Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Forum for the PDF-XChange Editor - Free and Licensed Versions

Moderators: TrackerSupp-Daniel, Tracker Support, Paul - Tracker Supp, Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team, Chris - Tracker Supp, Sean - Tracker, Ivan - Tracker Software, Tracker Supp-Stefan

Post Reply
avada
User
Posts: 191
Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2013 10:22 pm

Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by avada »

Hi!

I reported this issue some years ago, didn't take. When a custom background color is set then a combination of text and highlight color is used that much of the time renders the text unreadable:
pdf-xe-highlights-current.PNG
PS: I updated to the recent version to verify that this still happens. As the image shows the button text got messed up along the way. It was fine before I upgraded
User avatar
TrackerSupp-Daniel
Site Admin
Posts: 8440
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2018 6:52 pm

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello, avada

The reason that this was not touched in the past is because it is simply not something that there is anything we can offer to "resolve" it. If you wish to use a custom background color, you should also customize the blend mode of your highlights to work with it. For example, try using "overlay" or "Difference" blend modes with this document.
s6OJBf6itZ.gif
I hope it helps!

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com
Support@pdf-xchange.com
avada
User
Posts: 191
Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2013 10:22 pm

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by avada »

TrackerSupp-Daniel wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 6:59 pm Hello, avada

The reason that this was not touched in the past is because it is simply not something that there is anything we can offer to "resolve" it. If you wish to use a custom background color, you should also customize the blend mode of your highlights to work with it. For example, try using "overlay" or "Difference" blend modes with this document.
s6OJBf6itZ.gif
I hope it helps!

Kind regards,
I'm unsure what you're talking about, but it seems like PDF editing features.
However I'm talking about the highlighting of the advanced search feature that I had shown on the screenshot, of which I have no control over. It's PDF-XE's own doing the unreadable highlights: choosing text and background colors that are almost completely identical. It seems to be clearly a bug for me.
Why even change the text color from black when the used highlights are so light? It should be forcing something like black.
User avatar
TrackerSupp-Daniel
Site Admin
Posts: 8440
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2018 6:52 pm

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello, avada

My apologies, I didnt notice you were using the search pane to create these highlights. I understand the dilemma, but am struggling to reproduce it here. Could I ask you to send us a copy of the document in question, and export your current application settings to send those to us as well. With the two items together, I should be able to reproduce this, and show our Dev team to see what they think on the issue.

As this is the result of heavy customization, I cannot promise that we will be able to find a perfect solution for you, or that it will come any time soon, but I can ensure that this is reviewed and considered.

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com
Support@pdf-xchange.com
avada
User
Posts: 191
Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2013 10:22 pm

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by avada »

Nothin documnt specific. Pretty much the first result for "quick brown fox pdf": https://www.cia.gov/library/abbottabad-compound/A6/A6982A098C397DEE7108D2C268F6C25E_Sample.pdf

The only thing as is said is changing the background color for viewing PDFs.
Willy Van Nuffel
User
Posts: 2347
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:10 pm

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

Hello @avada,

Do you sometimes have activated the "Override document colors" in File > Preferences > Accessibility ?
avada
User
Posts: 191
Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2013 10:22 pm

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by avada »

Willy Van Nuffel wrote: Tue Oct 26, 2021 9:23 am Hello @avada,

Do you sometimes have activated the "Override document colors" in File > Preferences > Accessibility ?
Well that's the only way I know to change the background color without editing a pdf, so yeah, that's what I'm doing.
Willy Van Nuffel
User
Posts: 2347
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:10 pm

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

Thanks @avada for your answer.

This is important information for Tracker Support.

It might be a suggestion/request to improve the way for "changing the background color of PDF's without editing", to make reading still more comfortable.
User avatar
TrackerSupp-Daniel
Site Admin
Posts: 8440
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2018 6:52 pm

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello, everyone

Yes, we did have our eyes on the accessibility options for this, and that is part of why we asked for a copy of Avada's application settings. Seeing how some more of our users have configured their settings will give us a better sample size to work with and test, in hopes of avoiding issues exactly like this, going forward.

