[Prime] Is it possible to install larger display fonts?

[matthiaspaul]

(09-25-2015 01:50 PM)Tim Wessman Wrote:  1. Where do you want the "larger" fonts to be working. For example, it is trivial to make it appear in the normal places where fonts impact things currently (home screen, text entry locations, etc), but the tags in the dialog boxes, and the menu buttons, and the app library labels are all fixed size for example.

Well, the option to use a larger font would be most important in the input line / stack level 1, so you can make entries and read results without hassle. To a slightly lesser extent it would also be important for a (cursor-)selected line higher up the stack, to a yet lesser extent to the stack as a whole, and (most of the time) even less to other display elements.

Since people might have different needs and tastes, there should be three (or four -- see below) independent selections for them. The default settings for input line / stack level 1 and selected stack line should be "same as stack", so that you can change the whole appearance of the stack display with one setting unless you really want to configure the elements individually. The input line / stack level 1 might use a larger, but never a smaller font size than the selected stack line. Likewise for the selected stack line and the remainder of the stack. So, if the current selection for the input line would be 18 and for the selected stack line it would be 20, and the user would then change the font size for the stack as a whole to 22, the other two selections should be automatically pushed upwards to 22 effectively as well. This could be implemented by actually changing the other settings in such a situation as well, but it might be even more convenient if the settings in the menu stay where they are and the font sizes are overridden anyway -- this way, in this example the user could change the size of the stack display back to 18, and the system would "remember" the previous individual settings again without having to change all three settings.

While it would be desireable to have the font size for menu trees, title bars, soft menus etc. become configurable as well at a later stage, this is less important, since the contents does not change (much), and thus will be memorized after a while even if it is too small to read comfortably. This fourth setting should allow independent choices up to whatever is the current selection for a highlighted stack line, that is, always be smaller or equal to the size of the input line, but possibly larger than non-highlighted stack lines.

Quote:2. Which font size in the note catalog do you find acceptable? To get there, open a note, type a bit of text, click "format" and you'll find a font size. I've stuck a picture with some samples below.

I would make them all available under Settings instead of only the three smallest ones.

Based on the Prime's display 22 point appears to be the largest size still allowing a number like -1.23456789012E-123 to be displayed in a single line without truncation. It also allows for at least 6 visible stack levels, more than enough.

Otherwise, I would like to have sizes up to about 28 point, which would still allow 4 stack levels to be displayed, but would need to be rendered narrower to still allow numbers like -1.23456789012E-123 without truncation or scrolling. If such narrower fonts (only for the really large sizes!) would be an option technically, I would allow size choices up to completely filling up 4 stack levels.

Quote:3. If the font is so big that it can't fit in the "text boxes" in a dialog form, do you find it acceptable if the text is cut off slightly from the box?

Not without any option to scroll the text somehow - it would look like a localization bug rather than a feature otherwise.

If a smart and convenient way could be found to still make the contents of the box available while using a large font, I wouldn't opt against it (but personally I'm not a fan of animations like auto-scrolling texts at all - it reminds me of cheap and obtrusive "low level" advertisments, nothing I'd want in a "serious" tool).
Otherwise, I would find the next smaller fitting font size acceptable. In either case, this should depend on the fourth setting above, not the selection(s) for input line and stack.

Greetings,

Matthias