Thunderbird layout on 4K monitor is hard to read
Many current generation displays implement 2160x3920 (4K) displays. The manufacturing cost of 4K is not much more than full-HD but 4K displays are better for video games and will naturally have a longer usable life-span. However most software, including Mozilla products, seem to assume that if a 4K display is available it is physically 4 times larger than the equivalent, and therefore the same icons and and font-size can be used as on an HD monitor.
In my own case I have plugged my 4K television screen into my computer, but since the angular viewing width of the television, when viewed from my comfy chair, is the same as that of the HD monitor on my laptop, about 30°, the fact that the physical dimensions of the TV are 940mm x 530mm, as opposed to the 310mm x 170mm of the HD monitor is irrelevant. Furthermore when I try to zoom into the view by clicking on Ctrl-+ all that expands is the currently open e-mail. So I cannot read the list of messages, the list of folders, or the text on any of the buttons, without getting up and walking over to the television.
So I would like an option for Thunderbird instructing it to double the font-size and icons in all panes of the display when it is viewed on a 4K monitor.
This is not as big an issue on Firefox, which does not use panes except when accessing other tools.
Svi odgovori (3)
Have you tried Theme Font & Size Changer (fixed)? The latest version fixes the Zoom option (try 150), and otherwise it's useful to adjust the menu and message list fonts.
To change the displayed fonts in messages, adjust the settings in Tools/Options/Display/Formatting/Fonts & Colors/Advanced.
Depending upon whether I am at home or not I view my e-mails either on my 4K TV screen, or on the HD display of my laptop. I would therefore prefer a solution which specifically checked for the resolution of the screen, rather than applying a common style to the display in all situations.
Specifically I would think I should be able to achieve the result that I am looking for by customizing userChrome.css and using media queries. I find the documentation on customizing userChrome.css to be daunting. Among other issues I find it confusing that a file with type "css" explicitly uses the XUL namespace instead. I am hoping that someone with more experience can assist me to identify the critical parts of that documentation.
The document https://www.eriwen.com/css/tweaking-thunderbirds-chrome/ seems helpful, but it is not part of the mainstream documentation and is flagged as possibly out of date. The link from http://kb.mozillazine.org/UserChrome-example.css to the source file http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/suite/locales/en-US/profile/chrome/userChrome-example.css is incorrect.
Also can someone explain why the customization files for Mozilla contain the word "Chrome"?
jamescobban said
The link from http://kb.mozillazine.org/UserChrome-example.css to the source file http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/suite/locales/en-US/profile/chrome/userChrome-example.css is incorrect.
Mozillazine is an independant body. perhaps you should tell them what you found.
Also can someone explain why the customization files for Mozilla contain the word "Chrome"?
Without a full history lesson in GUI design probably not. The short answer is historically chrome is the stuff around the content in a Graphical User Interface. This guy explains it pretty well. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/browser-and-gui-chrome/
Google grabbed the preexisting term for their browser, if that is where you are coming from. Interestingly the Chromium projects include Chromium and Chromium OS, the open-source projects behind the Google Chrome browser and Google Chrome OS, respectively.