Scroll bars and window icons
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Rebecca (1663) 107 posts |
Hi, I have a question. I suspect the answer is no, but I am always hopeful. Is it possible to increase the size of window icons without having to lower the screen resolution? I specifically mean the ones that are part of the window not the program running, Back, Close etc. I’m finding it harder to get the mouse on target as I get older. Cheers, |
Andrew Rawnsley (492) 1445 posts |
I think I saw a large-icons theme for one version of RISC OS, although I’m not entirely sure which – sounds the kind of thing that might have been in Adjust. It is possible the RISC OS 5 theme manager allows this. If you wanted to experiment, look at one of the existing themes to see if it has a Sprites11. These will be 180dpi double-size icons. Use David Pilling’s Scan Software to change the dpi setting of each sprite from 180 to 90 dpi (on the toolbar) and re-save. I think this should give you double-size, normal 90dpi sprites. Save each into a theme, and see if it works. There isn’t, as far as I am aware, any automated method. The other tip is to consider if you can fit in a bigger monitor/tv. You can, for example, get 27" 1080p displays rather than the typical 23/24" monitors (or even 32" 1080p I think). These will keep the pixel count (resolution) the same, whilst making on-screen elements larger. For example, I run a (fairly affordable) 32" 2560×1440 display, because I find the more common 27" versions a touch small. |
David Pitt (9872) 363 posts |
I just created double sized cicon22 and sicon22. |
Rebecca (1663) 107 posts |
Thank you both for the replies. I went with David’s suggestion. Cheers, |
David Pitt (9872) 363 posts |
That’s a good idea. DPlingScan, from the PlingStore, can be used to upscale the toolsprites. (Tested exactly once here.) |
Rebecca (1663) 107 posts |
I will have a look at DPlingScan. Just doubling the size gave me a quick fix. If I do all the other window sprites that will tidy it up. Maybe I’ll even mess about with them. :) Cheers, |
Rick Murray (539) 13850 posts |
…dare I say, Paint can do it, and cope with multiple sprites in a file. Menu → Edit → Scale X or Scale Y |
Steve Fryatt (216) 2105 posts |
Except that’s not what Andrew said. He said
which, as far as I’m aware, can’t be done by Paint. The only tool that I’m aware of which can do it is DPlngScan. I’m happy to be corrected on this, as it’s a pain to need to find third-party software to fettle !Sprites11 files that the OS supports natively. |
Chris Mahoney (1684) 2165 posts |
ChangeFSI can do it too, somehow. I seem to recall that it’s a bit fiddly though! |
Andrew Rawnsley (492) 1445 posts |
The reason I suggested using Sprites11 as a base is that the 180dpi sprites are basically double the pixel count already (ie. double size, double detail). They appear “normal” size because of the double-dpi setting. Once set to 90dpi in the manner I described (and there may be other routes – that’s just how I do it) they will appear as double size, but with all the detail preserved. It just seemed like a good way to get nice-looking double-sized icons without having to manually scale things which could look a bit “yuck” and, yes, I’d forgotten you could use the “scale” option in !Paint because I tend not to use that scaling for the “yuck” reason. Longer term, one might want to start with the double size icons and scale them down to (say) 60-75% of original size to get 120-150% sized icons, which might look less wildly-disproportionate when used for real. ChangeFSI would be my weapon of choice for that, once the dpi was set to 90dpi. |
Andrew Rawnsley (492) 1445 posts |
Incidentally, if Rebecca does succeed with any of these approaches to create a theme that works for her, may I suggest posting a link on the forum and/or submitting to ROOL as I think other people might benefit from accessibility aids such as this. None of us are getting any younger, and many of us will need a bit of extra help interacting with our computers as the year pass. |
Paolo Fabio Zaino (28) 1882 posts |
IMHO that is a very good suggestion. As a side note: For my DME Theme Manager, it does support multiple icon’s size for the same theme as a selection menu (this might be also a suggestion for ROOL to improve their Theme Manager). I am figuring out what would be the best way to name the menu’s options (aka would DPI or just pixel’s size be better?). The menu is obviously dynamic (aka if a theme does NOT have scaled icons, then it’ll display only “standard size” selectable). |
Stuart Swales (8827) 1357 posts |
big, bigger, double-size ? |
Rick Murray (539) 13850 posts |
Am I the only one who has noticed that the eff-off button on Android full screen adverts keeps getting smaller? Also, they’ve made it so you have to tap exactly upon it, otherwise your “near but not near enough” tap is interpreted as “yes I want to know more about this [REDACTED]”.
