Notes2 Design MainColors

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Summary

The "Note Windows" will use different color to represent the author of the Notes. The developed colors provide a modern and fresh look and will be based on already available OpenOffice.org color palettes by OpenOffice.org Visual Design. In addition, the colors will be harmonized with the ones from the OpenOffice.org Writer change tracking feature which also uses color to highlight changes in the document text.

Note: Due to the fact that many people do have color disabilities, color should never be used alone for information transfer.

Rationale

Notes from different authors should be easily distinguishable on the screen. One option is the use of different colors for the Note Windows and Note Connector Lines.

Assumptions

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Proposed Designs

Proposal "Colors for the Notes"

Colors for the Notes

Proposal for the colors

The picture shows the colors from the current OpenOffice.org Writer and the main competitor Microsoft Word 2003. Additionally, it includes the proposal for the new implementation of the notes functionality. The following criteria have been checked when selecting the new colors: unobtrusive but appealing colors that (as a set) go together well how distinguishable are the colors for people with visual impairments (inabilities or weaknesses in seeing some particular colors) how readable is text written on a background using one of these colors how do the note connectors line and borders look in contrast to the notes window itself The colors have been selected from several sources: the OpenOffice.org Writer current change tracking feature, the new Galaxy Style palette, the new Chart default color palette. The first color, the bright yellow, has been chosen because of the popularity of some gluing labels ;-) This should ease the recognition of Notes for beginners.

Simple mockup to show the color effect

The picture shows the colors in simplified notes windows to: check the color effect of the different colors simulate some text of the change tracking feature (underlined) Please note that not anchors are shown here and the notes windows are simplified and do not correspond to the proposed design!

Color pallette in RGB values (Red, Green, Blue):

R   G   B       Name
198 146   0	Author 1 dark
255 255 158	Author 1 normal
255 255 195	Author 1 light
  6  70 162	Author 2 dark
216 232 255	Author 2 normal
233 242 255	Author 2 light
 87 157  28	Author 3 dark
218 248 193	Author 3 normal
226 250 207	Author 3 light
105  43 157	Author 4 dark
228 210 245	Author 4 normal
239 228 248	Author 4 light
197   0  11	Author 5 dark
254 205 208	Author 5 normal
255 227 229	Author 5 light
  0 128 128	Author 6 dark
210 246 246	Author 6 normal
230 250 250	Author 6 light
140 132   0	Author 7 dark
237 252 163	Author 7 normal
242 254 181	Author 7 light
 53  85 107	Author 8 dark
211 222 232	Author 8 normal
226 234 241	Author 8 light
209 118   0	Author 9 dark
255 226 185	Author 9 normal
255 231 199	Author 9 light

Selected Design

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Implementation

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Code Changes

Changes have to be made for the OpenOffice.org Writer change tracking feature to harmonize the colors.

Outstanding Issues

If using the color gradient from "background dark (gradient start)" to "background color (gradient stop)" and having a Note Window with a small height, the resulting effect tends to be a bit annoying. If the Note Windows is smaller than 3 lines of Note User Data (example only), then the background gradient should start at something in the middle between "background dark (gradient start)" and "background color (gradient stop)".