[Pkg-xfce-devel] Bug#788882: xfwm4: Active window not clearly marked in default Xfce themes anymore

[Mikko Rapeli]

Package: xfwm4
Version: 4.12.3-1
Severity: minor

Dear Maintainer,

Latest xfwm4 package with default themes for Xfce desktop do not have
clear markers for active windows anymore. In older default themes the
active window title was marked with blue'ish background and the others
were gray. This was easy for users to spot and comes from the tradition
of Windows 3.1 etc :)

Now the default theme only shows a gray window title text in non-active window
and dark gray in the active one. Also the upper right corner window action
buttons are with darker gray background in the active window and white
gray in the non-active windows.

But these are really difficult to spot. As a simple desktop user I would like
to see the old blueish title background in the active window. This way I don't
have to learn new tricks and focus my eyes on newer window decorations/elements.

This change is rather new in Debian unstable but has been reported/discussed
in upstream mailing list before:

http://xfce.10915.n7.nabble.com/changing-the-active-window-title-bar-color-td42750.html

The new all gray theme also affects CPU usage graph which has only light and
slightly less gray bars which are for impossible for me to distinguish.

This very hack'ish and crude patch to the installed package helps a bit but
is way too ugly to be used for a real implementation. Would be really nice
if some UI designer had a look at this issue. Maybe Debian could help
upstream with this.

diff -up /usr/share/themes/Default/xfwm4/backup/title-1-active.xpm /usr/share/themes/Default/xfwm4/title-1-active.xpm
--- /usr/share/themes/Default/xfwm4/backup/title-1-active.xpm	2015-06-14 21:22:16.181781539 +0200
+++ /usr/share/themes/Default/xfwm4/title-1-active.xpm	2015-06-14 21:28:15.165623079 +0200
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 /* XPM */
-static char * title_active_xpm[] = {
+static char * title_1_active_xpm[] = {
 "4 29 2 1",
-"       c None",
-".      c #C0C0FF s active_color_2",
+" 	c None",
+".	c #3B52FF",
 "....",
 "....",
 "....",
diff -up /usr/share/themes/Default/xfwm4/backup/title-2-active.xpm /usr/share/themes/Default/xfwm4/title-2-active.xpm
--- /usr/share/themes/Default/xfwm4/backup/title-2-active.xpm	2015-06-14 21:22:16.181781539 +0200
+++ /usr/share/themes/Default/xfwm4/title-2-active.xpm	2015-06-14 21:28:15.165623079 +0200
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 /* XPM */
-static char * title_active_xpm[] = {
+static char * title_2_active_xpm[] = {
 "4 29 2 1",
-"       c None",
-".      c #C0C0FF s active_color_2",
+" 	c None",
+".	c #3B52FF",
 "....",
 "....",
 "....",
diff -up /usr/share/themes/Default/xfwm4/backup/title-3-active.xpm /usr/share/themes/Default/xfwm4/title-3-active.xpm
--- /usr/share/themes/Default/xfwm4/backup/title-3-active.xpm	2015-06-14 21:22:16.185781586 +0200
+++ /usr/share/themes/Default/xfwm4/title-3-active.xpm	2015-06-14 21:28:15.169623118 +0200
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 /* XPM */
-static char * title_active_xpm[] = {
+static char * title_3_active_xpm[] = {
 "4 29 2 1",
-"       c None",
-".      c #C0C0FF s active_color_2",
+" 	c None",
+".	c #3B52FF",
 "....",
 "....",
 "....",
diff -up /usr/share/themes/Default/xfwm4/backup/title-4-active.xpm /usr/share/themes/Default/xfwm4/title-4-active.xpm
--- /usr/share/themes/Default/xfwm4/backup/title-4-active.xpm	2015-06-14 21:22:16.185781586 +0200
+++ /usr/share/themes/Default/xfwm4/title-4-active.xpm	2015-06-14 21:28:15.169623118 +0200
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 /* XPM */
-static char * title_active_xpm[] = {
+static char * title_4_active_xpm[] = {
 "4 29 2 1",
-"       c None",
-".      c #C0C0FF s active_color_2",
+" 	c None",
+".	c #3B52FF",
 "....",
 "....",
 "....",
diff -up /usr/share/themes/Default/xfwm4/backup/title-5-active.xpm /usr/share/themes/Default/xfwm4/title-5-active.xpm
--- /usr/share/themes/Default/xfwm4/backup/title-5-active.xpm	2015-06-14 21:22:16.185781586 +0200
+++ /usr/share/themes/Default/xfwm4/title-5-active.xpm	2015-06-14 21:28:15.169623118 +0200
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 /* XPM */
-static char * title_active_xpm[] = {
+static char * title_5_active_xpm[] = {
 "4 29 2 1",
-"       c None",
-".      c #C0C0FF s active_color_2",
+" 	c None",
+".	c #3B52FF",
 "....",
 "....",
 "....",

Thanks!

-Mikko

-- System Information:
Debian Release: stretch/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Foreign Architectures: armhf

Kernel: Linux 3.18.0+ (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)