This is one of the wins that Windows has over RISC OS. Back in the Win3 days, it wasn’t uncommon to come across a PC with no mouse, so Windows had full keyboard support. Ever since the first Archimedes, a mouse was standard so no need for key controls, which is a shame as they can be very helpful 1. Alt-F4 to choose an app when you’re done with it, Alt-Tab to switch to a different app (there’s a module that does this on RISC OS), and keyboard control of menus. As screen resolutions get bigger and the comparative size of menus get smaller, as do the necessary manipulations to use the menus. 1 Keyboard keyboard keyboard STOP find mouse grab it locate pointer move click STOP keyboard keyboard keyboard … I find the two mental context switches indicated by STOP 2 to be extremely expensive. I greatly appreciate things that have keyboard shortcuts; you should be able to ^ShB to toggle bold. If you have to stop and click an icon, that’s just wrong. Leave that nonsense to people that call themselves “managers”. 2 PEOPLE OF A CERTAIN AGE WILL REMEMBER WHEN TEXT MESSAGES USED TO END WITH STOP |
David Gee (1833) 268 posts |
I would have thought that !ConvImgs would be able to do this too on a group of images — it appears to do most of the same conversions that DPingScan can do, and was originally from the same stable. |
Paolo Fabio Zaino (28) 1882 posts |
Thanks Stuart, if it works for everyone, I am good with it. As a side note, Linux (for the mouse pointer) tends to use the pixels area size. The way the DME “publish” this setting (right now), is set an ENV variable: DesktopIconsSize$DME (after the user has selected the option and if the option is available in the selected theme). Obviously the setting happens also at load time (if it was previously stored). So, if there are better naming conventions for this please let me know. I am fighting to get a unified Config protocol at the moment, so it will take a while before it’s ready for early beta testing. If it’s of interest, I can open another topic where to discuss more of the elements it will introduce. |
Rick Murray (539) 13850 posts |
Aw, man, super chunky!!!! :) :)
Have fun! |
Rick Murray (539) 13850 posts |
…for poops and giggles… (I did this so you don’t have to) Edit: Astonishingly, it is possible to turn this up to eleven and make it all twice as big as pictured above. |
Chris Johnson (125) 825 posts |
Just for the record – DPlngScan has always been able to load and edit sprite files with multiple sprites contained within them. Changing the dpi of an image in DPScan is trivial, although for sprites you need to stick with values of e.g. 90, 180 etc. With some other image formats the dpi can be set to arbitrary values. |
Chris Mahoney (1684) 2165 posts |
Meanwhile, scroll bars seem to be shrinking on other platforms. The Mac version of Discord has a left panel listing the various “channels”, and the mouse target is an absurd two pixels wide (the actual graphic is a bit wider, but only two pixels respond to the mouse). |
Steve Pampling (1551) 8172 posts |
I have an iPhone, supplied by work for work purposes, it suffers the same way with adverts. I find that unless filtered out, these things make much of the news media unusable.
It’s a web page, sizes are scaled. Your big is no doubt much bigger at Clive’s residence. |
Rebecca (1663) 107 posts |
Thanks again for the comments and suggestions. A few things to look at. I’m going to have a play with Rick’s program later. Later: I love it, thanks Rick. Cheers, |
Rick Murray (539) 13850 posts |
Here you go. |
David J. Ruck (33) 1636 posts |
What happens if you increase the Wimp font size too? |
Matthew Phillips (473) 721 posts |
And, my pet hate, being invisible until you wave the mouse over exactly the right area. You’d have thought that these big software houses (looking at you, Microsoft) would employ some experts in Human Computer Interaction. Another obvious fail is the way some interfaces (e.g. Onedrive in Teams) update the list of recent files just before you click on something that was already there, meaning you end up clicking on completely the wrong thing. They should just refuse to accept any clicks for half a second after updating the list to deal with the eye-brain-nerve-finger latency inherent in the human hardware. |
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