Changing some display colors?

[phkhgh]

The color of the information dialog shown under 'File Info' or 'Version Info', etc., in the bottom window of RunAlyzer 0.6 is a pale green on a blue-gray background and is not readable - too washed out.

Are there options to change the text colors in RunAlyzer? This is really the only prgm I use w/ this problem.

Thanks!

[PepiMK]

The color on the bottom is a system color for highlighting... I guess you're using a non-standard color scheme? I'll take a look if there's a equivalent but more compatible color...

[phkhgh]

The color on the bottom is a system color for highlighting... I guess you're using a non-standard color scheme?

Thanks. If by "color for highlighting" you mean in XP Appearance settings, the color chosen for "Selected Items", then yes, I use something different than std XP colors.

The color I use for selected items (it also highlights menu items as you move the mouse down the menu) is a VERY bright green, that could probably be seen on almost any background. The green that shows up in RunAlyzer is a very washed out, pale green.

I can try to change that 'Selected Items' color, just to see if it makes a difference, but I like my green highlighting color (for other apps).

Why not just have that dialog use the selected screen font and background colors in Windows? Or, hard code it red on a yellow background, or something contrasting.

Why is the background in the window for "More information" a medium dark blue? That's part of the problem. None of my other apps or Windows use that blue color for any backgrounds.

[PepiMK]

The "more information" screen uses clBtnFace as a background color. As the name indicates, it's the default background color for most components. If just that and not every other background is blue, that doesnt seem to originate from us, since we never change that color during runtime. Sounds like

For the highlighting... it seems Microsoft has no real foreground (text) highlighting color fitting for these texts. clHighlight is really a background color (clMenuHighlight is usually similar since you mentioned menu backgrounds), you're right there. That it appears pale or washed out may have to do with the grey background. But clHighlightText is white by default, which doesn't fit on the default grey background very well. Seems like Microsoft provided a bunch of background highlighting cases, but none for the foreground really.

Alternatives would therefore be using a different font style instead of color - italic is more difficult to read though, underlined would be confusingly similar to links, and bold to aggressive, that's why I decided for a color in the first place. A non-standard background (color or whatever) would conflict with XP and Vista gradients probably.

Or maybe I should add skinning support; I'm usually not a big fan of skinning, but in such cases it could help

[phkhgh]

"more information" screen uses clBtnFace as a background color.

What is "clBtnFace"? In Windows (XP) in Advanced Appearance, the color chosen for "3D objects" is also used by default for "Message Box" background color (message box color not individually selectable).

True - my color for 3D Objects is blue, but the selected TEXT color for Message Box is black, which shows up fine.

Why not just use the user's selected colors for the main "Window background" and main window text , or use 3D Object / Message Box color AND Message Box text color? Else, use Windows default colors for those combos (which would have good contrast). Or, choose your own contrasting colors.

it's [clBtnFace] the default background color for most components.

Maybe, but the Highlighting (Selected Items) color is not generally used for text color.

If just that and not every other background is blue, that doesnt seem to originate from us

If I understood, it does originate from you. You use one color designated for a background in Windows Prefs, but use a color for text that is NOT designated as a text color in Windows. Sort of mixing & matching.

For the highlighting... it seems Microsoft has no real foreground (text) highlighting color fitting for these texts.

Don't use the highlighting color for text. Use colors designated for text and the associated background color.

[PepiMK]

First, some descriptions on how colors are handled internally.
Modern operating systems usually have a size of 4 bytes as the most optimal unit they handle. 4 byte = 32 bit.
Graphic adapters and monitors do only 24 bit colors. 24 bit = 3 byte.
Now, colors are handled in 4 byte size since thats much faster than the 3 bytes... and in this case, has an advantage. Oh man, am I getting too much into technical details already? Anyway, one can specify either a RGB color or a value representing a system color, and clBtnFace (or COLOR_BTNFACE as it is also called) is just the internal name for one of those system colors.

Sadly, using clWindow and clWindowText (the names for the system colors your probably refer to) is not that easy, since on Windows XP and Vista, Windows automatically adds a gradient to the background of those tabs and mostly ignores the background color the developer sets. And the point also was that I was trying to use different text colors for 1. description text and 2. data/contents text. So you would need two system text colors for one system background color


And I have set the same SYSTEM color (not a user-defined RGB value) for all the tab control components. So actually, the blue doesn't seem to be coming from us, since we tell every component there to use the system color COLOR_BTNFACE (or clBtnFace) - if we had problems with that, everything and not just the text panel would appear in blue.

Or wait... are you speaking about the TEXT color in the "More information" tab? Then I misunderstood you, sorry
The text inside that area is way more complicated, since its HTML (from the description file) converted to RTF (which the control can display). The default color of the TEXT in there is black. Not as a system color, but as a plain RGB value. So a different color seems impossible there.

Could you provide a screenshot of this, so I can better understand?