New Dark Color Scheme + XDP6 New Feature Mod = Slightly Better Viewing Experience (?)

[HayTay]

I must admit that I do not like the new dark grey color scheme. When I answered the earlier Xara poll on my preference I voted NO for changing to the darker color GUI. Obviously I and a lot of other people were overruled and the new versions of Xara Web Designer, Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 6 & Xara Designer Pro 6 have incorporated the 'dark' interface. Change, just for the sake of change, and because all of the other applications are now that way isn't a justification for altering the color scheme. I hope that in a few years when everyone else has decided on changing to a fluorescent green interface (or whatever's the current 'in' color) that Xara/Magix does not decide to follow . Anyone remember the 'Hot Dog Stand' color scheme that was available in older versions of Microsoft Windows? Wow! That was a real eye popper!

It is a fact that the perceived color of an object is altered by any color or colors that surround it. Place a colored object on a white piece of paper and the object appears lighter than the same object placed on a dark grey or black piece of paper. For the same reason that most people don't draw or paint in direct sunlight, or moonlight, the area surrounding a drawing should be of a neutral color, neither stark white nor very dark. The change to the new color scheme in XWD, XP&G6 & XDP6 is, in my opinion, too dark.

With that said, the new Xara Designer Pro 6 has a cool new feature that allows you to change the color of the pasteboard to whatever color you'd like by Ctrl+dragging and dropping any color from the color line onto the pasteboard using the mouse. This works for standard documents as well as the website documents as shown in the following quote.

Pasteboard background color
When working with website documents you can also set the color of the pasteboard (the area around the page). Drag and drop a color onto the pasteboard area. And as for the page background, once you've done this you can also right click on the pasteboard and choose Change Page Background from the menu, to edit the color using the color editor.

Once you've set the page background color AND the pasteboard background color, your exported website will use the page color for the page area and the pasteboard color for the browser background.

Now the really cool part of all of this is that you can change the pasteboard color of your current document to a lighter, or any other, color in Xara Designer Pro 6. Then by choosing File > Save Template from the Menu Toolbar, giving the Template a descriptive name, then selecting whether you want to 'Use as default template' by checking the box on the right side of the 'Save Template' window and pressing 'Save' you can alter and permanently save a template with the new pasteboard color. If you opted to check 'Use as default template' the next time you fire up or open a new document it will have whatever color pasteboard you've chosen.

I gave my pasteboard a lighter grey color (HSV #c0c0c0) which is somewhere around a 25% black fill color. The interface is still dark but the lighter, more neutral colored pasteboard seems to brighten everything up a bit. My poor eyes also don't seem to strain as much and, therefore, fatigue less quickly with my lighter pasteboard area. I know this isn't a fix for the low contrast icons and light grey text on a dark grey background for menu items but you can give it a try and see if it helps to improve your GUI any.

Whatcha think?,
Harry

P.S. - Sorry for the long post made even longer by this P.S.

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