1038122 - URL bar too short vertically due to too thick borders

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Untriaged, defect)

Description

[Dan Jacobson]

Attachment: e.png

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:32.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/32.0 Iceweasel/32.0a2 (Beta/Release)
Build ID: 20140621004001

Steps to reproduce:

The height of where we type in a URL is too short.
Please compare with chromium.
The cause is a wasted thick borders, as I indicate in the attachment.

Please make the borders thinner, and thus the URL taller.

Comment 1

[:Gijs (he/him)]

I don't think we intend to change the size of the URL bar, for reasons of consistency with the other icons and items in that bar. No text should be cut off, but your screenshot doesn't show any, so I don't think there's a problem here.

Comment 2

[Dan Jacobson]

I'm not saying any text gets cut off.
I'm saying that Firefox users will need to wear more glasses than Chromium users.
Please try this experiment:
su - nobody -c 'export HOME=/tmp; chromium& firefox&'
As you can see the Firefox users are at a clear disadvantage in that the https://www.google.com.tw ... is smaller than in Chromium.

And why? Because that space is wasted instead just to make fluffier edges etc.

Comment 3

[Dan Jacobson]

Attachment: URLs are smaller, harder to read Indeed both are capital Z's. But in Firefox they compare as if they were small z's!!

Comment 4

[Dan Jacobson]

Attachment: Firefox users must squint more that Chromium users to read URLs

Comment 5

[Dan Jacobson]

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-modern-assault-on-eyesight-health/
"Among vision impairments that do exist, myopia (nearsightedness) is ... Because of the tiny screens and smaller fonts used on smart phones, ..."

That's right, Firefox might be part of the problem... actually hurting the population!

P.S., the average user won't be customizing anything. So please increase the font size in the URL bar to at least what it is in Chromium.

It really hits one when after a few weeks with Chromium one switches back to Firefox.

Comment 6

[Dan Jacobson]

(I'm talking about the desktop, not a smart phone. But you get the idea.)

Comment 7

[:Gijs (he/him)]

Stephen, can you clarify whether we want to change anything here?

Comment 8

[Stephen Horlander [:shorlander]]

(In reply to :Gijs Kruitbosch (PTO july 17-21) from comment #7)
> Stephen, can you clarify whether we want to change anything here?

We could look into making the URL text larger to emphasize it and make it a larger hit target. Ideally part of a more comprehensive pass at UI space efficiency. Of course we would need to adjust the other toolbar items also. It will have a slight effect on the available space for horizontal character display.

I don't think we should do it solely for readability or parity-Chrome though. While it may have the benefit of making it easier to see I think you would have to apply that argument to all of the UI text for it to make sense e.g. tab titles, tooltips, menu item labels, incontent text, etc.

If we are worried about readability of the interface text we should be supporting OS level accessibility zooming tools. Which we mostly are AFAIK?

Comment 9

[Dan Jacobson]

Today Chromium on Debian broke and I was forced to use Firefox.

The contrast is devastating.

The first thing that hits one is the myopic URL bar.

Try Chromium for a few weeks, then switch back to Firefox. You'll see what I'm talking about.

And all just to have more fluffy border areas.

And there's nothing the user can do about it!

No about:config option, nothing.