Closed Bug 858765 Opened 12 years ago Closed 6 years ago

[meta] Do something about those font-sizes across all developer tools

Categories

(DevTools :: General, defect)

defect
Not set
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1458224

People

(Reporter: vporof, Unassigned)

References

(Depends on 1 open bug)

Details

      No description provided.
The differences in font sizes vs. other UI elements across win/linux/osx can get pretty ridiculous.
Depends on: 858753, 858759, 858760, 858764
Depends on: 863183
Depends on: 855518
The fonts all seem a good size to me.

I think that the only way to make people happy is to allow them to choose font sizes in the options panel.
Depends on: 760825
(In reply to Michael Ratcliffe [:miker] [:mratcliffe] from comment #2)
> The fonts all seem a good size to me.
> 
> I think that the only way to make people happy is to allow them to choose
> font sizes in the options panel.

The key aspect to remember here is consistency with the system fonts.

If a tool defines a fixed font size in px, pt etc., then changing the font size at the OS level causes severe (!) differences. I agree that, currently, default OS font sizes + the sizes specified in css theme files look ok on OS X and Windows, but Linux suffers *badly* of inconsistency. Take a look at the screenshot in bug 858764 to see what I mean.

What should happen is:
* The root font face should always be message-box or an OS-specific variation of monospace where required (like "try Menlo or Monaco on OS X, and DejaVu Sans Mono on Linux if available).
* All font sizes should be defined either in percentages, or ems if absolutely necessary.
* All containers (buttons, toolbars etc.) should not be indifferent of font-size changes and specify min widths/heights in ems if necessary (we're doing mostly ok at least in this department, however the toolbar styles are incredibly awkward, hence the reason toolbar heights are completely different on each platform).

Mihai is pretty much most affected by this, so I'd like to know if he agrees with the above statements. At least, every time I open our tools in Linux, I cry a little.
Flags: needinfo?(mihai.sucan)
Agreed.

We need the changes you suggested and also work on consistency between tools.
Flags: needinfo?(mihai.sucan)
Do we want to use the system font size or we want to set the root font size of toolbox.xul as set by user. We can then have a global Ctrl + [+-] shortcuts to increase decrease size in the toolbox that will apply to all the tools, similar to what web console have for the output .

I think that this font size should only apply to things like : source editor, markup view, sidebar text etc. but not to the toolbars' button texts, toolbox tabs labels, context menu items etc. These can follow the system font size.
(In reply to Girish Sharma [:Optimizer] from comment #5)
> Do we want to use the system font size or we want to set the root font size
> of toolbox.xul as set by user. 

I vote on OS font size. That's what users want, I imagine. 

> We can then have a global Ctrl + [+-]
> shortcuts to increase decrease size in the toolbox that will apply to all
> the tools, similar to what web console have for the output .

..and if anyone wants further font-related customization, the Options panel is a good place IMHO.

However, I wouldn't worry (or care that much) about changeable font sizes for now. No need to complicate things as a first batch. Just plain figuring out things at this point is more than enough.
When it comes to monospace, I believe it'd be a good idea to use (inspired by webconsole css):

OS X: font-family: Monaco, Menlo, monospace;
Linux: font-family: DejaVu Sans Mono, Ubuntu Mono, monospace;
Windows: font-family: Consolas, Lucida Console, Courier New, monospace;

Is this an ok thing to do? If so, then please add your favorite font to the list :)
OS X should actually have Menlo before Monaco and I believe Linux should have Ubuntu Mono before DejaVu Sans Mono.
yes. Lose Monaco. You could include "Andale Mono" for pre-10.7 machines. Do we still support 10.6?
I just want to point out that we have already made some progress with "fonts for code" in our devtools. See: 

https://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/browser/themes/osx/devtools/common.css#8
https://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/browser/themes/linux/devtools/common.css#6
https://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/browser/themes/windows/devtools/common.css#6

I encourage you to read the discussion Mihai and I had in bug 826685.

> (In reply to Victor Porof [:vp] from comment #3)
> At least, every time I open our tools in Linux, I cry a little.

Can you be more specific?
(In reply to Paul Rouget [:paul] from comment #10)
> Can you be more specific?

See depending bugs.
Tentatively adding bug 830684 as a dependency so we don't forget about it (there's a good chance it's related to font sizes).
Depends on: 830684
Product: Firefox → DevTools
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 6 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
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