On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 9:42 AM, Matthew Nuzum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What Vista does is the only thing we can think of that works - > duplicate the text, using a contrasting color and put a heavy blur on > the background text. This produces very readable results. > Unfortunately, last time we discussed this, which was around Hardy's > UDS (last November) and it wasn't yet possible. > > MacSlow said someone was working on patches to do this but I haven't > heard anything about it since then. > > Its not that no one wants transparency, its just that it hasn't been > technically possible to do it in a usable way yet. I'll ping MacSlow > again to see if there's been any change.
I've probably mis-remembered the original conversation... I spoke with him and he didn't refer to any kind of window decorator but he has done such a thing using cairo and has made the code available to others. Here's a video showing the effect which is exactly what is needed: http://macslow.thepimp.net/?p=164 He implied the code is quite simple and asked if I wanted the code with an example of its usage. I suggested he blog about it and he agreed that would be a good idea, so check his blog if you want it. http://macslow.thepimp.net I personally have no qualms about taking ideas from other OSs if they're good... Vista and Mac OS both take ideas from Linux. And I think having the ability to create a theme with full transparency would look slick. Here's a transcript from our chat (re-ordered slightly for readability): newz2000: Last November I think you mentioned that there was talk or work being done on allowing blurred text in the title of a window, do you know if this is now possible? newz2000: the goal being to have vista-like title bar transparency without loosing text readability newz2000: for example: http://code.bearfruit.org/~matt/tmp/glass2.jpg - see the subtle white blur around the words in the title bar MacSlow: isn't there something like this already in compiz? newz2000: if so, I don't know about it newz2000: but there wasn't a year ago. :-) MacSlow: well if not... I've written a gaussian-blur function for cairo's image-surfaces to allow blurring without the need for any GL-shaders. newz2000: is this something theme authors could use? MacSlow: I'm unsure how it's done in the compiz decorator called emerald MacSlow: hm... maybe... if the areas are not too big and the blurr has only to happen once... it's purely CPU-driven MacSlow: I've written that for this -> http://macslow.thepimp.net/clips/even-more-cheese.ogg MacSlow: but never got around to properly publish this newz2000: yes, that looks good newz2000: I heard recently, though not from a reliable source, that emerald was deprecated, do you know if this is true? MacSlow: yeah... the window-decorators in compiz breed and die fast these days ;) MacSlow: I can send you the funtion with a simple "how to use"-example this evening, if that's fast enough for you newz2000: I'm in no rush, and I'm not sure I'm even qualified to do it... newz2000: do you have a blog or something? newz2000: if so, maybe if you posted it there I could forward the link on to the interested people? newz2000: oh, looks like you've posted it already MacSlow: the code itself I've not posted yet MacSlow: what's it inteded for anyway? newz2000: theme creation on the art-team mailing list MacSlow: is this something kwwii (Ken) considers for the dark gtk/metacity/compiz-theme? newz2000: I don't know about Ken, but a community theme contributor has mentioned it MacSlow: hm... I think a general post about the gaussian-blur function would be the most convenient way to give it to the public is to post it via a blog-entry... thus community any anybody else interested can pick it up if they like -- Matthew Nuzum newz2000 on freenode -- ubuntu-art mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
