Consistent color scheme across all apps

[mahibi]

Nextcloud icon colors are different between NC files and NC talk (and most probably for other apps).

Icons for NC files (dark icons for light theme)

Icons for NC talk (light icons for light theme)

There should be a consistent color scheme across all apps.

[nickvergessen]

This is not an issue in the vue app @szaimen
It's a generic thing we need to discuss that then needs implementing across all the board.

[nimishavijay]

It's a generic thing we need to discuss that then needs implementing across all the board.

Some of the issues may solve themselves if the vue components are used across all apps. However, I do agree that these "placeholder" icons need to be standardised

[nimishavijay]

What do you think about having 2 variants of icons, and depending on the use case one of these 2 will be used across the different apps:

• One would be a "primary" icon type with the --color-primary-light background and a --color-primary SVG fill. This would be used in places where there are colorful avatars and avatar placeholder icons, like in Talk and Mail, as well as to indicate the primary action in a list of actions, eg. the share link action in the sharing sidebar.
• The second would be a "secondary" icon type with --color-main-background bg and --color-main-text SVG fill. This would be used similar to a tertiary button with an icon. For eg, in "Others with access" and "Internal link" in the sharing sidebar or the icons in the details of a calendar event

Alternatives: "primary icon" which has primary background color and main-background SVG fill, "secondary icon" which has primary-light background and primary color SVG fill.

I would prefer the first option because the softer colors are more suited to the Nextcloud design, for eg. the avatar placeholders.
What do you think? @jancborchardt and @szaimen

[nickvergessen]

In NcButton naming those are secondary and tertiary-no-background, correct?

I'm not sure about the missing background to be honest.

[nimishavijay]

An example comparing the two options, what do you think?

My worry with introducing such a bright coloured icon is its overusage leading to a screen with many primary button looking elements, when the primary color usage should be quite restrained so that it is eye catching.

[szaimen]

I think the biggest problem is still that we allow any color as primary color which introduces a lot of edge cases since the color is used in a lot of places and then always intoduces contrast problems with dark- and/or white-mode...

[jancborchardt]

@szaimen in the left example of @nimishavijay though, the issue is not there with the bottom 2 icons as they are just normal icon color, not themed.
Then for the regular icon, the contrast logic is the same as for the secondary buttons. And there we also have contrast cutoff rules. If they don’t work properly, we need to adjust there.

[szaimen]

The problem that I see is rather that so many combinations of the different elements like background color, primary color and others are possible which makes a automatic adjustment complicated and introduces a lot of edge cases which are really hard to catch. But I get that reducing it to a predefined set is not possible anymore since that would basically mean a regression.

And sorry for being off-topic here.

[nickvergessen]

server/apps/theming/lib/Util.php

Lines 77 to 98 in 4c71d8f

	/**
	* get color for on-page elements:
	* theme color by default, grey if theme color is to bright
	* @param string $color
	* @param bool $brightBackground
	* @return string
	*/
	public function elementColor($color, bool $brightBackground = true) {
	$luminance = $this->calculateLuminance($color);
	if ($brightBackground && $luminance > 0.8) {
	// If the color is too bright in bright mode, we fall back to a darker gray
	return '#aaaaaa';
	}
	if (!$brightBackground && $luminance < 0.2) {
	// If the color is too dark in dark mode, we fall back to a brighter gray
	return '#8c8c8c';
	}
	return $color;
	}

takes care of that @szaimen

[szaimen]

I am working on improving the prooblems that I mentioned in in nextcloud-libraries/nextcloud-vue#4067 and #38159

[tobiasKaminsky]

Some of the issues may solve themselves if the vue components are used across all apps.

Please always be aware of clients, where there is no vue-components, so we shall have a central design info, where those info are available, so that every client/app dev/3rd party can rely on.

[jancborchardt]

Yup @tobiasKaminsky, we should have them available in the "Color" section of our styleguide once it is decided. :) https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/developer_manual/design/foundations.html#color

[szaimen]

Added to #37859 (comment)

[jancborchardt]

What is left to do here @nimishavijay @szaimen? :)

[szaimen]

With the new sharing flow, I think that part should already be resolved. Are there further places we should have a look at? Talk fox example now also has chat avatars which kind of resolves the issue, no? cc @nimishavijay

[nickvergessen]

Talk fox example now also has chat avatars which kind of resolves the issue, no?

Kind of, but kind of also creates an issue:

• Avatars are shown in light mode in smart picker spreed#9867
• Support to dark theme at unified search component #37272

Also just for the record, so far Talk is not aware that we would/should need to change anything. Is that correct? Are the colors to be used documented anywhere?
Edit: seems like it's https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/developer_manual/design/foundations.html#color Maybe it should be added to https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/developer_manual/app_publishing_maintenance/app_upgrade_guide/upgrade_to_28.html to raise awareness?

[szaimen]

I think we have a general issue with avatar theming. See also e.g. #34503

[skjnldsv]

I think we can close now, after the last few versions, the various colors and variables have been deeply cleaned and unified. The UI various shades are much more uniform