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TheSpaz · May 6, 2004, 10:06 AM

Ever find yourself NOT using light colored backgrounds because the Dock/Desktop text is almost unreadable (or ugly). I NEVER use light colored backgrounds just for this reason. I had an idea while cycling through the Panther Application Switcher and I noticed how nice the names look. Why doesn't Apple use this technology on the Dock? I think it would make things easier to read... don't you?

Old Style

New Idea

I don't know how this can be done... maybe it can't... but, Unsanity could probably do it. Unsanity can do anything

What do you think? I would love to see this in 10.4 "Tiger"

rjenkinson · May 6, 2004, 10:11 AM

nice, but not worth $129 unfortunately.

-r.

chrisford · May 6, 2004, 10:19 AM

A much better idea I think. The use the grey 'outer-glow' always seemed really tacky to me - a kind of My-first-Photoshop-experiment. Especially the way that the bottom of the label is cropped out so any characters with a descender (g, j, q, etc.) miss the shading. Personal bugbear of mine...

pendragon · May 6, 2004, 10:23 AM

Another option: Just as Insanity can change the color of the dock's background, border, and the application triangle, perhaps they can also change the color of the text. That way, the text can still "float", rather than being inside a button.

kcmac · May 6, 2004, 10:24 AM

Yeah, I like that.

I would also like the dock icons to work more like menubar items. If you hold your cursor over the icon long enough, the menu list comes up and then you click on what you want.

lenox · May 6, 2004, 11:42 AM

I dunno, they both seem just as readable to me. In fact, I think the former is more readable than the latter.

C.J. Moof · May 6, 2004, 01:12 PM

I like the idea. It's needed in the Dock and for items on the desktop. Anyplace there's a light background, Apple's text is hard to read.

I converted another user to OS X last week, and brought over her beloved desktop pic of a sketch of her dog. It's on a white background. She's... 60+ years old, and doesn't have the visual acuity of Apple's GUI designers. Her first reaction to OS X was that something had to change so she could read the text on her desktop.

I ended up photoshopping a black background into Fido's portrait.

zachs · May 6, 2004, 03:12 PM

I've been wanting that for a long time now.

But what about, as an option, instead of having just the pain gray, using whatever label color you've assigned to the file/application?

OAW · May 6, 2004, 04:38 PM

Great idea!

monkeybrain · May 6, 2004, 06:23 PM

Why not also make the dock background similar to the bevel used in the app switcher and the volume etc. They look damn cool. Is it possible to make the corners of the dock rounded?

Webscreamer · May 6, 2004, 10:02 PM

Originally posted by monkeybrain:
Why not also make the dock background similar to the bevel used in the app switcher and the volume etc. They look damn cool. Is it possible to make the corners of the dock rounded?

And you would like to?! I can picture it now, and I am picturing ugly.

Socially Awkward Solo · May 7, 2004, 01:17 AM

Ya not bad.

Nebagakid · May 7, 2004, 07:29 AM

naw, i don't like it. The rounded back looks good on the App switcher (Command Tab), but the dock's current way of displaying names is good.

moonmonkey · May 9, 2004, 06:37 AM

Originally posted by Webscreamer:
And you would like to?! I can picture it now, and I am picturing ugly.

I love the rounded dock.

mitchell_pgh · May 9, 2004, 10:50 AM

Originally posted by moonmonkey:
I love the rounded dock.

I think both are great... rounded dock and icon title...

but agree, 10.4 needs more then an interface overhaul. I would love it to be like 10.1 to 10.2...

ApeInTheShell · May 9, 2004, 11:09 AM

oh don't mind the fact that people's vision gets worse as they get older

I think the label appartus for icons on the desktop being a different color helps but I don't see the point of having a gray button in place of white outlined text

If you can't memorize the "note on top of the cd" is iTunes or the "smiling face" is the Finder than i don't know what more visual cues Apple could give you.

moonmonkey · May 9, 2004, 06:01 PM

Originally posted by ApeInTheShell:
oh don't mind the fact that people's vision gets worse as they get older

I think the label appartus for icons on the desktop being a different color helps but I don't see the point of having a gray button in place of white outlined text

If you can't memorize the "note on top of the cd" is iTunes or the "smiling face" is the Finder than i don't know what more visual cues Apple could give you.

The point is, your hard disk has hundreds of apps on it, I bet you couldn't identify them all by their icon. If one of these gets launched, by a opening a file, or launched by another app, you need to know what it is.

rjenkinson · May 9, 2004, 06:03 PM

Originally posted by moonmonkey:
The point is, your hard disk has hundreds of apps on it, I bet you couldn't identify them all by their icon. If one of these gets launched, by a opening a file, or launched by another app, you need to know what it is.

that's not a very good point. only a fool would put hundreds of unknown applications in their dock. once an application is open, the user can simple look at the menu for its name.

-r.

moonmonkey · May 9, 2004, 07:01 PM

Originally posted by rjenkinson:
that's not a very good point. only a fool would put hundreds of unknown applications in their dock. once an application is open, the user can simple look at the menu for its name.

-r.

What menu?
Having to bring an application to the front to check the application menu to see what it is, is stupid.

The OS puts applications in the dock when it launches them, this is not optional.

macgyvr64 · May 9, 2004, 07:30 PM

Something's wrong, though, if you're running an app and/or have it in your Dock and you don't know what it is.

(I'd bet $20 I could identify all 126 apps in my Applications folder just by their icon...except for the 3 or 4 that have a generic icon)

TheSpaz · May 9, 2004, 07:52 PM

It's nice to see a name. It's pleasing to the eye. But, if you have a white background or very light background the text looks ugly, the shadows are crap. It's simple really. It's not about knowing what Apps are in your dock, it's about seeing that name above it not appear correctly... it looks funky and I think it should be fixed.

Plus, don't you think things would match a little better if the dock had the oval around the text? I also think they should do something about changing the icon names on the desktop... they ALSO look gross on light background and that's really noticable (note, you can't tell different text documents just by their icon or different custom folders just by the icon, so don't pull that one again)

It's just a nice effect... it's small... it's subtle, but I think people would like it... Come on people work with me here.

C.J. Moof · May 9, 2004, 09:56 PM

All they need to do is to use the same labels that are in the command-tab window, and place them over the dock icons on mouseover.... consistent and useful. Apple accounted for readability of the labels in one situation, and disregarded it in another.

moonmonkey · May 10, 2004, 04:02 AM

Originally posted by macgyvr64:
Something's wrong, though, if you're running an app and/or have it in your Dock and you don't know what it is.

(I'd bet $20 I could identify all 126 apps in my Applications folder just by their icon...except for the 3 or 4 that have a generic icon)

I agree, but not everyone is as experienced as us.

lenox · May 10, 2004, 08:58 AM

I rotate between two wallpapers at the moment. One of them has a completely white background. I have no issue reading the titles of both the apps in the Dock, and in DragThing (which uses the same aqua routines for naming icons), and I think in fact that 'inversing' the idea by having 'clear/white on semi-transparent black' is actually a great DECREASE in contrast not to mention that it's inverse.

I'm sorry, but I just don't see how it'd be better in any situation.

mitchell_pgh · May 10, 2004, 01:40 PM

Regarding the not knowing what the application/document is when it's in the dock, the same thing happens to windows if you minimize more then a few documents.