Specification
From Printing
Contents |
Overview
This specification is a meta-specification independent of KDE or GNOME look + feel. More important than the sizes mentioned in this specification are the specified proportions of the different elements.
internationalisation: right to left languages
For Arab, Hebrew and other right-to-left language localisations, the whole dialog layout direction shall be horizontally reversed. This means that the in the dialog structure the column order shall be reversed. Within the zones the layout of the elements shall be mirrored c.f. Latin localisations, as far as the desktop platform supports.
dialog structure
There are several layouts of the print dialog, depending on the state it is in.
The dialog shall not be user-resizable. As shown later, the dialog shall grow to accommodate a variable number of printing parameters.
The dialog design is as follows:
level 2 dialog structure
- The width of column 1 and column 2 shall have a 0.618:1.4 ratio.
- The height of a all columns shall be equal to the width of column 2.
level 3 dialog structure
- The width of column 1, column 2 and column 3 shall have a 0.618:1:1 (golden) ratio.
- The height of a all columns shall be 1.4*the width of columns 2 and 3.
Dialog Zones
This defines the zones of the dialog.
level 2 dialog with zones
The Printer Dialog shall contain the following zones:
- Printer Zone, shall occupy the full top zone;
- Quick Preset Zone, shall occupy the full column 1;
- Preview Zone, shall occupy the full column 2;
- Dialog Control Zone, shall occupy the full bottom zone.
level 3 dialog with zones
The Printer Dialog shall contain the following zones:
- Printer Zone, shall occupy the full top zone;
- Quick Preset Zone, shall occupy the full column 1;
- Configuration Matrix Zone, shall span column 2 & 3; it shall be placed exactly at the top with a height of 4/14 of that of column 2;
- Preview Zone, shall occupy the full remainder of of column 2;
- Printing Parameters Zone, shall occupy the full remainder of of column 3;
- Dialog Control Zone, shall occupy the full bottom zone.
expanded level 3 dialog with zones
When not all the printing parameters can be placed in a level 3 dialog, the dialog shall grow vertically to accommodate them and be called a expanded level 3 dialog. In this state the dialog shall have the minimum height necessary to fit every printing parameter.
The Expanded Printer Dialog shall contain the following zones:
- zones which size (in pixels) and placement shall be unchanged from a level 3 dialog:
- Printer Zone;
- Configuration Matrix Zone;
- Preview Zone;
- Dialog Control Zone;
- Quick Preset Zone, shall occupy the full column 1;
- Printing Parameters Zone, shall occupy the full remainder of of column 3;
- Extended Printing Parameters Zone, shall occupy the full remainder of of column 2.
zone contents
In general, any noise in the form of borders and bevels shall be avoided as much as the UI platform allows. This allows the different elements to be laid out more tightly without looking cramped.
Printer Zone
The printer zone shall contain:
- the Printer pop-up menu is the first thing to check in the dialog, so it shall be located top-left (Arab + Hebrew: top-right); The pop-up shall have such length that its right (Arab + Hebrew: left) side aligns with the middle of column 2 in a level 3 dialog.
- the label for the quick presets list; where possible, a less conspicuous variant of label shall be used;
- the level 3 expander label, that controls the transition from level 2 to level 3 of the dialog; the start of this text shall be aligned with the start in reading direction (that is the right, for Arab + Hebrew) of column 2;
- an optional printer (manufacturer) logo. It shall be placed flush with the top and side of the zone, so that any required margin can be controlled unambiguously form the image data itself. The with of the logo is limited by the room left for it in a level two dialog:
Printer pop-up menu
the printer pop-up menu shall have 3 sections top to bottom, separated by menu separators:
- installed printers that are available;
- a limited number of local printers;
- printer management commands;
Only installed and available (responding by direct connection or by network) printers shall be displayed. This enables modern working patterns where for instance two dozen printers in six locations can be installed, but this menu only shows the four or so that matter at any location.
Local printers are the printers directly connected to users’ machines or the ones available on the local sub-net, that are not installed. The directly connected printers shall always be displayed in this section (again, apart from the installed ones that are already displayed in the first section of this menu). For the networked machines there shall be certain limits:
- if less then six (not installed) printers can be found on the local sub-net, then these shall be displayed directly, merged with the directly connected printers, in section two of this menu;
- if six or more (not installed) printers can be found on the local sub-net, then these shall be displayed in a submenu labelled "Network printers" under the e directly connected printers, in section two of this menu;
- If more than 24 (not installed) printers can be found on the local sub-net, then the network query shall be halted, the 24 printers first found shall be displayed in the sub-menu, the top item in the menu shall be one labelled "More printers…" (which shall invoke a network printer filtering tool), second in the menu shall be a separator, with below it the printers.
