Struggling with File Window/Thumbnail layout

[mopperle]

I'm currently playing with the thumbnail layout and the data being displayed. What I do not understand, why is so much empty space between the Header/Footer lines. It does not correspond with what I can see in IMatch Help. What did I miss?

[Mario]

Open the full layout editor and check if there are any non-empty Size properties. Looks like it.

Tip: Usually you would not edit the Default layout, because then you have no layout to go back to.
Better to duplicate it and work on a copy. All in the full layout editor.

The default Default looks more like this:

[mopperle]

Size is empty everywhere, also in each of the other pre-defined layouts. So what would be a recommend size?

[thrinn]

For me, it was just trial & error. To give you an idea, I have set the Size for Header 1 Left to 40, Header 2 Left to 60, Footer 1 Left to 10, Footer 3 Left to 30, Footer 4 Left to 30, all others are empty.
This results in:
 

But it really depends on what you do with font sizes and other formatting options.
I would also recommend to first duplicate one of the standard layouts and start experimenting with the copy.

[Mario]

The header / foother height is calculated from height the XAML markup processor requires for each row. Unless you set a Size yourself. It should work automatically if Size is empty, using up only the required space. No idea.
What screen resolution and font scaling do you use? Right-click on desktop background and choose "Display Settings".

[mopperle]

Maybe the "old problem": HighDPI 4k monitor with 250% scaling.

[mopperle]

Really strange. Just tried it with a "Size" of 50 and it seemst to work for the Header, but not for the Footer. Footer 2 is now not visible.

[mopperle]

Just checked with a scaling of 150%, same problem

[Mario]

What happens if you give all your non-empty footers a size?

[mopperle]

You can see the result in te screenshot above. Footer 2 is not empty, got a size, but is invisible. The size itself doesnt matter

[Mario]

Does this depend on the Attribute? Maybe the camera name somehow upsets the XAML renderer?
Should not, though. And what with size 100?

[mopperle]

The attribute doesnt matter. When I change the size to 100, it gets visible, but then there is again the empty space between Footer1 and Footer2

[sinus]

If you would upload your layout, we could maybe check it.

[Mario]

Yeah. And what is the Size for Footer 1 left?
What happens if you only set that size and not for Footer 1 right?

[sinus]

Yep, I would also like to see footer 1 left.

[mopperle]

Footer 1 left is also 50. everything else tomorrow, no longer at my PC

[mopperle]

What happens if you only set that size and not for Footer 1 right?

Nothing changes. Attached 2 settings:
- header/footer all with size 50 and screenshot 1
- header/footer all with no size and screenshot 2

[Mario]

Very strange.
This is what I get (left : no size, right: 50):


Note: The line heights are slightly smaller in IMatch 2023 due to a correction in the DPI adaptation factor. But when I switch that back to the old calculation used by IMatch 2021, I get very similar results (with a few pixels more row height when no size is used).

I used a 4K monitor with 150% scaling.
On my PC, with the new row height metrics, the default row height (Size not provided in the layout) is 29.

I've also tested this on 125% scaling (very similar) and 175% DPI scaling (slightly more row height).
Nothing was ever clipped, all 2 headers an four footer rows were always visible.

Basically IMatch calculates the height of the panel by calculating the max height of each non-empty row.
If a size is provided in the layout, it uses it. Else it uses the default size which is based on the font line height and external leading as reported by the Windows font manager for the font used by the File Window.

I wonder how this calculation can be so off on your computer that lines are actually clipped.
No idea. This height calculation algorithm is basically unchanged since IMatch 5 and designed automatically adapt to whatever "system" font Windows uses (and IMatch too) and the font metrics of that font and the DPI scaling enabled on the monitor on which IMatch runs.

[sinus]

If I use your template without space, then I get this in the attachement.

[Mario]

This looks about right. IMatch 2023 uses a slightly smaller default row height, so this will look more like that I get.

[sinus]

In the meantime, mopperle, maybe you could have a look about this layout.
To overcome the a bit wide line-spaces, I have used XAML and  <LineBreak/>

If you look at it, I think, you will quickly see, where you could do some changes. (Font/Color/Bold and so on).

You can see my attachement with this layout (basically the values of you) and the layout itself.

[mopperle]

Thanks guys for your effort, but it seems that there is no solution.
Screenshot 2 shows what I get with Markus layout with 250% Scaling in Windows (recommended by the system)
Screenshot 1 when I reduce the scaling to 175%, which is too small on a 15" monitor. And still there is a lot of empty space below Header and above Footer.
As all other software works flawless with my standard monitor settings, I have to accept that IMatch for whatever reason can not handle it properly, causing this and other issue (like some distorted dropdownlists as alreday discussed with Mario a while ago).

[sinus]

But, hm, is this not normal for a landscape-image?
If I look at my normal layout, it looks the same, see attachement.

Hm, I am irritated. 

[Mario]

And still there is a lot of empty space below Header and above Footer.

Thumbnails in IMatch always use a square layout (a box), and the image is fit within that layout.
It is normal that you have more vertical space for landscape images and less so for portrait images.

[mopperle]

OK, so this explains the empty space but only partially for portrait mode (see screenshot).
But the problem that Footer 4 is misssing in standard scaling still exists.

[mopperle]

OK, after spending an hour with custom templates (thanks to Markus for an example ! ) I got a quite satisfying result.
Now I have only a problem with the variables in the custom template. But for this I will open a separate topic.

[sinus]

OK, after spending an hour with custom templates (thanks to Markus for an example ! ) I got a quite satisfying result.
Now I have only a problem with the variables in the custom template. But for this I will open a separate topic.

I personally use a lot of variables and sometimes very complicated and above all long variables.
They are very powerful and you can do a lot with them.

I use variables in my File-windows/thumb-layout, in the File Window tips, and especially in Design & Print.

And mostly together with XAML, which - as Mario already mentioned once - has certain limitations, but you can still do a lot with them.

For me, this means that variables and XAML are a cool combination.

[mopperle]

Indeed, and with the custom templates you can overcome the limitation of "only" 4 footers.
But anyway, maybe Mario one day finds a solution for the scaling on HighDPI monitors, cause not everything can be solved with custom templates and variables.
But for now I'm happy with the file window/thumbnail layout.

[Mario]

I've played with this last night and completely blown my Windows Desktop and the sizes and positions of all my apps...
Because I tried up to 350% scaling and could see barely 4 rows of source in my development environment, due to the absurd scaling factor everything because so big (desktop icons as large as coasters).

It appears that the "How large is this font in pixels please" Windows routines I've used returned the wrong results after hitting a certain scale level, and it became worse the higher I set the scaling. Returning e.g. 77 pixels instead of the more accurate 57, for example.
The height calculation was in place and untouched since IMatch 5, but I guess Microsoft did not anticipate or support fonts scaled by 250% or 300% just to make them readable on a notebook.

Anyways, I've changed the height calculation to another set of APIs and these seem to work fine up to 350%.

At no point in my tests, however, IMatch clipped text in the thumbnail panel. All 2 headers and all four footers were visible, just the line height was to high  (to much space between rows).

[mopperle]

Do you have something I could test?

[Mario]

Do you have something I could test?

No. I have made changes to deal with this in the IMatch 2023 code base and tested it between 100 and 350% scaling.