g., defaulting to Colibre on Windows), but also the dark mode (so it should be Colibre (dark) when dark mode is active).
Comment 1 Pedro 2022-03-22 14:20:48 UTC
Confirmed and agreed.
Comment 2 V Stuart Foote 2022-08-20 18:38:16 UTC
Not just the dark icon themes. We now also have the Application Colors 'LibreOffice Dark' color theme able to preload colors for os/DE that we can't parse theme details from. E.g. Windows where we have the work to detect the Dark mode [1] but ability to read the WDM's UWP XAML.

In addition to the auto switch to dark icon theme, shouldn't/couldn't we also toggle the color theme as well?  At least for Windows, maybe macOS.

=-ref-=
[1] https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/131843
Comment 3 steve 2023-02-08 13:11:13 UTC
Now that dark mode has been released with 7.5.0.3 upping priority to high.

On macOS default icon theme does not support dark mode which is a problem: https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=153465 (macOS: switch default icon theme to Colibre).

Automatic switching of icon themes is expected by users and confusion introduced when it is not happening.
Comment 4 BikeHelmet 2023-02-08 22:23:04 UTC
Created attachment 185235 [details]
LibreOffice Version Info - General Look of Window

Horrific colour theme with no over-ride within the Options.
Comment 5 BikeHelmet 2023-02-08 22:24:52 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 6 steve 2023-02-08 22:47:32 UTC
Been thinking about icon themes and dark light variants lately and now I am wondering: shouldn't be dark + light variant be a requirement for an icon theme to be included in LO?

And if only dark + light variant icon themes are included, can't we just massively reduce the currently highly confusing theme selection by just offering a single option per theme and then automatically following dark | light settings?

That way the user has a nice clean UI and there really isn't any need to bother users with picking the correct variant. This logic is simple enough to be automated. Am I missing something?
Comment 7 BikeHelmet 2023-02-08 22:53:18 UTC
Can an admin delete that second attachment/example? It accidentally included a phone number. (A work number thankfully, but it should be erased.)

With 7.5, dark icons are showing up on dark background colours. This isn't the friendly "Discord" style high-visibility dark mode. It's harsh and difficult to make out. A lot of people in adverse lighting (sun shining in) or with vision/screen issues (poor screen quality, senior citizen, person nearing retirement, older acer laptops from 2004) can't make them out at all. The icons and background blend completely together.

Going into Tools -> Options -> View and changing the theme to a Light version has no effect at all. There's no over-ride, which is very problematic.

Many people have Dark Mode enabled in Windows simply because Light Mode on older computer screens is so washed out, you can't see scrollbars or buttons. Anything over 224 just blends in with RGB 255. A person with Dark Mode enabled very likely does not want it enabled in LibreOffice, especially in its current implementation. It should remain user choice, enabled or disabled in the Options, perhaps with the default setting matching Windows. (Although I probably wouldn't even do that, due to the reasons behind people enabling Dark Mode.)

I think Steve's point is good one. If there aren't well fitting icons to match the colour scheme, why even offer the option to change to an incomplete and hard to discern theme? To most users, the combined result is what they think of as a theme or light/dark mode.
Comment 8 BikeHelmet 2023-02-08 22:55:24 UTC
Created attachment 185238 [details]
Dark Icons on Dark Background

After the dark theme forced itself on, despite a light theme being selected.
Comment 9 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2023-02-08 23:18:56 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 10 Mike Kaganski 2023-02-09 06:31:29 UTC
(In reply to steve from comment #6)

Please do not make issues unmanageable by adding more and more separate elements there. See bug 148764.
Comment 11 Jeff Fortin Tam 2023-02-09 14:14:27 UTC
Shouldn't this be considered a duplicate of the older bug #127138 (and that one could be renamed/retitled to be more generic, because it is)?
Comment 12 Sierk Bornemann 2023-02-09 17:23:51 UTC
(In reply to steve from comment #6)

+1
Comment 13 V Stuart Foote 2023-02-19 16:28:00 UTC
Correct now on Windows builds at 7.5.1 where we have Colibre and Colibre Dark icon themes automatically selected as response to os/DE color theme. 

Other os/DE still impacted by mismatched light/dark icon theme defaults (i.e. bug 153465) but the automated icon theme response to a light or a dark color theme is in place.

Also, extent to which fg/bg toggles now respond in UI to light or dark color theme makes behavior of Application colors (comment 2) much less of an issue.

IMHO => WFM