Ways to enhance text readability in Sailfish UI (incl. apps)

@tokaru FBReader does something similar and it kinda works. :)

@MartinK I know :) that's what inspired this suggestion. To be fair: FBReader only needs to do some black/white inversion, that's a little bit easier than doing the same for a complete theme ;-)

Here's how to set the system wide font size: https://together.jolla.com/question/16786/ways-to-enhance-text-readability-in-sailfish-ui-incl-apps/?answer=126441#post-id-126441

:) I built this hack (along with Alien Dalvik font size changer and other tweaks) in my script, so far it's a cli UI, but a proper GUI is coming (there's already a 3rd party one on OR).

OpenRepos: https://openrepos.net/content/fravaccaro/theme-pack-support-sailfish-os Sources https://github.com/fravaccaro/themepacksupport-sailfishos/

I'm supriced that Jolla Italia wrote the instructions 1.5 years ago and, according to Google Search, were the only ones to ever post that dconf key in the world.

I added some screenshots to demonstrate the effect.

Thank you, @Sebix - very useful to know :)

Thanks @Sebix!

Here's how to set the system wide font size: https://together.jolla.com/question/16786/ways-to-enhance-text-readability-in-sailfish-ui-incl-apps/?answer=126441#post-id-126441

That's why we have day/night mode, like the already mentioned FBReader.

Besides,

There is good reason why most of the devices whit display do have light text on dark background.

I would not go as far as claiming "most". And yes, there is a simple reason: because at some point in the past it was easier to implement. CRT screens are black by default. To make them display something, you need to modulate an electron beam. The CRT displays of early 1970s did not have a very good resolution. Trying to show a white screen would result in visible horizontal lines. Leaving the background black and showing the raster only in the displayed character was a lesser evil.

The early LCD displays, known from calculators, digital watches and personal organizers, had the opposite problem: they were white(ish) by default. Trying to display a solid black background was just as impossible as solid white on early CRTs. So they settled for a black text on a white background.

Nowadays we have a choice, and I can absolutely and unconditionally agree with the OP: in most situations, except for using the device in the dark, black-on-white is far more superior and desirable than the other way around.

@Mika Hanhijärvi, you have good points and you are speaking from personal experience. Can't argue with that; from your point of view, you are right.

I wrote my original post based on 1) what I have learned in working in graphic design (mostly in print) and 2) my personal experience. And I must admit there's no Truth here.

It's kind of "common knowledge" in graphic design that body text set with white on black doesn't work; if you do it in a magazine, you're sure to get feedback from (elder) readers: "Don't do this, it's impossible to read". But it's surprisingly difficult to find any backing to why it's so.

And it's certainly true that paper is very different from a screen.

I personally find it very difficult to concentrate on, say, a news article on my phone screen, with text laid out with white on black. I don't know exactly why.

One thing certainly is habit: books and magazines are set with black on white, and that's how I'm used to doing my reading.

But another important thing, regarding especially the Jolla phone, is reflections. The Jolla phone screen is not very good with contrast, and it's highly reflective. When I read white text on a black background, the background is like a mirror. It's white text on a mirror – very hard to see. On a white background, the reflections are far less visible and the black text stands out better from the background.

What all this amounts to, I think, is that the user should have a choice.

Based on your feedback, I'll edit the original question a bit to not be so black-and-white. :)

@jollailija - I have been playing around with this lately. I've manually added bolder fonts in 2 system font folders. I see a few minor problems in doing this, one is some app names in launcher are turned into dots, like "ScreenTapS..." for example, personally, I can live with that type of minor discrepancy.

I did notice though, by changing 2 of the main system fonts, I can at least discern the difference between myself and a recipient in a text message, the recipients text is somewhat bolder than mine, where as before I could barely read either, let alone distinguish at a glance.

I've made a patch, it installs, it shjows in patchmanager, but it doesn't activate/apply - I think my unified_diff.patch is the problem, I had a real hard time trying to get that right data into the file, after maybe 30 or 40 attempts, I've given up for now, my head hurts - I need help to make the patch apply.

Ultimately, some form of Font Control entry in the Settings menu would be good, just like most phones have settings for fonts; small, medium, large, HUGE......we need this for SailfishOS - for me, it's becoming a must, but I've realised by having a slightly bolder font in the general UI, I'm not reaching for my reading specs just to use my phone - now this I like! :)

I have requested further help on TMO and so I'll ask here as well. I will post my request on this page as another answer for visibility.

@Markkyboy As I commented elsewhere, since font sizes are not hardcoded (instead of pixel amounts, they are specified as Theme.fontSizeMedium for example), dynamic font size should be easy to implement
About the bold font, I haven't installed a bold font, instead I just added font.bold = true to, for example, the launcher (and multiplied the font size by 1.2). I removed the elide (Calen...) and instead set boundaries for the text and made it wrap over multiple lines. I like the result. App names don't go over each other, and even 4-line app names look nice