Poor contrast of progress bars when Automatically adjust lightness of indistinguishable text is enabled #22965

@j4james commented on GitHub (Feb 25, 2025):

The ideal solution I can think of is to group all colors in the viewport, sort them descending by frequency, assign the first one its original color and then nudge every other color to fulfill a given min. distance to every preceding color.

Performance issues aside, surely that's just going to result in the screen flickering wildly as the content changes and different colors appear and disappear? Imagine scrolling through some source code in an editor with syntax highlighting for example. I think something like that is almost certain to generate bug reports.

I know nobody wants to hear this, but honestly the best solution is to pick a color scheme that doesn't require magic adjustments to make it readable.

@j4james commented on GitHub (Feb 25, 2025): > The ideal solution I can think of is to group all colors in the viewport, sort them descending by frequency, assign the first one its original color and then nudge every other color to fulfill a given min. distance to every preceding color. Performance issues aside, surely that's just going to result in the screen flickering wildly as the content changes and different colors appear and disappear? Imagine scrolling through some source code in an editor with syntax highlighting for example. I think something like that is almost certain to generate bug reports. I know nobody wants to hear this, but honestly the best solution is to pick a color scheme that doesn't require magic adjustments to make it readable.

claunia commented

@chrisrodrigue commented on GitHub (Feb 25, 2025):

Would it be a big ask to make the color schemes readable by default?

@chrisrodrigue commented on GitHub (Feb 25, 2025): Would it be a big ask to make the color schemes readable by default?

claunia commented

@lhecker commented on GitHub (Feb 25, 2025):

Windows Terminal Preview 1.23 has a new color scheme named "Ottosson" with which we're trying to improve the situation. Personally, I don't think it's fully fixable, because e.g. dark green on dark cyan is just fundamentally hard to read (cyan has a narrow chromatic "breadth" and its hue is close to green), but I do think the new scheme is at least a step forward. And not putting dark green on dark cyan should be common sense by application authors anyway IMO. Here's what it looks like compared to Campbell: https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/pull/18502#issuecomment-2632207499

@lhecker commented on GitHub (Feb 25, 2025): Windows Terminal Preview 1.23 has a new color scheme named "Ottosson" with which we're trying to improve the situation. Personally, I don't think it's fully fixable, because e.g. dark green on dark cyan is just fundamentally hard to read (cyan has a narrow chromatic "breadth" and its hue is close to green), but I do think the new scheme is at least a step forward. And not putting dark green on dark cyan should be common sense by application authors anyway IMO. Here's what it looks like compared to Campbell: https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/pull/18502#issuecomment-2632207499

claunia commented

@DHowett commented on GitHub (Feb 25, 2025):

Would it be a big ask to make the color schemes readable by default?

You'd be surprised. There are 17 possible foreground colors. No, it is not broadly possible to make all 272 combinations 100% readable when they're put directly next to each other (using glyphs that look like a line, to boot!) while maintaining their identity as the actual colors they're supposed to represent and making them pleasant to look at at the same time.

@DHowett commented on GitHub (Feb 25, 2025): > Would it be a big ask to make the color schemes readable by default? You'd be surprised. There are 17 possible foreground colors. No, it is not broadly possible to make all 272 combinations 100% readable when they're _put directly next to each other_ (using glyphs that look like a line, to boot!) while maintaining their identity as the actual colors they're supposed to represent and making them pleasant to look at at the same time.

claunia commented

@zadjii-msft commented on GitHub (Feb 25, 2025):

DAYS SINCE I'VE REGRETTED SHIPPING SOLARIZED: 736 0

@zadjii-msft commented on GitHub (Feb 25, 2025): ### [DAYS SINCE I'VE REGRETTED SHIPPING SOLARIZED: ~~736~~ 0](https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/14887#issuecomment-1437479490)

claunia commented

@chrisrodrigue commented on GitHub (Feb 25, 2025):

On further inspection, this isn't an issue with the "adjust lightness" setting.

It also isn't an issue with the Solarized theme, which has been implemented in many other terminals and editors without readability issues and is considered to be the most important color scheme in computer history.

This actually seems be a bug with the color value used for text prefixed by one or more hyphens. Using the bright black value for short/long options is a poor choice here and it doesn't seem to be configurable by the user.

For what it's worth, vscode utilizes green for hyphenated text.

One might have expected some internal coherence among Microsoft products, especially when it comes to UIs and themes.

The only themes common to both products are Dark+ and Solarized, and they aren't even implemented the same way...

@chrisrodrigue commented on GitHub (Feb 25, 2025): On further inspection, this isn't an issue with the "adjust lightness" setting. It also isn't an issue with the Solarized theme, which has been implemented in many other terminals and [editors](https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/blob/31e4ade82e7a48dd45725ce64c9ceb12dd1b450b/extensions/theme-solarized-dark/themes/solarized-dark-color-theme.json#L503) without readability issues [and is considered to be the most important color scheme in computer history](https://observer.com/2015/02/meet-the-man-behind-solarized-the-most-important-color-scheme-in-computer-history/). ![Image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/99497de0-e281-4c6d-94d9-0540e587f383) This actually seems be a bug with the color value used for text prefixed by one or more hyphens. Using the bright black value for short/long options is a poor choice here and it doesn't seem to be configurable by the user. For what it's worth, vscode utilizes green for hyphenated text. ![Image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a1a117a2-a5cd-46bd-a182-a6742a816bc6) One might have expected some internal coherence among Microsoft products, especially when it comes to UIs and themes. The only themes common to both products are Dark+ and Solarized, and they aren't even implemented the same way... ![Image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/9ebba707-c2b1-46f1-a0ca-c391398c5626) ![Image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ce60ec68-4014-4991-a07b-64bc643d40ae)

claunia commented

@chrisrodrigue commented on GitHub (Feb 25, 2025):

But this is also a known issue.