Yes the document itself is less important, but thank you for the link Avada, the real important aspect here however, is a copy of your application settings. Can you please click file > manage settings > export settings, and then send us the file generated, either here (in a zip file), or by email to support@pdf-xchange.com (with a link to this forum post, so I have the correct context).

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com
Support@pdf-xchange.com
avada
User
Posts: 191
Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2013 10:22 pm

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by avada »

Willy Van Nuffel wrote: Tue Oct 26, 2021 9:53 am It might be a suggestion/request to improve the way for "changing the background color of PDF's without editing", to make reading still more comfortable.
I would call it fixing a bug though. Whatever highlight color PDFXE chooses it should choose an appropriate text color for it.

TrackerSupp-Daniel wrote: Tue Oct 26, 2021 4:08 pm Yes the document itself is less important, but thank you for the link Avada, the real important aspect here however, is a copy of your application settings. Can you please click file > manage settings > export settings, and then send us the file generated, either here (in a zip file), or by email to support@pdf-xchange.com (with a link to this forum post, so I have the correct context).
These are the only relevant settings:
kép.png
Ultimately the highlight's color calculation programming is broken. The text turns white as soon as I make any customization, even if it's 255,255,255 white, which is the same as the original background. Text is never black witch custom background color.
What's ironic is that there's no real need to even change the colors. The default black text and the colored highlight would be fine for everything.

You don't need to do much to reproduce unreadability, just move the lightness slider in the color picker window. It looks approximately like this around medium brightness. eg:
kép.png
And utterly broken horror near black:
kép1.png
Quickly made a document with a black background via Liberoffice:
Névtelen 1.pdf
(15.32 KiB) Downloaded 46 times
The highlighting also becomes useless, but in a different way:
kép.png
Also, the background color override doesn't work for this at all, not sure why.
But the highlights do change...:
kép1.png
User avatar
TrackerSupp-Daniel
Site Admin
Posts: 8440
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2018 6:52 pm

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello, avada

Yes, as i mentioned above, we have managed to reproduce this, and the Dev team is already working on a solution. The settings you show there are indeed key factors in the issue, but they are not the "only relevant settings". Some others options could have an effect on this.
I mentioned it in passing, but simply having an increased sample size of settings, which you as an active user of our software actually utilize in a real world environment, will not only help resolve this issue, but will also help us to understand how you use the software, and allow us to more effectively direct our limited resourced to make improvements.

We know that as developers and support personnel, despite using the software all day every day, we do not truly "use" it in its intended capacity like you all do, and so there can and always will be things that we overlook when we cannot fully adopt your perspective on the issue. If you can send us your application settings, It would be appreciated and helpful. If you cannot or do not want to do so, no worries, we can leave this topic here as we have found the issue and are working on it to the best of our ability.

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com
Support@pdf-xchange.com
avada
User
Posts: 191
Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2013 10:22 pm

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by avada »

Allright here it is:
settings.7z
(53.11 KiB) Downloaded 76 times
PS: The settings file naming is weird. Apparently it wanted to to use the last used filename, so I ended up with: "PDFXChangeEditorSettings-2020-10-19.xcs.xces.xces". I don't know how the triple file-extension came about, I certainly didn't do it myself.
User avatar
Paul - Tracker Supp
Site Admin
Posts: 6837
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 10:37 pm
Location: Chemainus, Canada
Contact:

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Thanks for the settings file Avada,

I have occasionally seen the file extension repeated too. It didn't when I tried just now, I am not sure what I did differently in the cases where that happened.
Best regards

Paul O'Rorke
Tracker Support North America
http://www.tracker-software.com
avada
User
Posts: 191
Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2013 10:22 pm

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by avada »

