Define Fonts By File Type?

[chenyi1976]

Currently, there is a setting "Define Colors By File Type", it is pretty handy.

If TC can support "Define Fonts By File Type", it will be more useful, sometimes color is not easy for me to identify and some color(like grey or pink) is not good for display files. If I can use Bold or Italic, That would be more handy.

Many Thanks

Sean

[sorcar]

Can some senior members say if this feature is at all possible in TC? It would greatly extend TC usability.

[Clo]

2sorcar

Hello !

• IMHO, only the Author can say if it's feasible…
- Anyway, it seems so difficult : i.e., italic isn't supported in the GUI currently (except if you are setting a font which is only italic,
but then all should be italic…).
• But the idea is indeed interesting for users having sight problems…

 KR
Claude
Clo

[Samuel]

IMO it is a good idea.
Support++;

[[Yustas.NeO]]

+500 !!!

[Crimson]

Good idea.

I have recently requested something similar (to set the font of files and directories independently), this could be handled together with chenyi1976's request.

[9kvD38n6]

Is there any chance bolding by file type (or even the use of different fonts in general) will ever be implemented? Thanks.

[jinsight]

IMHO, it is a good idea.

Support++

[hi5]

Perhaps fonts is not possible for whatever reason, so I would prefer to be able to also set the background color, this may look garish to some but when chosen wisely it can be useful I think and much easier to "see" compared to a mix of fonts.

This has been suggested before viewtopic.php?t=43028 incl. alternative with "tags" and coloured "circles"

[ghisler(Author)]

I tried implementing both, but both had big problems:
1. Bold fonts are wider than non-bold, so the names look very un-uniform in the list, which makes them hard to read.
2. Non-Uniform backgrounds look horrible, especially in brief view (no file details) with multiple columns.

That's why I decided to make background colors configurable via view modes: This gives you uniform backgrounds, e.g. to distinguish easily between folders, archives, ftp connections etc.

[Usher]

I tried implementing both, but both had big problems:
1. Bold fonts are wider than non-bold, so the names look very un-uniform in the list, which makes them hard to read.

In general different fonts have different metrics so any change will look ugly in full column view.
But did you try do use smaller font size for bold font? For example some regular font with size 9 and the bold variant of that font with size 8?

2. Non-Uniform backgrounds look horrible, especially in brief view (no file details) with multiple columns.

Agreed, but what about view with different shades of background color: slightly brighter and darker? It shouldn't be too distracting, I suppose.

[hi5]

Just a thought: perhaps introduce a "tag" or "label" column which would allow people to define criteria for (similar to the current define colors by filetype) - and/or manually "tag" files and/or use an additional option in the file comments tool (the format does allow it https://web.archive.org/web/20160318122322/https://jpsoft.com/ascii/descfile.txt "an ASCII Ctrl-D (04), and marks the end of the description text and the beginning of information for a program other than 4NT or Take Command. This symbol can appear multiple times on each line; each occurrence marks the beginning of information for another program.")

This "tag" or "label" column would be narrow such as the Ext. column and only have a colored "label indicator". This could be a simple coloured ball ⬤ or square ■. Perhaps allow a subset of unicode characters for such purpose) - this would mean the position of the "second colour" would always be in a fixed position in the file panels and shouldn't distract too much which I can imagine would happen with 10 different foreground/background combinations.

It could be positioned BEFORE the Icon/Name or after e.g. between Name & Ext. columns or let the user create their own views.

So just like the screenshot here http://lefteous.totalcmd.net/tc/ideas/item_coloring_list.png but the circles are displayed in a column of their own which someone can turn on/off to their preference.

[Usher]

Just a thought: perhaps introduce a "tag" or "label" column

What about sort order? Do you want to sort that column by RGB color codes?

[hi5]

Perhaps not colour but each label has a 'value' and thus yes you could sort on it ascending/descending.

It depends on how you would "define the labels" but it can be as easy as this, TC will allow you to "create new tag/label" and it is assigned a value and user sets a color. (: digit indicates "value" here, not visible of course in column)
music.mp3 ⬤ : 1
photo1.jpg ⬤ : 2
photo5.jpg ⬤ : 2
photo2.jpg ⬤ : 3
cat100.jpg ⬤ : 4
etc

so now you could sort by numerical value.

If you let the user define the values the sort would be different, something silly like:
(: 'text label' indicates "name of the rule") defined by user, not visible of course in column)
cat100.jpg ⬤ : 'cats'
photo1.jpg ⬤ : 'jpg > 5mb'
photo5.jpg ⬤ : 'jpg > 5mb'
photo2.jpg ⬤ : 'jpg < 5mb'
music.mp3 ⬤ : 'mp3 > 3 years old'

I don't think it would look bad and as you can see it is very easy to spot all JPGs (all blue) but the coloured circle does add additional information

Ideally one would be able to tag/label files:
- manually, like file comment, probably via the file comment tool and/or additional context menu and commands
- rules based similar to how you define colors per file type

The more I look at it, the more I'm convinced I'd use it.

Edit: alternative presentations

⬤ cat100 jpg
⬤ photo1 jpg
⬤ photo5 jpg
⬤ photo2 jpg
⬤ music mp3

cat100 ⬤ jpg
photo1 ⬤ jpg
photo5 ⬤ jpg
photo2 ⬤ jpg
music ⬤ mp3

[Usher]

Unfortunately, your example isn't enough informative for me - you want to define too many categories. I would prefer simplest categories based on metadata like "large-small-medium" (for example, pixels for jpg, duration for mp3), "new-old-other" (taken from Exif/ID3) or "good-bad-undef" (set manually).
For many categories - if I couldn't move files to separate directories, I would prefer tagging with plain text (like descript.ion) or icon/emoji.