I wanted to share some feedback on the new item highlight appearance. Since a recent update, when I click an item, a blue-filled rectangle appears behind it. However, it’s the same color as the default folder background, which makes the highlight blend into the icon and look visually messy. In my opinion, it doesn’t look very polished. Additionally, the hover highlight color is very close to some of the icons, which creates a similar clarity issue.
I’ve installed Nautilus on KDE and attached example screenshots of how Nautilus handles active items. You can see that it keeps selections visually distinct without blending into the icons. Nautilus also draws a subtle drop shadow around the icons, which helps the icons stand out more clearly. It would be great if Dolphin could do something similar.
Active state in Dolphin (the highlight engulfs the icon):
Active state in Nautilus:
Hover state in Dolphin:
Hover state in Nautilus (note how the drop shadow helps the icon stand out from the highlight):
These recent changes reduce visual clarity to the point where I’m even considering switching to other file managers. I’d really appreciate it if the design could be revisited—perhaps using a more distinct color or an outline for the active state, so selections are clear yet still visually appealing. Adding drop shadows could also enhance the overall look.
Thanks for all your work on Dolphin!
1 Like
Hmmm you got a strange take there…
You said DEFAULT, right?
Ok, so I’ll concede that hovering a default text icon theme does wash it out… something that could change, but is rather fleeting.
As for highlights… yours is odd.
The highlight here is very transparent and it’s very clearly distinguishing the selected item without a problem.
Let’s try non-default (taking the accent colour). Again, SAME colour as the icons… and HOVER to make it as dark as it goes…
So I’d say from your screenshot that something’s misconfigured - I’m curious also if you have Nautilus installed on KDE also…
Let’s go custom, I found some ridiculous Amiga icons and I have a rather ‘too dark’ (Sonomatic I think) colourscheme):
TL;DR
Overall I really love the new highlight scheme, it handles selection and highlighting really well and looks much nicer than before.
Thanks for the reply! To clarify, when I mentioned the “active” state I was referring to what happens when you actually press the primary mouse button on an item, not just hover. The hover behavior on my end does look like your screenshots.
My main concern is that in its current design, the highlight and icon colors can overlap in a way that makes the icons look washed out or messy. Without some kind of separation (like a drop shadow) the overlap will always occur with certain icons and themes, as can also be seen in my first post with the hover state example on a text file. Adding that extra layer of distinction would make the overall look feel more polished and visually clear.
2 Likes
Ok, fair play - holding the mouse button does do that.
Split View:
May you can overthink the highlighted side of the split view. It is not so clear, which side is active/selected/enabled, left or right.
Change the border color or the title bar, so you can see on the first sight, which is active/selected/enabled.
Feel free to move this post to a new thread. I thought it would fit here.
Thx
Breeze Light is just washed out and hopeless.
You can search and download for reference - Marble colour scheme works quite well, it’s a light one - the Active pane has a white background, the inactive pane takes the pale blue of the window… so you see more than a bit of bold text.
01 Magna-Tweaked.colors
[ColorEffects:Disabled]
Color=56,56,56
ColorAmount=0.
ColorEffect=0
ContrastAmount=0.65
ContrastEffect=1
IntensityAmount=0.1
IntensityEffect=2
[ColorEffects:Inactive]
ChangeSelectionColor=true
Color=#706f77
ColorAmount=0.025
ColorEffect=2
ContrastAmount=0.5
ContrastEffect=2
Enable=false
IntensityAmount=0
IntensityEffect=0
[Colors:Button]
BackgroundAlternate=#1c202f
BackgroundNormal=#182030
DecorationFocus=#3b2f5e
DecorationHover=#624e9d
ForegroundActive=#6954a8
ForegroundInactive=#8b919d
ForegroundLink=#00aad4
ForegroundNegative=#bf616a
ForegroundNeutral=#6d55aa
ForegroundNormal=#d3dae3
ForegroundPositive=#849a72
ForegroundVisited=#ac9566
[Colors:Complementary]
BackgroundAlternate=#11141d
BackgroundNormal=#182030
DecorationFocus=#3b2f5e
DecorationHover=#624e9d
ForegroundActive=#6954a8
ForegroundInactive=#b0b6bd
ForegroundLink=#00aad4
ForegroundNegative=#bf616a
ForegroundNeutral=#6d55aa
ForegroundNormal=#d3dae3
ForegroundPositive=#849a72
ForegroundVisited=#ac9566
[Colors:Selection]
BackgroundAlternate=#1d99f3
BackgroundNormal=#624e9d
DecorationFocus=#632a6c
DecorationHover=#624e9d
ForegroundActive=#6954a8
ForegroundInactive=#9ea3aa
ForegroundLink=#00aad4
ForegroundNegative=#bf616a
ForegroundNeutral=#6d55aa
ForegroundNormal=#d3dae3
ForegroundPositive=#849a72
ForegroundVisited=#ac9566
[Colors:Tooltip]
BackgroundAlternate=#1c202f
BackgroundNormal=#182030
DecorationFocus=#3b2f5e
DecorationHover=#624e9d
ForegroundActive=#6954a8
ForegroundInactive=#8b919d
ForegroundLink=#00aad4
ForegroundNegative=#bf616a
ForegroundNeutral=#6d55aa
ForegroundNormal=#d3dae3
ForegroundPositive=#849a72
ForegroundVisited=#ac9566
[Colors:View]
BackgroundAlternate=32,35,55
BackgroundNormal=#273043
DecorationFocus=#3b2f5e
DecorationHover=#624e9d
ForegroundActive=#6954a8
ForegroundInactive=#8b919d
ForegroundLink=#00aad4
ForegroundNegative=#bf616a
ForegroundNeutral=#6d55aa
ForegroundNormal=#d3dae3
ForegroundPositive=#849a72
ForegroundVisited=#ac9566
[Colors:Window]
BackgroundAlternate=#1c202f
BackgroundNormal=#182030
DecorationFocus=#3b2f5e
DecorationHover=#624e9d
ForegroundActive=#6954a8
ForegroundInactive=#8b919d
ForegroundLink=#00aad4
ForegroundNegative=#bf616a
ForegroundNeutral=#6d55aa
ForegroundNormal=#d3dae3
ForegroundPositive=#849a72
ForegroundVisited=#ac9566
[General]
ColorScheme=MagnaTweaking
Name=001 MagnaTweaking
shadeSortColumn=true
[KDE]
contrast=4
[WM]
activeBackground=#182030
activeBlend=#182030
activeForeground=#8678af
inactiveBackground=#1c2538
inactiveBlend=#182030
inactiveForeground=#8d939f
Whilst not drastic, it’s adjusted so that it’s clear enough to me which side is active.
Overall, yes - needs looking at - maybe some extra settings for an outline, or a more obvious colour/contrast shift (i.e. inactive tab switch to more inactive colour).
