[suggestion] Variable height of page thumbnails in the thumbnail panel  SOLVED

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Jensen Head
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[suggestion] Variable height of page thumbnails in the thumbnail panel

Post by Jensen Head »

Now:
Variable height of page thumbnails in the thumbnail panel (before).png
_
Suggested:
Variable height of page thumbnails in the thumbnail panel (after).png
_
With narrow pages in landscape orientation, allows you to see more pages in the sidebar and less scroll through thumbnails.
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Re: [suggestion] Variable height of page thumbnails in the thumbnail panel

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Hi Jensen Head,

I am not sure I understand what the res X's are in your example. Are you suggesting we define a portion of the page to use in the Thumbnails pane? A portrait page might then be displayed but cropped?

Currently landscape pages do fit better, but you want to keep them portrait but be essentially cropped in the Thumbnails Pane?
image.png
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Jensen Head
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Re: [suggestion] Variable height of page thumbnails in the thumbnail panel

Post by Jensen Head »

Both screenshots show full document pages without distorting or cropping. The red crosses in the first screenshot are hand-drawn marks in the screenshots that mark unused space that could be used more efficiently. The second screenshot is a mockup of how the panel might look with the pages of this document.
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Re: [suggestion] Variable height of page thumbnails in the thumbnail panel

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Aaah - fair enough.

I said "crop" which does have a very specific meaning, it may be better if I avoid use of that in this context. I get you, the area would be hidden from view in the thumbnails.

How do you propose defining the viewable area for the pages? If this were to be considered we would need to define that. I guess we could do something like the current crop boxes controls.

Lets see what the dev team feedback is.

:-)
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Re: [suggestion] Variable height of page thumbnails in the thumbnail panel  SOLVED

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

On discussing this with the development team this request is, respectfully, not going to be implemented.

:|
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Jensen Head
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Re: [suggestion] Variable height of page thumbnails in the thumbnail panel

Post by Jensen Head »

However, in Microsoft Windows File Explorer, page thumbnails are displayed in exactly the same way as I suggest:
2021-12-23_13-34-44.png
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Re: [suggestion] Variable height of page thumbnails in the thumbnail panel

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello Jensen Head,

The thing is that those are actually the whole pages - and you only have portrait ones. This is as if you have "continuous age view in the main rendering area of the Editor. Try making one of those pages portrait and see if they would display differently after that?

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Jensen Head
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Re: [suggestion] Variable height of page thumbnails in the thumbnail panel

Post by Jensen Head »

Tracker Supp-Stefan wrote: Thu Dec 23, 2021 2:23 pmTry making one of those pages portrait and see if they would display differently after that?
Yes, even if not all pages are in landscape orientation, all pages in the Microsoft File Explorer preview pane are still compact, with no wide white spaces between the page thumbnails:
The Microsoft File Explorer preview panel.png
igorlima
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Re: [suggestion] Variable height of page thumbnails in the thumbnail panel

Post by igorlima »

Hi, all!
Jensen Head wrote: Tue Dec 21, 2021 2:34 pm
_
With narrow pages in landscape orientation, allows you to see more pages in the sidebar and less scroll through thumbnails.
I agree with this! I think that if this could be implemented it would improve the thumbnail view pane.
Paul - Tracker Supp wrote: Tue Dec 21, 2021 6:17 pm On discussing this with the development team this request is, respectfully, not going to be implemented.

:|
Hello, Paul! Thank you for the response. Did they explained why this wont be implemented?



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Re: [suggestion] Variable height of page thumbnails in the thumbnail panel

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Hi guys,

then main reason to reject the request is the complexity involved and the lack of demand. In the 20 years that we have been doing this, nobody else has ever asked for such a feature, none of our competitors do it (not that that in and of itself would prevent us) and while it may not seem so from outside, the relationships between those thumbnails and the man document are not trivial.

The dev team leader is firm in his decision I am afraid, it is considered to "niche" and the complexity of implementation outweighs the perceived return.
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Re: [suggestion] Variable height of page thumbnails in the thumbnail panel

Post by igorlima »

Paul - Tracker Supp wrote: Thu Dec 30, 2021 1:31 am Hi guys,

then main reason to reject the request is the complexity involved and the lack of demand. In the 20 years that we have been doing this, nobody else has ever asked for such a feature, none of our competitors do it (not that that in and of itself would prevent us) and while it may not seem so from outside, the relationships between those thumbnails and the man document are not trivial.

The dev team leader is firm in his decision I am afraid, it is considered to "niche" and the complexity of implementation outweighs the perceived return.
I see. Thank you for the response!
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Re: [suggestion] Variable height of page thumbnails in the thumbnail panel

Post by DIV »

As far as I can tell the thumbnail spacing is designed to be square so that if the document contained either a mixture of portrait and landscape orientations of the same page size or an arbitrary mixture of aspect ratios then they could be accommodated within the thumbnail space.

I can see that it could be troublesome to try to allocate different amounts of space per thumbnail depending on each individual page's size & aspect ratio.

On the other hand, there are a lot of documents that contain pages of exactly the same size & orientation throughout. In those documents it might be reasonable to have tighter-fitting spaces for the thumbnails?
Then only if a user added a differently sized/oriented page (or changed an existing page) the thumbnail display could revert to the current square style. [And vice versa if an aberrant page were removed.]

Although somewhat exaggerated to illustrate the principle, the following show the current thumbnail layout for pages with extreme aspect ratios (200×10 and 10×200).
image.png
image1.png
—DIV
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Re: [suggestion] Variable height of page thumbnails in the thumbnail panel

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello DIV,

Yes - you are correct, most documents will only have one orientation and size for all pages, but the PDF specification does allow for pretty much any page size (and aspect ratio, as in the thumbnails pane the aspect ratios are the significant factor).

The implementation we have now is one and universal and works for all pages in a PDF file. Having additional logic to check whether a file's pages are all with the same aspect, and monitor that constantly in case of extra pages being added, will only make the Editor heavier and slower - it might not be 'much' but every tiny little bit counts and over time they do add up. So while there might be more optimal page arrangements in some cases - I believe that having the current universal thumbnail space is the more fitting solution.

You could also have two or more columns of thumbnails if you expand that pane enough. I know that the below is an even more extreme case - but it is possible to have files with such pages, and then something as simple as changing the zoom level inside the thumbnail page would require rerunning the logic that should be used for the spacing around pages. E.g. you can compact them with the two columns, but not really with the 3:
image.png
or
image.png

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Stefan
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Re: [suggestion] Variable height of page thumbnails in the thumbnail panel

Post by DIV »

Tracker Supp-Stefan wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 11:50 am Having additional logic to check whether a file's pages are all with the same aspect, and monitor that constantly in case of extra pages being added, will only make the Editor heavier and slower - it might not be 'much' but every tiny little bit counts and over time they do add up.
I take your point, Stefan. Thank-you for the additional background information.
I suppose it might be more practical to implement for a viewer rather than an editor!
—DIV
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