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Option to adjust the color-contrast between keys and background

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Assessment

Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Newbie friendliness
35/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
android, kotlin
Domain
design, mobile

Research direction

The key-border color comes from darkenColor(2) called in app/src/main/kotlin/org/fossify/keyboard/extensions/Context.kt around line 60; the helper itself is in Fossify Commons, Int.kt near line 98. Start by confirming which value controls the key-to-background contrast, then decide whether to expose it as a setting or change the constant. Maintainers have not chosen an approach, so agree on one in the thread first. Done means the border contrast is visibly stronger or user-adjustable, with the Show key borders setting still working.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

accessibility feature request needs triage
Checklist
  • I made sure that there are no existing issues - open or closed - to which I could contribute my information.
  • I made sure that there are no existing discussions - open or closed - to which I could contribute my information.
  • I have read the FAQs inside the app (Menu -> About -> FAQs) and my problem isn't listed.
  • I have taken the time to fill in all the required details. I understand that the bug report will be dismissed otherwise.
  • This issue contains only one feature request.
  • I have read and understood the contribution guidelines.
  • I optionally donated to support the Fossify mission.
Feature description

If you activate the setting "Show key borders", then the keys are brighter than the background. I like this feature, but the color-contrast/-difference between those two colors is currently small. I would prefer a stronger contrast or - even better - that the user can adjust this contrast. Currently this contrast can not be adjusted by the user.

I can think of three solutions for this problem:

  • Give the user an option to select the color of the keys and the color of the background directly and independently.

    • The app currently has settings for four colors: text, background, "primary" and for the app icon. Maybe consider changing what the primary color does: currently it changes the color of the Enter-key. Maybe instead the primary color could set the color of the keys.

  • I have had a quick look at the source code and - as far as I understood it - the user selects the key-color directly in the settings, and (if you activate the setting "Show key borders", then) the background-color is chosen automatically by the app with the method darkenColor(2) (darkenColor() is only used in this app at https://github.com/FossifyOrg/Keyboard/blob/main/app/src/main/kotlin/org/fossify/keyboard/extensions/Context.kt#L60) (The method itself is in Fossify Commons: https://github.com/FossifyOrg/Commons/blob/master/commons/src/main/kotlin/org/fossify/commons/extensions/Int.kt#L98) I guess, that the number 2 sets the contrast between the key-color and background-color (higher number -> stronger contrast). The number 2 can not be changed by the user.
    I am not sure if all of this is correct. Please check again.
    2 solutions based on this:

    • Change .darkenColor(2) in the source code to a stronger contrast (so a higher number than 2?!). This would change the contrast permanently for all users, so it would be better for some people (including me), but maybe worse for other people.
    • Give the user the option to change this number.
Why do you want this feature?

The app currently has already got an option for a contrast between the keys and the background (the setting "Show key borders"), but that contrast is small, which makes it hard for me to see where the keys are and where the background is, which makes typing harder. I would prefer a bigger/stronger contrast. This is my biggest reason why I don't want to use Fossify Keyboard.

Additional information

No response

Dominant language
Kotlin
Stars
678
Forks
84
Avg merge
5d 9h
Merged PRs (30d)
8

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