UX: Unread article count hard to read

[asmaloney]

Describe the bug

With the latest release (3.9) the unread article indicator has changed and it's a lot more difficult to read because of low contrast.

I don't have a screenshot from pre-3.9, but the numbers stood out more.

For those of us with poorer eyesight, having some colour/contrast would be very helpful here.

Some things to try:

• making the number bold and actually black (my preference)
• changing the "bubble" to something which stands out more from the background (e.g. a light cyan)
• getting rid of the bubble so the number has greater contrast with the background.

Screenshots

Please complete the following information:

• Version 3.9.0 :7ad9df044: (8175)
• e.g. macOS 12.7.2

Thank You

Thanks for the great app!

[Eitot]

Have you tried using "Increase contrast" in the accessibility section of system settings?

The unread count is using a standard AppKit component. The font is also emboldened already.

[liamgreenwood]

It may be using a standard component but it is materially harder to read than in the 3.8 series. Are you saying that Vienna wasn't using a standard component prior to 3.9? Sending people to system wide assessibility setting to fix a change to one application seems unnessessarily heavy handed.

[Eitot]

Sending people to system wide assessibility setting to fix a change to one application seems unnessessarily heavy handed.

It was merely a suggestion. Since it is using the components as other apps, notably Apple Mail, I assume that the issue cannot just be with Vienna. The system setting does have the advantage that it improves legibility across the system.

Are you saying that Vienna wasn't using a standard component prior to 3.9?

It was not. The older code relied extensively on custom drawing. It was probably originally made to look like Apple Mail. The code itself needed to be replaced, because Apple changed the way table views are constructed/drawn and the code became hard to maintain and fix.