Within each section the printers shall be sorted in alphabetical ascending order according to the sort order of the localisation.
The printer management commands shall be top to bottom:
- "Add Printer…"
- "Manage printers…"
Both shall invoke the appropriate tool in the appropriate mode.
Quick Preset Zone
- The Quick Preset Zone shall have a list of pre-configured printer-settings that users can select to apply;
- This list is a scrollable list and users can create their own Quick Preset based on requirement.
- Each Preset option is word wrapped within the zone and will be differentiated from the next on the basis of the alternating color background.
- When an item label is single line of text, the item shall have 1.5 times the normal height of a list item; this is to improve the speed of choosing a pre-set.
Preview Zone
Level 2 dialog
Level 3 Dialog
- The Zone has 3 UI Elements -
- the information text
- the Preview
- the heads-up display to scroll between pages such as forward, back, first and last.
- The Page counter is located above the preview page.
- It provides the current page in view and the total number of pages commited for printing.
- The Preview is the display area. In the default view this forms a larger view of the preview page.
- The Preview Zone reduces in size incase the user selects the expander label to transition from Level 2 to Level 3 dialog.
- The heads-up display shall sit at the bottom part of the preview zone.
Configuration Matrix Zone
The Configuration Matrix Zone shall be completely occupied by the configuration matrix that includes the parameter that allow the user to customise their printing.
- The Configuration Matrix Zone has four columns with parameters. The columns shall be arranged such that two columns sit above the preview zone and two above the parameter zone;
- users shall be able to switch the tags in each matrix cell on and off;
- when a tag is switched on or off, the labels of the parameters that are associated with this tag shall highlight for half a second;
- this control shall be derived from the standard table (spreadsheet) widget of the UI platform;
- styling of the cells and their highlighting shall be done is such a way that they play a less prominent role compared to the rest of the dialog content, but without looking disabled (greyed out);
- there shall be a maximum of 11 printer supplied tags, plus the application tag;
- the top-left (Arab + Hebrew: top-right) cell shall be reserved for the application that is doing the printing, and shall be labelled with the application name (application tag);
- via this tag the application shall be able to ad its own parameters (print URL for browser) and shall be able to map to standard printer supplied parameters (page range);
- if the application does not configure any tags, then this cell shall be insensitive (greyed out);
- all other tag labels shall be sorted according to length in pixels:
- the two longest tags shall be displayed under the application tag, in descending length order;
- the three shortest tags shall be displayed in the second column, next to the one with the application tag, in descending length order; if there happen to be less than 6 tags (5 + app) in total, the remainder shall go in this column;
- the rest of the tags shall fill up columns 3 and 4 evenly (example: 3 tags left? 2 in column 3 and on in column 4) the longest ones in column 3 and the rest in column 4, in descending length order;
- to clarify: column 4 is the right most column in the configuration matrix, except for Arab + Hebrew localisations where it shall be the leftmost column;
- the ratio of the widths of column 1 and 2 shall be equal to the ratio of the pixel lengths of the top tags in those columns; the ratio of the widths of column 3 and 4 shall be equal to the ratio of the pixel lengths of the top tags in those columns;
Printing Parameters Zone (main, extended)
- The Printing Parameters Zone is dynamically populated with UI elements, which is controlled by selecting tags from the configuration matrix.
- By default the Parameters are listed in column 3 which is the main column.
- The UI elements are organised into an ordered list, which is broken down further into sections, which include the UI elements, which can be single, or related groups of controls.
- Each UI element will be assigned apropriate Tags. When a tag is selected the elements assigned to this tag will be displayed.
- Elements are strictly displayed according to their location in the list and not according to the sequence in which tags have been selected.
- A specification list will be created for each of the 7 printer clusters
Dialog Control Zone
This zone shall display under column one the add button and work menu for the quick presets. The work menu shall contain (top–to–bottom):
- items to browse an online community (via the user's web browser) where shared quick presets for this particular printer can be found; when this section contains items, it shall be separated from the next by means of a menu separator;
- items to upload the highlighted quick preset to an online community (via the user's web browser) where quick presets are shared; these shall be unavailable (greyed out) when no quick preset is highlighted; when this section contains items, it shall be separated from the next by means of a menu separator;
- "Import quick preset…" and "Export quick preset…"; Export shall be unavailable (greyed out) when no quick preset is highlighted; this section shall be separated from the next by means of a menu separator;
- The Delete menu item; it shall be unavailable (greyed out) when no quick preset is highlighted, or the highlighted quick preset cannot be deleted.
Also the Print and Cancel buttons that shall be displayed here, with the button order and placement (remember Arab + Hebrew) prescribed by the look + feel guidelines of the desktop platform.
