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diff --git a/kdecore/DESIGN.COLOR b/kdecore/DESIGN.COLOR new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e06c7c7d3 --- /dev/null +++ b/kdecore/DESIGN.COLOR @@ -0,0 +1,141 @@ +Color Management in KDE + +Colors are in important part of KDE and are an important tool to make +a good looking desktop. Colors can also be a burden, especially for +people with visual impairments. + +The goal of color management is to take full advantage of colors while +reducing the disadvantages of color use to a minimum. + +Color Schemes +============= + +Color Management is based around the concept of color schemes. +A color scheme defines colors for different elements in the +UI. The most important factor for the readability of a UI is the +contrast between foreground and background colors. Colors in a color +scheme are therefor grouped in pairs which define the foreground and +background color for a UI element. When composing a color scheme care +should be taken to use sufficiently contrasting colors for fore- and +background in the same group. When using colors in applications, care +should be taken never to mix foreground colors from one group with +background colors from another group: they do not necasserily have any +contrast at all which can lead to a completely unreadable UI. + +Color schemes are supported by Qt (see QColorGroup) and can be +configured on a KDE wide basis from the Control Panel. The settings +are stored in the global KDE configuration file under the "General" +setting. The KApplication class takes care that the configured +settings are passed on to Qt. Application developers can just use the +values provided by QColorGroup. + +There are three major color categories: + +General +======= +The colors in this group are used when no particular other group is +relevant. + +QColorGroup...: ColorRole::Background, background() +KDE config key: background +Control Center: i18n("Window Background") +Description...: General background color +Example use...: Background of dialogs + +QColorGroup...: ColorRole::Foreground, foreground() +KDE config key: foreground +Control Center: i18n("Window Text") +Description...: General foreground color +Example use...: Text in dialogs + +Text Areas +========== +The colors in this group are used where the user can type text. it is +also used for lists from which the user can choose. + +QColorGroup...: ColorRole::Base, base() +KDE config key: windowBackground +Control Center: i18n("Standard background") +Description...: Background color for text areas. +Example use...: Background in a word-processor. + +QColorGroup...: ColorRole::Text, text() +KDE config key: windowForeground +Control Center: i18n("Standard text") +Description...: Text color for text areas. +Example use...: Text in a word-processor. + +QColorGroup...: ColorRole::Highlight, highlight() +KDE config key: selectBackground +Control Center: i18n("Select background") +Description...: Background color for selected text. +Example use...: In a selection list. + +QColorGroup...: ColorRole::HighlightedText, highlightedText() +KDE config key: selectForeground +Control Center: i18n("Select text") +Description...: Text color for selected text. +Example use...: In a selection list. + +"Base" and "Text" should have high contrast as well as "Highlight" and +"HighlightedText". In addition, "Highlight"/"HighlightedText" and +"Base"/"Text" are supposed to be sufficiently different to get a clear +indication of what is selected and what is not. + +Buttons +======= +The colors used in this category are used for buttons in the broad +sense, including e.g.scrollbars, menubars and +popup-menus. + +QColorGroup...: ColorRole::Button, button() +KDE config key: buttonBackground +Control Center: i18n("Button background") +Description...: Background color for buttons. +Example use...: Background color of the OK button in a messagebox. + +QColorGroup...: ColorRole::ButtonText, buttonText() +KDE config key: buttonForeground +Control Center: i18n("Button text") +Description...: Color for text on buttons. +Example use...: Color of the OK text on a button in a messagebox. + + +In addition to the above colors a number of derived colors are +defined.They are all darker of lighter version of "Background". + +QColorGroup...: ColorRole::Shadow, shadow() +Description...: Used for shadow effects.(Very dark) + +QColorGroup...: ColorRold::BrightText, brightText() +Description...: Used for text on pushed pushbuttons + +QColorGroup...: ColorRole::Light, light() +Description...: Lighter than "Button" + +QColorGroup...: ColorRole::Midlight, midlight() +Description...: Between "Button" and "Light" + +QColorGroup...: ColorRole::Dark, dark() +Description...: Darker than "Button" + +QColorGroup...: ColorRole::Mid, mid() +Description...: Between "Button" and "Dark" + +Well Behaved Aplications +======================== + +Applications should never hardcode colors but always default to the +colors from the users color scheme. This ensures consistency among +applications on the desktop. It also ensures that all applications +are equally readable. + +An application may offer the user an option to change the color of +certain aspects of the application. It should be noted that an +application specific color setting can cause unexpected results when +the user changes its color scheme. The application specific color may +look ugly in combination with other color schemes or the resulting UI +may even become unreadable. Therefor applications specific colors +should be used with care. + + |