Windowblinds themes for the visually impaired

I don't know of one, but I'd give it my best shot to make one. There is definitely a need, but I didn't know what specifics were required to make it useable. Though there are better graphics people out there, I am getting pretty good at manipulating SkinStudio.

What specific needs would this person need for a skin to be considered high visibility, like colors of backgrounds, buttons and fonts, and what minimum size font would be necessary.

Well judging by what I'm using here I'd say a lighter colored font ( one can still have variety I hope ) with size 15 fonts using some of the more clear text fonts ( mabye Arial or Tahoma bolded or something )

erm I mean lighter colored background colors like baby blue or pink or light green etc .. mabye something that can apply color too.

Okay...it'll take me a week or so. It'll be my first skin going large...I tend to work toward making them small If you think of any other things just post in this thread. I'll add it to my watch list.

I and Cindia thank you.

No problem...I understand, without my glasses I can't see more than six inches in front of me clearly. You might also want to try using DesktopX. It has a feature called IconX that will allow your desktop icons which are normally 32x32pixels to be as large as 128x128pixels

she has desktopX and I set her up with a Dock that expands to a big size.

Just a suggestion, but I would think that size would not be the only issue in making a WB for someone visually impaired. High contrast between backgrounds and other elements will be important also, in my opinion. But it need not be a matter of just black vs white, true complementary colors will also really standout and can actually look quite good together (eg red-green, yellow-violet, blue-orange, etc.) On an RGB monitor, RGB colorwheel complements work well together also, (eg Red-Cyan #FF0000-#00FFFF).

The Hypermedic Index http://www.hypermedic.com/home.php and Color Matters http://www.colormatters.com/colortheory.html give some excellent explanations of color theory and some useful tools for choosing color schemes. The Color Lab http://members.tripod.com/~W_NY_DECKS/46656.html? is also a very useful tool for checking readability of font colors against various backgrounds. The free Color Lab and downloadable Color Swatches at Visibone http://www.visibone.com/ are also excellent tools to use for picking colors.
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A quick tip for finding true RGB complements: Take the R, G, and B values of any non-gray color and subtract each of them from 256. the resulting value will be the true RGB complement, meaning the colors will have maximum contrast and should also look well together on an RGB monitor.

EXAMPLE: If the color is RGB(192,064,096) then the complement would be RGB(064,192,160), Try it yourself, and you'll see what I mean.

Very useful info Shameless Designs. Thanks.

With all due respect... Colors come from within thyself...... Let them free.

I'll be the first to admit that rules are made to be broken, especially when it comes to artistic vision and interpretation. In this case, though, I was speaking about addressing a specific issue for those who have difficulty seeing on a computer monitor.

I know shmameless, sorry bout the hijack, please continue. Nothing to see here. My bad.

That's just a small portion of the frame, to make sure that the font size is okay. The top frame is the inactive frame and the bottom is the active frame. My 19" monitor was set at 1280x1024 when I screen captured this (don't think it makes a difference, but just in case )

Shameless thanks for the links

You're welcome. Another thought, from looking at your screenshot, is that font type and size would be a factor as well, which you have obviously grasped. For what it's worth, according to Usability News, http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usability_news2.html which is a fairly well-respected site, sans-serif fonts (Arial and the like) and 14-point text on an 800x600 display were most preferred and found most readable by older adults and those with poor vision.

And by the way, the resolution you use when capturing won't matter in the sense that a pixel is a pixel and will be captured the same regardless of the resolution at which it is captured. It will appear to be a different physical size when viewed at different resolutions, but the image will still have the same number, relative location, relative pixel size, and colors of pixels as the original.

so far so good essencay

My nemesis....buttons I'm getting better though. The button size was taken from the high contrast large size in Win95 44x40pixels. For appearance sake only the symbols show, but the buttons extend to about 4pixels from the top of the titlebar frame to 3pixels from the bottom of the titlebar frame....large buttons without a bulky appearance was what I was going for This also benefitted giving more room on the titlebar for long title to show without being cutoff by the buttons. I also dinged the system icon (16x16 icon) looked out of place and left-justified the titlebar text, again for more room.

Today is like the first day of spring around here and as soon as the ibuprofen kicks in....it's off to clean up from the mess winter left behind.

looking not bad at all .. would it be possible to make the buttons stand out more though ?

Hi....New Buttons
From left to right starting in the top row:
Cream, Orange, Purple
Green, Pink, Tan
Yellow


Which ones do you like best? Help me make a choice.....Thanks

they all look good... the grey has more visibility

the cream I mean

Just a few thoughts from an interested observer... feel free to ignore them if you like. I believe part of the reason that the cream looks more visible is that it has the highest contrast between the x glyph and the button background. This is not so much a color issue as a technique issue, in my opinion.

It's difficult to tell for sure because of the artifacts between screen captures and jpg transformation, but I'm guessing the development went something like this:

1. Vector object rectangle with rounded corners, stroke black 1 pixel, fill solid color, antialias enabled.

2. Convert to raster, then use a bevel filter, round profile, with white light color and angle 315 degrees to give the impression of depth. (This step may have come later).

3. New layer, vector object or text tool, X-shape, stroke white 1 pixel, fill black, antialias enabled.

4. Convert X-layer to raster, merge layers, save as bitmap.

The process may have been slightly different, but I think I'm close.

At any rate, that antialiasing is why the colored versions are more fuzzy and indistinct, and the white stroke around the X is adding to the fuzz-factor. Below is an edited version of your screenshot where I tried to show what would happen if you eliminated the antialiasing and white stroke effects. I think it's quite a bit cleaner, and is not any more difficult to do. Just my opinion.



PS: The button colors may appear to be slightly different than the original. That's a result of trying to eliminate the antialias and white effects and having to make an educated guess at the original fill color. They also may appear a bit flatter, and thats because I used a gradient fill instead of a bevel filter to get the depth, since I didn't want to play around with filters to get the point across.
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Steps 1. thru 4.

That''s a pretty good guess, if I only new how to do that Let''s just say that there''s a lot of work in MS Paint involved in making those buttons
I do like how much clearer your buttons came out and I understand about the anti-alias and the white stroke around the "X". What I don''t understand how to do, though I''ve seen plenty of buttons use it is the gradient fill that you''ve used. I am using PaintShopPro7.

Text that I can''t find a way in SkinStudio to change the font size:

1. Start Panel =>Programs List
2. Start Panel =>Places List
3. Controls => Edit Box
4. Controls => Combo Box (Address Bar)
5. Controls => Group Box
6. Controls => Tab Pane
7. Task Panel => Special Panel Content Title Bar
8. Task Panel => Special Panel Content
9. Task Panel => Panel Content Title Bar
10. Task Panel => Panel Content
13. Window Content
14. MDI Window Content
15. Tool Tip Content (Everywhere except TaskBar Tool Tips are using Font #0)
14. Window Icon Text
15. Desktop Icon Text

Items where I can change the font, but now need to enlarge the size of the item, but can''t find a way in SkinStudio:

1. Controls => System Buttons
2. Controls => Tab Items

I set Font #0 to the size and type I want as my Standard Font size (Basically the Font I am using everywhere except for Window Frame Title Bar). I also set the Font in Fonts for Classic Widgets