Update 18 UI/UX Problem: Icon Sizes too small on 4K monitor

[DesignerRants]

Parallel Install & Older Version Delete
- You are gaining an extra version so keep both.

I really don't want 2 versions of a software platform on my machine. Just the one I'll be using. I don't think of this as a "bonus" to have apparently obsolete files filling my hard drives.

- Key one is Local Designs gallery > Download All.

I right-clicked on each folder and chose "download all".

- Hint: change the Backup folder location.

I don't want to change the backup location from the default. I would rather move the contents of the old default folder into the current default folder. (This is starting to sound like a "User Story" from where I work as a software developer; "As a User, I want...")

It would be preferable if the software architects didn't make these things version-specific--i.e.; make the default backup directory be {User}/appdata/Xara/backup instead of {User}/appdata/Xara/FlavorOfTheWeekVersionedDirectoryNumber18/backup. Then the user wouldn't have to worry about any of this, and the UX would be much improved for future updates (and then there would be fewer bad "upgrade" experiences punishing users who then decide it's not worth it to pay for Xara software due to how much work they have to do every update).

Sizing
- Others will probably advise this is a Windows setting.

So why do the icons look appropriately sized in the vsn.17 and unusably sized in the vsn.18 app, both apps opened side-by-side simultaneously on the same Windows machine?

vsn 17 icons


vsn 18 icons


Others can tell me it's a windows setting, but until they demonstrate which exact setting and how adjusting it makes just the xara vsn.18 icons the appropriate size (as opposed to making every icon in every app suddenly too large), then I'm skeptical of this notion.


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I'm thinking I need to "downgrade" to vsn. 17--as I had no complaints for this forum then. In light of what Handrawn mentioned about this being installed via the update service instead of a stand-alone install, it reminds me that it should be easy to just uninstall the new version and I'll be left with the vsn. 17. Hopefully no issues with this process and I can forget about all these questions and problems with an "upgrade".

[Initiostar]

I have Pro X v16.3, v17.0 and v18.0 installed on a 24inch 4k Dell AIO with 150% scale-up.

The icon issue in the dialogue box to which you refer, I do not believe, will be resolved by any Windows10 setting, I have exactly the same issue - v18.0 introduced HiDPI and I understand the difference we see maybe related to the application not seeing ALL the icon sizes required by Windows to support HiDPI. The full set of icons would have 16px, 32px, 48px, 64px, & 256px bitmaps. The original HiDPI beta tests did identify a few similar issues that were fixed before release. Could be completely wrong here, but experience from building apps to run with 4k scaling suggests this could be the root cause.

That said, I can live with the issue and for me v18.0 with HiDPI support is a solid upgrade from v17.

Gary

[DesignerRants]

This is a much more satisfying explanation, and makes sense as I've ran into this issue of providing the various sizes of bit maps for each icon or favicon for web apps. And I WAS thinking the menus looked a little higher res in 18, which is nice. But I didn't have an issue with 17, it seemed to scale up fine on my monitor. I'd rather have the solid UI than the tiny click targets and invisible icons. At least the tool tips still work. I'll probably just go back to 17, hopefully it's not difficult to uninstall 18, as handrawn mentioned it could be. I dislike cluttering my OS with different versions installs unless I need to. Maybe I'll try again in a year or two if they get the adaptation to hi DPI ironed out (GIMP still hasn't several years after their big UI redesign, but they're also free software, so maybe that's a reason... )

IMO, graphics and content creation platforms have UIs packed with tiny icons and switches. If they're too small they're unusable. Maybe I'm an edge case since apparently not enough people have complained to GIMP to get them to fix their nonsense. Thanks for the idea on the icons being an oversight of a hi DPI support rollout, makes sense.

[handrawn]

ok - fwiw everything UI is too small on my cintiq at it's native resolution [EDIT - without the windows scaling Applied] - if i wanted it otherwise i would have bought one at 32 inch [but had neither the cash or the space, nor thought it cost effective ]

[DesignerRants]

Right, and I'm not trying to be argumentative, but on your cintiq everything is too small --together--. You don't have some icons too small, some much smaller than that even, maybe some too large?... It can all be scaled up by windows together, appropriately. It's the inconsistency that ruins the UX for me.

[handrawn]

first off _ i have designer pro+; the designer 18 implementation of 4K support has not afaik been documented as different, but who knows for sure outside of xara/magix

I have not noticed anything in the xara UI that is not consistantly very small at native 4K, no scaling

long shot, but you do have graphics hardware on your computer capable [for multiple monitors if you use them at the same time] and all the drivers are up to date....

[DesignerRants]

I posted the screenshot of a 17 and 18 menu open side-by-side in Windows. One (18) has inconsistently small icons. I don't know what more I can do to prove this is an actual UI bug that should be fixed by Xara.

Here's Xara Pro 17, all menu icons are appropriately sized and scaled


Here's Xara Pro 18, not so much:


These icons are not going to be fixed by scaling Windows, because the icons are inconsistently sized. Look, they're smaller than the checkbox input. A clickable icon button should not be smaller than the typical checkbox input control.

Windows is already scaling everything on my machine, since it's a hi-res monitor, so the fact some icons are too small to read means that they are the objects with poor configuration, not everything else in the viewport.

I'm sure Xara will get it fixed eventually, but this is a bug for them to fix, not an issue with my environment.

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BTW, if anyone wondered, I was able to uninstall 18 from the apps menu in Windows. It didn't cause problems even though it was installed via an update prompt rather than as a standalone package.

[David.P]

OK so I just bought the all new HiDPI version of Xara Designer Pro after sadly having had to wait for HiDPI support for many years, and almost dropping Designer over it.



Only to find that, of all things, NOT EVEN the icons on the main toolbar are HiDPI but instead still old and blurry.

Come on Xara Team, this is ridicoulus.

[gwpriester]

Sheesh, that looks like the old 256 color model.

[Acorn]

Only to find that, of all things, NOT EVEN the icons on the main toolbar are HiDPI but instead still old and blurry.
Come on Xara Team, this is ridicoulus.

David, the option has been out there for quite a time so I find it amazing that you have discovered such a failing, yet no one else has reported it.
I hear it went through extensive beta testing.

I cannot affirm your statement as as do not have a 4k monitor.
Instead, I use my XDA across monitors with different resolutions and I cannot detect any problem.
I have used MS Magnifier here, at 1000% scaling and text and icons seem no worse than those on the Desktop.



After all this, I do find Xara Xtreme 5's toolbar to be crisper and cleaner.

If anyone has a mechanism to determine the efficacy of Xara's implementation, I would appreciate hearing how.

Acorn