Build: 2001051504, Mac OS 9.1 All over Mozilla, most of the chrome in the Classic theme is using the wrong font. Most widgets are using the small system font (e.g. Geneva 10) when they should be using the large system font (e.g. Charcoal 12). This is especially obvious in alerts, where the text is unexpectedly small and difficult to read. It makes the UI look quite unprofessional, and very much like a port from another platform rather than a native app. The culprit appears to be line 103 of themes/classic/global/mac/global.css, which says `font: message-box'. This should be `font: caption'. However ... Mac OS apps don't use the large system font for everything. Sometimes there isn't room, and sometimes it makes more aesthetic sense to use the small system font instead of the large one. Perhaps the most attractive example of this is the various tabs in the Finder's own Preferences window. While Mozilla's UI is developed by people using themes other than Mac Classic, we can't reasonably expect UI implementors to style each control appopriately. However, we can specify some global rules which will work in 99 % of cases. Top level: * Those square toolbar buttons, and items in listboxes, which aren't inside a <groupbox> use the small system font. * Every other control which isn't inside a <groupbox> should use the large system font. Second level: * Controls inside a <groupbox> should use the small system font. * Labels inside a <groupbox> use the small system font, at bold weight. Third level: * Controls *and* labels inside a nested <groupbox> (that is, a <groupbox> inside a <groupbox> or worse) should use the small system font. This change will cause a problem in the prefs dialog, because the controls in the prefs panels will be considered to be at the top level, when from an aesthetic point of view they should be at the second level. To fix this, I suggest that the XUL overlay for prefs panels be changed so that the panel controls are actually inside a <groupbox>, and the header of the panel is the <groupbox label=. Then that <groupbox> should be styled, so that the groove does not appear, and so that the groupbox label has a gray background.

is this a duplicate bug?

cc'ing german and joe for their opinions on this. Bugs like this point out the need for a design document for the classic skin. So we have a way of measuring if something complies or not with the design intent.

I agree with the general sentiment in this bug however ntroducing these changes now would like cause prefs panels (and some other dialogs like JS ask) to overflow, or do so more than they already do. Yes there are way to many controls on many of the panels, and the default sizing obscures some actually important controls. All this is even harder for l10n. There are bugs filed on that. I suggest that a prefs overhaul needs to happen first, else we make the current state worse by fixing this bug now.

German: Read the original bug report, where I specifically described how this could be done without making prefs panels overflow, by using a hidden <groupbox>. However, on reflection, I think it would be better if a new XUL element <group> was added, which is like a <groupbox> but which has no border. This is for two reasons. Firstly, on Mac OS groupboxes inside groupboxes are supposed to look different from top-level groupboxes (they're supposed to look inset, rather than grooved), so using a hidden <groupbox> for the prefs panel overlay would make groupboxes inside the panel itself look wrong. And secondly, there are some situations where you want to go into the next-smallest font without having a visible group box around the elements -- e.g. the `Show Columns:' group of checkboxes in the Finder's Preferences window.

A first attempt: take window { background-color : #DDDDDD; padding : 0px; font : message-box; } and replace it with window { background-color : #DDDDDD; padding : 0px; } window, groupbox>label, tab { font : caption !important; } groupbox, groupbox groupbox>label, tabpanel groupbox>label { font : small-caption !important; } groupbox groupbox, tabpanel groupbox, groupbox textarea, toolbar, statusbar, tree, outliner { font : message-box !important; } This makes things like the Find dialog, and javascript:alert("Foo"), look much nicer. It doesn't do quite the right thing with tabpanels (e.g. the Cookie Manager), though.

reassigning some of my classic bugs so they dont fall off into space...

*** Bug 126912 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Mozilla CFM build is dead. http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=avkj4k%24ihs2%40ripley.netscape.com