[IMPROVEMENT] The new dark mode is too black

[mihalycsaba]

Please confirm these before moving forward.

• I have searched for my feature proposal and have not found a work-in-progress/duplicate/resolved/discarded issue.
• This improvement refers to an existing feature. If you want to suggest a new feature, please use this template.
• This improvement is not a bug. If you want to report a bug, please use this template.

Describe the improvement

The new dark mode is just too black, it doesn't look good, I don't really see black UI nowadays, probably because it's just too uncomfortable for the eyes, too much contrast. It should be some kind of grey or add another option in the settings for a grey color.(preferably the old color, because it looked great).

Describe how this improvement could help users

Easier on the eyes.

[GabrielDuf]

Hi,
There seems to be another issue here, as the dark theme should look much grayer than this.
For comparison, here's how it looks on my system with Windows 11 transparency effects disabled.

[Meteony]

It's a rendering issue on your end most likely

[ekolis]

It's black for me on Windows 11, but gray on Linux (using the RPM package). I also prefer the gray. Maybe black could be added as an optional high contrast mode, though?

[GabrielDuf]

Hi Ed Kolis (@ekolis), Csaba (@mihalycsaba)!
I made a potential fix for the black background issue. Unfortunately, I can't reproduce the problem on my end, so I haven't been able to verify it.

Could you try this test build and let me know if it resolves the issue for you? I'd really appreciate your feedback.

The executables are available at the bottom of the page under Artifacts:

https://github.com/Devolutions/UniGetUI/actions/runs/29587939899

[mihalycsaba]

I had no idea it's a bug, because the quality of the UI slowly degraded visually with each update, with the random pictures and unnecessary lines and alignment issues. Just thought the this full black color is another weird UI design choice.

Since I didn't think it's a bug, I didn't mention it's a kvm windows virtual machine running on an arch linux host. With a QXL video config, no opengl acceleration. I have another windows vm on another arch based host, same problem.

<video>
  <model type="qxl" ram="65536" vram="65536" vgamem="16384" heads="1" primary="yes"/>
  <alias name="video0"/>
  <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x01" function="0x0"/>
</video>
<graphics type="spice" port="5900" autoport="yes" listen="127.0.0.1">
  <listen type="address" address="127.0.0.1"/>
  <image compression="off"/>
</graphics>

[mihalycsaba]

I have tried the portable version of the test, the colors are almost right.

The colors look a bit different than the settings app UI, but it's okay.

One thing that would be good to have an outline on the window, because it blends into file explorer window, other windows have a thin white outline.

Also the corners are squared not rounded, but this is a minor visual issue.

[mihalycsaba]

btw this is one of the alignment issue I always see, there was one more but can't find it. The checkboxes are not aligned with the other stuff.

[mihalycsaba]

Also besides the white outline, the shadows are missing too, that give other windows some depth.

[ekolis]

Yes, this update restored the gray color on Windows. Thanks!

[GabrielDuf]

Great, I'll merge the fix into main, so it will be included in the next release.

I'll also look into the application border and the misalignment you mentioned. Thanks for pointing those out.

[GabrielDuf]

I also merged a PR that fixes the misaligned checkbox and updates the border to better match the look of other Windows applications. Both changes will be available in the next release.

#5132