Bug 168637 - Vertical tabs with GTK3: Not enough vertical space between tab headers
Summary: Vertical tabs with GTK3: Not enough vertical space between tab headers
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: UI (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: All All
: medium minor
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Vertical-Tab-dialogs
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Reported: 2025-10-01 10:11 UTC by Eyal Rozenberg
Modified: 2025-10-31 07:19 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
LO Writer hyperlink dialog screenshot (38.58 KB, image/png)
2025-10-01 10:12 UTC, Eyal Rozenberg
Details
LO Writer Export as PDF dialog screenshot (81.97 KB, image/png)
2025-10-01 10:12 UTC, Eyal Rozenberg
Details
LO Writer Edit Paragraph Style dialog screenshot (89.64 KB, image/png)
2025-10-01 10:12 UTC, Eyal Rozenberg
Details

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Description Eyal Rozenberg 2025-10-01 10:11:50 UTC
Consider the vertical spacing between icons on the three dialogs whose screenshots will soon be attached. These are just examples, there are probably a lot of other examples. The spacing between the icons - between the tabs headers - is too small. 

Naturally, we want to avoid the tabs headers 'spilling' out of the overall space the dialog offers, but:

* The default vspacing should be more generous.
* Squeezed spacing should be considered when the overall v-space is limited - either a single squeezed/unsqueezed choice, or a separate choice depending on overall dialog v-space for tab headers.



Observed with:

Version: 26.2.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 0d986755e4153230670c820dc52cc40cd72dfa87
CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 6.12; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: en-IL (en_IL); UI: en-US
Calc: CL threaded
Comment 1 Eyal Rozenberg 2025-10-01 10:12:11 UTC
Created attachment 203073 [details]
LO Writer hyperlink dialog screenshot
Comment 2 Eyal Rozenberg 2025-10-01 10:12:31 UTC
Created attachment 203074 [details]
LO Writer Export as PDF dialog screenshot
Comment 3 Eyal Rozenberg 2025-10-01 10:12:54 UTC
Created attachment 203075 [details]
LO Writer Edit Paragraph Style dialog screenshot
Comment 4 Heiko Tietze 2025-10-01 10:15:55 UTC
VTs are drawn natively on gtk3, we have no control over the design. Or rather should not overwrite the system theme. => NOB
Comment 5 Eyal Rozenberg 2025-10-01 10:23:33 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #4)
> VTs are drawn natively on gtk3, we have no control over the design. Or
> rather should not overwrite the system theme. => NOB

You _may_ have been able made that claim about some opt-in VCL. But - _we_ choose to draw with GTK3, so _our_ responsibility. This is our bug.

And sophistry aside - I'm certain there are a number of things we could do to circumvent this even if GTK itself cannot be told to add more vspace: We could reduce icon size, we could pad icons, we could perhaps even add "phantom" items to the tab headers which inflate their v-space.
Comment 6 Heiko Tietze 2025-10-31 07:19:41 UTC
The topic was on the agenda of the design meeting but did not receive further comments. While in particular gtk3 is drawn natively and we should not interfere with the operating system, in this case the focus frame (dotted rectangle) is indeed smaller than the total tab which looks a bit odd. Unfortunately there is no alternative app with native vertical tabs to compare. I suggest to look into the issue.