TrackerSupp-Daniel wrote: Tue Oct 26, 2021 11:33 pm Yes, as i mentioned above, we have managed to reproduce this, and the Dev team is already working on a solution.
That's nice. It didn't gain much traction in 2017: https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=29155&p=113644#p114597
User avatar
TrackerSupp-Daniel
Site Admin
Posts: 8440
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2018 6:52 pm

Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

:)
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com
Support@pdf-xchange.com
avada
User
Posts: 191
Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2013 10:22 pm

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by avada »

It looks like it didn't make the latest release. Does the fix have an ETA?
User avatar
Paul - Tracker Supp
Site Admin
Posts: 6837
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 10:37 pm
Location: Chemainus, Canada
Contact:

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Hi avada,

there is this ticket for this: RT#3960: Editor: Search results unreadable with Override Document Colors

While the ticket is for internal use only, referring to it here should help get a status update. I added a note that this had been enquired about and raised the priority of the ticket. While that should have an trickle on effect, it is always, at the end of the day, at the development team discretion as to when these get delivered.

I hope that helps.
Best regards

Paul O'Rorke
Tracker Support North America
http://www.tracker-software.com
Toygun
User
Posts: 52
Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2019 9:08 am

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by Toygun »

Feedback: Same issue

-
PDF x Change Color.png
-
PDF x Change Color 2.png
-
PDF x Change Color 3.png
User avatar
TrackerSupp-Daniel
Site Admin
Posts: 8440
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2018 6:52 pm

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello, Toygun

Yes, this has still not seen a resolution, but the ticket is active and in the works at the moment. I cannot yet provide a timeline for when it will be resolved.

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com
Support@pdf-xchange.com
avada
User
Posts: 191
Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2013 10:22 pm

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by avada »

TrackerSupp-Daniel wrote: Thu Dec 16, 2021 10:42 pm Hello, Toygun

Yes, this has still not seen a resolution, but the ticket is active and in the works at the moment. I cannot yet provide a timeline for when it will be resolved.

Kind regards,
I wish we would at least have a read-only access to the issue tracker.
User avatar
TrackerSupp-Daniel
Site Admin
Posts: 8440
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2018 6:52 pm

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello, avada

Unfortunately that is not how our ticketing system is configured. I do not have a way to give you read access to the system.

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com
Support@pdf-xchange.com
User avatar
Paul - Tracker Supp
Site Admin
Posts: 6837
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 10:37 pm
Location: Chemainus, Canada
Contact:

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Hi Toygun,
I wish we would at least have a read-only access to the issue tracker.
I doubt very much we'll see any change here.
Best regards

Paul O'Rorke
Tracker Support North America
http://www.tracker-software.com
Toygun
User
Posts: 52
Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2019 9:08 am

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by Toygun »

I believe the developers will fix this problem. I hope this won't take too long.

Note: "Selection highlight color" looks bad no matter what color it is.
PDF x Change Color 4.png
User avatar
Paul - Tracker Supp
Site Admin
Posts: 6837
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 10:37 pm
Location: Chemainus, Canada
Contact:

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Hi Toygun,

they likely will, but having your sample file will help make sure what they do works in your specific case. Can we have your file to add to the ticket perhaps?

regards
Best regards

Paul O'Rorke
Tracker Support North America
http://www.tracker-software.com
Toygun
User
Posts: 52
Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2019 9:08 am

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by Toygun »

Okay:
PDFXChangeEditorSettings2Ocak2022.rar
(592.91 KiB) Downloaded 42 times
Paul - Tracker Supp wrote: Thu Dec 30, 2021 12:41 am Hi Toygun,

they likely will, but having your sample file will help make sure what they do works in your specific case. Can we have your file to add to the ticket perhaps?

regards
User avatar
TrackerSupp-Daniel
Site Admin
Posts: 8440
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2018 6:52 pm

Re: Highlights are still atrociously unreadable witch custom background colors

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello, Toygun

Thank you for the export, I have added that to the ticket as well, so that it can be used for more extensive testing.

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com
Support@pdf-xchange.com
Post Reply