Suggestion for active module

Software darktable
1

I’ve recently come back to darktable after a gap of several years and have a large number of raw files to play with. A fair few number of modules are new to me and I feel like a beginner again on this superb software.

I’m extremely grateful for @adabbleinphotography8721, @DarktableLandscapes @audio2u (Bruce Williams) and @Boris Hajdukovic Youtube videos. I’d be lost without these videos as the manual can confuse me.

I think if they bring back a new version of Joy of Painting (Bob Ross) then A joy of Photo Editing with these fine fellows would be brilliant. I digest.

What I wanted to say was that I still find the side bars too narrow and regularly lose the modules when I touch that arrow by mistake.

I have a suggestion and let me know if this should be posted some where else. As many of the modules now cram a lot of options in can an active module be made to ‘pop out’ and made slightly larger. Also change the colour to something other than the current mid-grey?

I think its an age thing for me so could these changes can be set up in Settings?

2

Welcome back to DT. The use of color in the GUI can throw our color perception out so I feel sticking to grey is generally advisable. The side bars can be made wider simply by hover mouse on the edge of the side bar and dragging the edge towards the centre of the screen. They can go crazy wide. You can post feature requests on Github.

3

I have made the suggestion in github. Thanks.

4

There is also an option to open only one module at a time, maybe that’d help?

5

I’m in dt 5.00 I have expand and single opening a module in settings but I don’t think this is the same thing. When I open a module it shows all the options but it doesn’t expand outside its current boundaries. Hope that makes sense.

6

It does not make sense to me, sorry.

7

Ha ha, it doesn’t to me now I read it again. I was busy doing several things at once!
What I meant was that in Settings I had already selected expand the module. So what I was suggesting is that it would be possible to have the active module larger, popped out or even a different colour.

8

@bminney your suggestion makes sense to me but if I am honest I am not convinced what the advantage would be if it expanded sideways as well as expanding lengthwise. What is it that you struggle with in the current way it expands?

9

If I understand you correctly, I think you’re asking if an open module could be made more prominent by enlarging its size or enhancing the font?

10

Yes, that is correct. I wish I had said it that way to start with!

1 Like
11

I think its an age thing for me. I just would like to have an option to change how an active module looks like.

12

So I posted my query on GitHub and they have responded with a CSS tweak that works for me;

in Preferences/General/CSS tweaks:

.dt_plugin_ui:selected,
.dt_plugin_ui:selected #bauhaus-slider
{
  background-color: @grey_05;
}

They suggested that I select in Settings to expand active module to the top. This again works for me but the effect does not apply to every module. For example in Effects tab only Framing, Blurs, Diffuse/Sharpen expand to the top. I have replied to DT.

So for me having that different background colour and scroll/expand to the top works really well and is just what I was looking for - even if I had trouble explaining myself!! Thanks

1 Like