@chrisrodrigue commented on GitHub (Feb 25, 2025): But this is also a [known issue](https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows11/comments/1d1ujai/microsoft_is_physically_unable_to_design_a/). ![Image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/842e510c-87b7-45f9-abd0-48a1f28cd538)

claunia commented

@lhecker commented on GitHub (Feb 25, 2025):

This actually seems be a bug with the color value that Windows Terminal uses for text prefixed by one or more hyphens. [...]
For what it's worth, vscode utilizes green for hyphenated text.

...are you talking about the colors that PowerShell uses? That's not something the terminal controls. If you want to change what it uses, you can use a command like this in your Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1:

Set-PSReadLineOption -Colors @{ "Command"="`e[32m" }

32 is the VT color code for "green". Here's a list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code#3-bit_and_4-bit
You can read more about that here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/psreadline/set-psreadlineoption?view=powershell-7.5#-colors

Why PowerShell in the terminal doesn't use the same colors as the PowerShell syntax highlighter in VS Code is not known to me, but you could raise that as an issue over at https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell

But this is also a known issue.

You're right that Windows Terminal does not match Explorer exactly, but it's fairly close:

The increased height of the titlebar is part of the UI framework "design language" and may change if we ever switch to another one.

@lhecker commented on GitHub (Feb 25, 2025): > This actually seems be a bug with the color value that Windows Terminal uses for text prefixed by one or more hyphens. [...] > For what it's worth, vscode utilizes green for hyphenated text. ...are you talking about the colors that PowerShell uses? That's not something the terminal controls. If you want to change what it uses, you can use a command like this in your `Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1`: ```pwsh Set-PSReadLineOption -Colors @{ "Command"="`e[32m" } ``` 32 is the VT color code for "green". Here's a list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code#3-bit_and_4-bit You can read more about that here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/psreadline/set-psreadlineoption?view=powershell-7.5#-colors Why PowerShell in the terminal doesn't use the same colors as the PowerShell syntax highlighter in VS Code is not known to me, but you could raise that as an issue over at https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell > But this is also a [known issue](https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows11/comments/1d1ujai/microsoft_is_physically_unable_to_design_a/). You're right that Windows Terminal does not match Explorer _exactly_, but it's fairly close: ![Image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/65cc8be4-5df5-4ccf-8168-19b2f11c9052) The increased height of the titlebar is part of the UI framework "design language" and may change if we ever switch to another one.

claunia commented

@chrisrodrigue commented on GitHub (Feb 26, 2025):

@lhecker Thanks for the professional/thoughtful response and sorry for any snark...

It looks like PowerShell colors in the vscode integrated terminal are different than the ones shown in Windows Terminal.

I wonder how they are overriding the PowerShell colors, and if it might be possible or beneficial in Windows Terminal.

@chrisrodrigue commented on GitHub (Feb 26, 2025): @lhecker Thanks for the professional/thoughtful response and sorry for any snark... It looks like PowerShell colors in the vscode integrated terminal are different than the ones shown in Windows Terminal. I wonder how they are overriding the PowerShell colors, and if it might be possible or beneficial in Windows Terminal. ![Image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a5496a64-3d5f-4d98-ba0d-cf9b90cd07ea)

claunia commented

@chrisrodrigue commented on GitHub (Feb 26, 2025):

For a better comparison:

@chrisrodrigue commented on GitHub (Feb 26, 2025): For a better comparison: ![Image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/32e3cccf-5e61-44c4-a197-4401a5b81843)

claunia commented

@lhecker commented on GitHub (Feb 26, 2025):

I believe this may be happening, because their terminal has contrast enhancement for text enabled by default. The setting is called terminal.integrated.minimumContrastRatio and if you set it to 1 it should disable the feature. I tried it just now and the arguments are basically invisible (this says foo -bar):

@lhecker commented on GitHub (Feb 26, 2025): I believe this may be happening, because their terminal has contrast enhancement for text enabled by default. The setting is called `terminal.integrated.minimumContrastRatio` and if you set it to 1 it should disable the feature. I tried it just now and the arguments are basically invisible (this says `foo -bar`): ![Image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/cb1d8ead-62db-4898-9079-5dc694ef31f8)

claunia commented

@chrisrodrigue commented on GitHub (Feb 26, 2025):

Interesting, it looks like that is motivated by these accessibility guidelines which sets 4.5 as the minimum.

Could this be an opportunity to add that setting?

@chrisrodrigue commented on GitHub (Feb 26, 2025): Interesting, it looks like that is motivated by these [accessibility guidelines](https://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/visual-audio-contrast-contrast.html) which sets 4.5 as the minimum. Could this be an opportunity to add that setting?

claunia commented

@lhecker commented on GitHub (Feb 26, 2025):

"Automatically adjust lightness of indistinguishable text" is meant to be our equivalent. Making the strength of our algorithm adjustable is tracked here: #14940
I just marked it up as Help-Wanted, because we're a little short-staffed and probably won't get to this any time soon. This comment mentions where the change would need to take place: https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/14940#issuecomment-1535287860

@lhecker commented on GitHub (Feb 26, 2025): "Automatically adjust lightness of indistinguishable text" is meant to be our equivalent. Making the strength of our algorithm adjustable is tracked here: #14940 I just marked it up as Help-Wanted, because we're a little short-staffed and probably won't get to this any time soon. This comment mentions where the change would need to take place: https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/14940#issuecomment-1535287860

claunia commented