Re: [gentoo-user] tuning desktop appearance for legibility

[John Blinka]

On Thu, Sep 3, 2020 at 1:45 PM Caveman Al Toraboran <
toraboracaveman@××××××××××.com> wrote:

> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
>
> On Thursday, September 3, 2020 6:50 PM, John Blinka <john.blinka@×××××.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Hi, Everyone,
>
>
>
> hello big dawg!
>
>
>
> quick point: imo the problem of gray texts on
>
> white backgrounds, or scrollbars or whatever, that
>
> you have, is not related to aging.  imo it's
>
> rather related to stupid web developers.  not even
>
> a mutant with infrared vision can use these
>
> websites.
>
>
>
>
>
> > 1) How  do you cope with this problem?
>
>
>
> i cope by these:
>
>
>
>     - use pixel-based fonts for everything as much
>
>       as possible, specially for key apps like:
>
>       terminal, window manager and browser.
>
>
>
>       they become so much readable.  i use
>
>       "terminus-font" (and previously used "dina")
>
>       in my urxvt as well as my other apps as much
>
>       as i can.
>
>
>
>       i notice one of the major problems with
>
>       fonts is actually not our eyes, but in many
>
>       cases how fancy fonts blur.  i was
>
>       personally amazed by how i could use much
>
>       smaller fonts, while maintaining
>
>       readability, by simply switching to
>
>       pixel-based fonts, such as terminus.


I think I’m ok on fonts with my very hi-res monitor plus noto sans mono
font and white-on-black text wherever possible.  Discovered that during my
“tuning” efforts and like the look.  Used to use terminus but prefer my
current recipe.  Admittedly the clarity is probably only infinitesimally
different from terminus.


>
>
>
>     - for my browser, i use custom user css for
>
>       different modes.  i also configured
>
>       shortcuts for my browser, so that i change
>
>       these user css files based on which ones
>
>       work best with the site.  generally, i have
>
>       "night.css" and "wiki.css" that i change by
>
>       keyboard shortcuts.  the "night.css" is very
>
>       generic and changes background/foreground
>
>       texts for pretty much 90% of sites properly.


Could you elaborate on this?  Don’t know css, but could pick it up.  I’m
assuming that web pages already contain css code to direct their
appearance.  So you apparently have some alternate appearance you prefer,
with your own alternate coding, and you somehow tell the browser to use
yours instead.  Am I anywhere close to getting the broad outlines of the
process correct?  If so, how does this intercept and substitute process
work?  (I see you provide a link below, but it doesn’t work here...)

>
>
>
>
>       this way, i am no longer bound by bad colors
>
>       chosen by web designers.
>
>
>
>     - i use i3 as window manager, with lots of
>
>       shortcuts.  i also use qutebrowser (a
>
>       browser with good vim shortcuts).
>
>
>
>       this way, throughout the day, i rarely end
>
>       up needing to use the mouse to do things.  i
>
>       only use the mouse for ultra quirky websites
>
>       with fancy javascript links that are not
>
>       clickable by qutebrowser's shortcuts.


I cut my teeth on vi on 4.2 bsd on a vax.  That actually sounds appealing.

>
>
>       so thanks to using keyboard shortcuts, a
>
>       website can have thin gray scrollbar on a
>
>       gray background and i don't care.  because i
>
>       scroll by shortcuts, not by bars.  in fact,
>
>       my qutebrowser's interface has scrollbars
>
>       disabled altogether to use pixels, which i
>
>       paid dear money for, for real use.
>
>
>
>
>
> > 2) Is there an xfce theme and icon package you
>
> > recommend?  Or maybe something other than xfce?
>
> > I like xfce, and have never been attracted to
>
> > integrated desktops like kde and gnome, but if
>
> > they’ve got a credible solution, I’m willing to
>
> > try.
>
>
>
> i would suggest try keyboard-based window
>
> managers.  my 1st suggestion is i3.  it's actually
>
> perfectly usable for all applications.  it's
>
> tiling-based, but also has floating functionality,
>
> and does a fine job eliminating need of clicking
>
> around on tiny things.
>
>
>
> > 3) Are there lower level ways of tweaking my
>
> > current desktop?  For example, changing colors
>
> > in the 2 examples I gave above from black on
>
> > dark gray to black on white?  Could that be done
>
> > with a little judicious editing of color
>
> > settings somewhere, or adjusting colors on an
>
> > icon?  I don’t know how desktop appearances are
>
> > programmed, so I don’t know where on the
>
> > spectrum of trivial->apocalyptic this lies.
>
>
>
> user style sheets.  maybe have a look here
>
> (i also talked about it above):
>
>     https://userstyles.org/styles/browse/css


Not promising.  The page doesn’t load except for a rotating colorwheel in
the center followed by a 504 gateway timeout.  Will try again later.

Thanks - lots of stuff to try.

John