More customization for the tray icon

[typhoon71]

First, thanks for this awesome program.
It makes easy to get a lot on meaningful info, and fast.
I'd like to ask if it's possible to add some more customization for the sensor(s) displayed in the tray.
For example, I'd like the ability to have transparent background (just the text is shown) and to be able to customize the font and alignment of the text.
I ask for this because I'd like the tray area to be more "neat" and rational.
Would it be possible?
Thanks anyway.

 

[Martin]

Using the white color (Red/Green/Blue = 255/255/255) should give you a transparent background.
HWiNFO currently performs dynamic scaling and positioning of text in tray. Though giving the user more control over this might be an idea worth consideration

 

[typhoon71]

OK, transparent background works, didn't think of that, thanks.
Nice to see my suggestions considered.

I'll attach here a screenie of my tray area to show you what I was talking about.

The green squares with black text are from HDSentinel, you can see the text is properly centered. I'd like square border options for HWInfo too, if possible.
The "17" is the GPU temp reported by cputemp (soon dismissing it), the 2 "29" are the GPU temp, and "35" is the CPU temp from HWInfo (mobo sensor).
You will notice the text is aligned on the left of the background, and the font makes the "35" not that readable: that was why I asked about fonts and text alignment customization.

 

[Martin]

Yes, I see that it's a bit off. I'll add this into my to-do list.

 

[typhoon71]

Thanks.

 

[Martin]

I'll improve alignment of the items in tray in the next build.
However allowing custom font/size would be problematic because HWiNFO does dynamic scaling of font, size and alignment depending on the text displayed. So for example a value of "5000" is shown using a different scaling than "50", which is done automatically. Even allowing custom font for a specific value wouldn't solve this in case the value changes on the fly. It would require a lot of settings for different size of items displayed, which would be too complicated.

 

[typhoon71]

mmmm... as is, the tray icon gets a bold font of sorts, and it becames hard to read if I use transparent background (white).
From my screenshot you can see the "35" being harder to read than the 2 "29". Is it possible to fix that?
I suppose I won't get the "17" like aesthetic (would need more customization options), but something like a centered "29" would be ok if transparent background readability get better.
Anyway thank, centered alignment would be already a nice improvement.

 

[Martin]

Yes, HWiNFO uses a bold font since I thought this way it's better readable. Isn't the "17" just too small for reading ?
Indeed the "35" doesn't look nice and I have tried various foreground colors. I suppose this is because of the combination of rendering into the transparent background. I'll have a look at that how to improve it.

Update: OK, I found the problem - it's because of antialiasing. I'll turn this off, so that should improve the readability significantly.

 

[typhoon71]

Awesome, thanks.
"17" is fine, but I agree that "29" is more readable. Depends on screen res/size too I guess.
For me it's fine because I don't check the tray often, and "I like it simple".
btw, you could make the antialiasing a (global) option, so you won't get "degraded" quality for the users not using transparent background (a lot I suppose).

 

[Martin]

Well, it seems that in some cases it looks better with antialiasing (AA) and in some others not Definitively, for a transparent background it must be off.
Here two samples, so you can make a judgement (this already includes the update to centering).

With AA:
[attachment=1182]

Without AA:
[attachment=1183]

But overall, I think it's better without AA.

 

[Martin]

Hm, now the more I'm looking at it, I think the best option would be to disable AA for transparent background and leave it enabled for others (especially the "797" looks much better with AA).

 

[typhoon71]

I just tried the 4.49.2355 build, and I noticed the updates. Indeed it looks nice now. The alignement of the text is perfect (center of the background).
I too think that transparent backgroung looks better without AA, while non transparent background looks better with AA.

I have a question too: is it normal that the info tooltip is broken in two? (screenie attached)
Shouldn't it be on a single line since there's no need to break it?

 

[Martin]

Thanks for the feedback.
Yes, that breaking is intentional - I think if the name is separated from the value it's better to read.

 

[typhoon71]

mmm, I realize I'm asking a lot of things, but could you add an option to not cut it in two?
My reason is to keep all tooltips consistent system wise.
Thanks anyway.

 

[cobo83]

Thanks for the feedback.
Yes, that breaking is intentional - I think if the name is separated from the value it's better to read.

My thoughts exact, at least with regard to the line breaking, however...
I must say that I do wish the font size/style (significantly more important would most assuredly be SIZE) could be adjusted by we end users as values larger than 3 digits for me become extremely tedious, in fact, approaching impossible to read. I understand there are complications involved but surely with all that can be done by this incredible software, a comparably banal undertaking such as the ability to (or on your end I suppose, configuring so that such manual font fine tuning would be possible) calibrate font size for system tray sensor readings is undoubtedly (or perhaps not) practicable! Even if it would interfere with the auto-adjustments made on the fly with dynamic sensor readings, giving the user the option would be, IMHO, preferable to illegibility. Again, I understand that many if not most users will never need to adjust the font size, but for the minority of us that wish the capability to do so were possible, this "freedom of choice" would be a great boon to an already superior application.

tldr: given that hwinfo can do so much, surely it would be possible, indeed, preferable, to enable font size adjustments!  

p.s.
[attachment=1226]

This was the best contrast i could find that would make the numbers as readable as possible given their magnitude, or lack thereof. Now, if only one were able to slightly increase the font size...

 

[Martin]

I agree that displaying more than 3 digits in the tray results in a font which is too small to read.
But how would you solve this if you would have the choice to set your own font size? If you use a larger font, the entire number would not fit into the icon. Or is this your intention - to fit only the first 2 digits into the icon using a larger font ?
Maybe if there are 4 digits and more, it's really not useful to display them all. So in your example, the "4447" might be displayed instead as "4.4k" or "44" or "44.." using a larger font. Or do you have another suggestion? I could do this automatically, that would be the easiest way.

 

[Andy128]

I agree that displaying more than 3 digits in the tray results in a font which is too small to read.
But how would you solve this if you would have the choice to set your own font size? If you use a larger font, the entire number would not fit into the icon. Or is this your intention - to fit only the first 2 digits into the icon using a larger font ?
Maybe if there are 4 digits and more, it's really not useful to display them all. So in your example, the "4447" might be displayed instead as "4.4k" or "44" or "44.." using a larger font. Or do you have another suggestion? I could do this automatically, that would be the easiest way.

Hi Martin,

Thanks for creating this great program.

I found this thread while searching for possible solutions to improve the readability of the fan speed tray icon.
I've tried lots of different color combinations but as you have said, sometimes the 3 digit speed is very hard to read. (see attached pic).

It would be great if we could customize the size/shape of the tray icon to allow for a longer rectangle instead of a square.
Is that not possible? Wouldn't that allow for a larger font when displaying 3 digits or more?


cheers
Andy

[img=220x113]http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x44/Andy128Andy128/tray icon.jpg[/img]

 

[Martin]

Hi Andy,
I believe that using a larger font will not fit into the limited tray icon space.
You might try other techniques to limit the number of digits - either divide by 1000, or using a custom multiply factor of 0.1 to get 2 digits.