MySQL Bugs: #70750: Bad text color with Windows high contrast theme

Bug #70750	Bad text color with Windows high contrast theme
Submitted:	28 Oct 2013 15:47	Modified:	27 Sep 2017 21:08
Reporter:	Alain Forget	Email Updates:
Status:	No Feedback	Impact on me:	None
Category:	MySQL Workbench	Severity:	S2 (Serious)
Version:	6.2.4	OS:	Windows (7, 8, 8.1)
Assigned to:	Mike Lischke	CPU Architecture:	Any
Tags:	accessibility, color, font, text, UI

Description:
When using a high contrast white-on-black theme in Windows, some text in the MySQL workbench is not visible. The biggest problem is the Schemas in the sidebar. While the Management and Instance sub-elements *are* visible, for whatever reason, the Schemas are not. I presume this occurs because the font color of the Schemas is the system default (which is white, and thus not visible on the white background), while the Management and Instance sub-elements are set specifically to black.

How to repeat:
In Windows 7, 8, or 8.1:

1) Right-click on the desktop
2) Select Personlize
3) Choose the High Contrast Black theme
4) Open the MySQL Workbench
5) Open a MySQL connection
6) Look on the left side bar where the Management, Instance, and Schemas sub-elements are. Notice that the Management and Instance sub-elements are legible, while the Schemas' sub-elements are not visible.

Suggested fix:
The quickest fix is to set the Schemas' sub-elements text color to black, rather than the system default. A better fix would be to make a white-on-black theme for the Workbench. The best fix would be to allow the colors of all UI elements to be more easily customized by users, saved in a theme file, so users with such a preference can use their preferred color configuration, and backup and share UI customization files.

Thank you for the bug report.

Screenshot of the left side bar in high contrast mode

Attachment: high-contrast.png (image/png, text), 96.61 KiB.

Alain, I have uploaded a screenshot from my machine. The display seems to be fine for the schema treeview. Can you also upload an image showing your problem?

A few colors in WB need changes in high contrast mode, but otherwise it looks fine to me.

Screenshot of MySQL Workbench 6.0.8 on my machine. Note the unreadable items below schemas.

Attachment: MySQLWorkbench.png (image/png, text), 67.96 KiB.

Once upon a time, I had added customisations to my desktop theme. I can't remember precisely what they were, but I do recall they were needed and I am happy with them as they are (except for this problem with the Workbench). I have attached both a screenshot from my machine and my desktop theme pack for you to try and examine.

Posted by developer:
 
Support for high contrast modes has been added. However this does not guarantee that MySQL Workbench renders with special system customizations that are not part of the OS. If that is still needed a new bug report must be opened which gets a different priority than this task for support of a standard system feature.

Do you mean support for high contrast mode is already in the WB, or that it will be coming in a future release (if so, do you know which one?).

Also, you said that, "A few colors in WB need changes in high contrast mode..." Do you recall that those changes were? Or could you show a screenshot of your WB color settings?

I thought I had tried all color settings to no avail, but perhaps I missed something.

Support for the high contrast color mode in Windows will be available in one of the next releases.

Posted by developer:
 
Fixed, checked using 6.1.2.11647

Fixed as of the upcoming MySQL Workbench 6.1.2 release, and here's the changelog entry:

On Microsoft Windows, increased support for "High Contrast" modes was
added.

Thank you for the bug report.

While this was fixed for the Schema section, there remain many other UI areas that remain difficult or impossible to read with high contrast settings, since MySQL is currently not using the OS color settings as it should. If the colors in the MySQL Workbench UI won't be fully customizable by the user, then here is a list of the UI areas where I have noticed color choices that to not follow and respect the user's chosen color scheme:

1. Alter Table

1a. The field labels are illegibly white on the white background. The background should follow the Windows color theme, and be black.

1b. Text in a highlighted column is white, on the white or light blue highlighted background.

2. Output

2a. The text in the output rows is set as black, regardless of the Windows color scheme. It should follow the Windows theme, which in this case is white.

2b. The rows alternate between black (which correctly follows the Windows theme) and white/light grey, which will make white text illegible on every second row. If alternating colors are necessary, it should adapt to the Windows scheme text color, such that the text is always legible.

3. SQL tab for executing queries

3a. The area where queries are typed incorrectly displays in black text on a white background, regardless of the user's chosen theme colors. It should follow the Windows color theme, which in this case would be white text on a black background. The color changes of keywords (e.g., SELECT, FROM, WHERE) should still occur, and ideally adapt to whatever the background color may be.

3b. The "Result Grid" rows alternate between black (which correctly follows the Windows theme) and white/light grey, which will make white text illegible on every second row. If alternating colors are necessary, it should adapt to the Windows scheme text color, such that the text is always legible.

4. Information

4a. This incorrectly displays in black text on a white background, regardless of the user's chosen theme colors. It should follow the Windows theme colors, which in this case would be white text on a black background.

5. Management

5b. This incorrectly displays in black text on a white background, regardless of the user's chosen colour theme. It should follow the Windows colour theme, which in this case would be white text on a black background.

In addition to these specific areas, I strongly recommend developers go through all other UI areas with an alternative Windows High Contrast theme and make similar changes. Furthermore, hardcoding colors should *never* be done; the OS color settings should be respected and followed not just for users' personal preference, but also to supports users with accessibility needs, who require alternative display settings.

MySQL Workbench Alter Table with High Contrast Windows Theme

Attachment: MySQLWorkbench_HighContrast_AlterTable.png (image/png, text), 54.06 KiB.

MySQL Workbench SQL Query Results with High Contrast Windows Theme

Attachment: MySQLWorkbench_HighContrast_Results.png (image/png, text), 59.26 KiB.

Please try version 6.3.9. Thanks.

No feedback was provided for this bug for over a month, so it is
being suspended automatically. If you are able to provide the
information that was originally requested, please do so and change
the status of the bug back to "Open".