microsoft / microsoft/PowerToys

Dock/Material/Transparent black font text

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#49,302 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
CmdPal - Dock Needs-Author-Feedback Needs-Triage Product-Command Palette
Dominant language
C
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Description

### Description of the new feature / enhancement

Is it technically possible for the text color in Dock/MaterialStatus to automatically adjust to what provides the greatest contrast against the background? Could you try it and see if this is aesthetically sensible and beneficial? If it is, then it would be great to offer user control through an enable/disable switch. Assumption: there exists an algorithm to compute the color with the greatest contrast to another color.

### Scenario when this would be used?

If I were or am a power user, I usually try to accomplish as much as possible in a given amount of time (and probably always have a stopwatch or countdown timer running). It is much slower to read material with little contrast to its background. But I may also appreciate the aesthetics of my work environment, and the transparent mode is very pleasing to look at.

### Supporting information

System hardware state information on the Dock is very useful and glanced at many times per work session. Dock/Material/Transparent is very classy, especially with the text in black, but can be very difficult to read on darker backgrounds. Acrylic is very easy to read but not as elegant.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start with the Dock/MaterialStatus transparent mode named in the issue and inspect how its text color and user settings are currently defined. Compare automatic contrast behavior on light and dark backgrounds, then determine whether the behavior and an enable/disable switch are aesthetically and technically suitable; no test or file is named.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
accessibility, design, desktop
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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