Colour Palette update

Here then the different palette (as partly agreed). Normal objects are white, PreviewOff objects are dark and disabled objects are grey (and blurred icons).

As you will note, dark icons are difficult to read on the dark background.

--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Vicente Soler on November 14, 2009 at 9:44am

I'm thinking Microsoft since I installed Win7 and I can upload images with no issues, although the aspect ratio seems to get messed up sometimes when visualizing them.

Permalink Reply by Peter Mehrtens on November 16, 2009 at 2:15am

Hi David,

whatever colors you select, please keep in mind the contrast between component background and component icon. I think the rather dark preview off component makes it hard to read the icon image.

Taz is suggesting too to use alternating image enhancements (like "backlighting").
Maybe without the transparent fading an outline could be useful, clear and not resource-consuming.
As you mentioned yourself a non-fuzzy thick outline is more clear; this is not only true in terms of design, but also shows that the best solution is maybe not so dependant on the choice of a specific color.

My alternative suggestion is to integrate on/off symbols on the component area, that would be more ledgible than just colors. (your quote: " But I'm not looking forward to trying to interpret screen shots of Grasshopper networks with colours that might mean anything.
")

Best regards

Peter

Permalink Reply by kleerkoat on November 13, 2009 at 2:22pm

Is the discussion mostly about what works best for screengrabs? I don't understand the importance of the components being screengrab friendly, most of the time a screengrab only tells 1/2 of the story, doesn't it? Or maybe it's just me not being a pro at Hopper.

I like that color scheme David. From a person who has been using grasshopper from the beginning, though not as complex as most have, this scheme would help me a lot.

Permalink Reply by taz on November 13, 2009 at 4:37pm

The issue is, as Vicente states, for larger definitions (or ones that cover a large area of the canvas) the majority of components will be in "Preview Off" mode.

So the question is how to make the components in "Preview On" mode stand out? Not for screengrabs, but to actually locate the component when you are zoomed out. That's when the current hatch also gets harder to see.

The 2 suggested choices are these:

A different color component to indicate "Preview Off"
vs
A colored border (halo if you like) around the component to indicate "Preview On"

Different colors for components necessitates different colors for selected components. Colored borders wouldn't require the selected component color to change.

Those are the facts as I understand them to be.

P.S. I think everyone seems to be in general agreement that the new "Disabled" mode in a greyed out color is a good idea...

Permalink Reply by Jacek Jaskólski on November 13, 2009 at 2:54pm

Ok, my turn :)

Permalink Reply by Theunis du Toit on November 13, 2009 at 3:23pm

Hi Jacek,

Don't mean to get off topic here but where do those extra components in your menus come from? Is there a version I do not know about?

Permalink Reply by Jacek Jaskólski on November 13, 2009 at 3:35pm

They're just photoshopped from David's original pic.
I also can't wait to take them for a test drive, probably just like the rest of us maniacs :)

Permalink Reply by Theunis du Toit on November 13, 2009 at 3:50pm

Oh sure. Yip, can't wait for the next version.

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on November 13, 2009 at 3:46pm

@Jacek, this is more along the lines of what I had in mind.

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on November 14, 2009 at 9:16am

I like it too. Lot of grey everywhere though, looks like a Dutch autumn.

--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by Jacek Jaskólski on November 14, 2009 at 11:33am

Somehow I couldn't agree more with you on that one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/julianvh/4068723002/

And seriously:
I tried to take into account most of the ideas that came up in the discussion. The darker bg is the only thing I've come up with so far which stays fairly consistent with the current UI scheme. Of which I am a dedicated fan, by the way.

Any ideas how to deal with the dullness, anyone?

Permalink Reply by Theunis du Toit on November 13, 2009 at 2:59pm

Hi David,

I think it looks alright. The best suggestion so far.

A thought for future, might even be a good investment to avoid future work on this and complaints, would it be difficult to make the color of the components manipulable? Or later even make it possible to change individual component's or group's specific colors, would be a great tool for management especially on large definitions.

Thanks for the effort.