Request for easily configurable font settings

[arunj]

This app is fantastic. I was searching a neat app like this for sometime. This is less of a bug and more of a request.
Can you please add some easily configurable settings to change the font, font size etc. for this app? CSS and all are fine but regular users look for simplicity.

Arun
http://oldpapyrus.wordpress.com/

[Alba Mendez (jmendeth)]

Well, CSS is *so* powerful, and you can do *so* many things with it,
that it's very difficult to implement a GUI for editing it (in a high-level way).

Also, what the font changer would do is ambiguous.
Where to apply the font rule? At `body`? Maybe at `#page`?
At `root`? Should it have the `!important` rule?

Should it change ALL fonts in the page?
Or only fonts of the same group?

What if you want to change font sizes?
Should EVERYTHING change size (width, height, padding, border, ...)?
Should that affect other areas, like `<pre>`s?
Where to put it so that it has the correct priority?

Think about it: giving it too less priority results in no changes.
Giving it too much priority will result in unwanted results (i.e. everything
has the same font and size, even code areas).

IMHO, if the user wants to do those fancy things,
it's not worth learning a small bit of CSS and let it go.

[arunj (engineerarun)]

My intention was to change the fonts of the same group and I undestand your points as a developer :). However, I don't see a reason why my 14 year old cousin would like to learn CSS to use a software. He is used to changing fonts from settings in different applications and would prefer spending his afternoon playing football after checking his mail once.

Still, I would leave it to your judgment as it's not hurting me ;). This software does have a huge potential and all the best!

Arun
http://oldpapyrus.wordpress.com/

[Alba Mendez (jmendeth)]

When it comes to customizing the look & feel of a WEB application,
it's *really* complicated, when compared to customizing a desktop/native
application.

This is because webapps are full of styling to look pretty,
but in the case of "normal" apps, they use the system controls,
which look always the same, and so they're easier to change.

If it comes to magnifying a page (like you would do on browsers with Ctrl +/-)
then that's very easy to control with webkit and thus easy to add.

If my father could learn CSS, and it lets you do really fancy things
(not only just changing fonts) on ANY website, then it's worth learning
it if you *really* need to customize a web.

---

BUT that's theorical; maybe in practice it's not as hard as it seems.
Detecting/replacing fonts of the same group seems a painful task, however...

[arunj (engineerarun)]

If it comes to magnifying a page (like you would do on browsers with Ctrl +/-)
then that's very easy to control with webkit and thus easy to add.
>> If you can add this support that's also fine.

What I want to convey is that most of the time a normal/casual user is either not interested in learning or it's not possible for them to spend time and learn new things to use a software. They are not even remotely interested in knowing what issues a developer may face to make a software more usable for them. This stands whether you acknowledge it or not.

[Alba Mendez (jmendeth)]

> They are not even remotely interested in knowing
> what issues a developer may face to make a software
> more usable for them. This stands whether you
> acknowledge it or not.
I aknowledge, or course. I know it's so.

But you always have to learn, *especially* when you
use a software, or any other thing in general.

The point here is: "how many learning requires a user to
be able to control this feature?" "can we reduce it for him?"
"can we make that learning easier/less painful for the user?"

and sometimes, even: "can we explain why is this feature so
hard to learn?" :)

In this case I think it's better to leave custom CSS as an
"advanced" feature, maybe add a tooltip saying something
like "custom CSS allows you to customize the aspect and layout of
the webpages you visit". But I repeat, maybe it's easier
in practice... ;)