1473215 - Thunderbird UI is very dated

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: Theme, enhancement)

Description

[vinf100]

Hello,

The UI for Thunderbird appears very dated. It does not use the new Photon design, so alongside Firefox, it looks even older. Furthermore, all the panels are the similar shades of gray, which makes them blend together and look very drab. Overall, the design appears quite old, and is need of an overhaul.

Thanks

Comment 1

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

Thanks for filing this bug.

Soon TB 60 will be released which uses the Photon design. You can try a beta from here: https://www.thunderbird.net/channel/

I close this bug as WORKSFORME because we have already moved to this design in newer versions. You can reopen this bug when you have proposals how this could be improved

Comment 2

[vinf100]

Hello,

The new photon design looks much nicer. However, there is still the issue that the similar shades of gray make it look somewhat dull and drab. With so many panels, it can be hard to distinguish them from one another. Also, the style of the drop down "three-bar" menu looks very outdated. Is anyone working on making it in the same style as Firefox's

Thanks

Comment 3

[vinf100]

Hello,

Just one more thing. Bug 1283299 refers to making the window decorations be rendered in the main title bar. This avoids having to have two title bars. Is this being integrated into Thunderbird?

Thanks

Comment 4

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

(In reply to vinf100 from comment #2)
> The new photon design looks much nicer. However, there is still the issue
> that the similar shades of gray make it look somewhat dull and drab. With so
> many panels, it can be hard to distinguish them from one another. Also, the
> style of the drop down "three-bar" menu looks very outdated. Is anyone
> working on making it in the same style as Firefox's

I don't know what you mean with drop down "three-bar" menu. Can you attach a image to make it clear?

(In reply to vinf100 from comment #3)
> Just one more thing. Bug 1283299 refers to making the window decorations be
> rendered in the main title bar. This avoids having to have two title bars.
> Is this being integrated into Thunderbird?

It seems you are on Linux, right? It is in TB 60. Set mail.tabs.drawInTitlebar to true.

TB is maintained only by a small number of contributors, so you can't expect that we can implement all what Firefox is doing.

Comment 5

[vinf100]

Attachment: Firefox's menu

Comment 6

[vinf100]

Attachment: Thunderbird's menu

Comment 7

[Andre Klapper]

vinf100: Did you install Firefox manually yourself or is this a package provided by your Ubuntu (?) distribution?  Did you install Thunderbird manually yourself or is this a package provided by your Ubuntu (?) distribution?

Comment 8

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

Yes, this menu needs a lot of work and time which we actually don't have. Also is TB different to FX and needs more entries in this menu which could make it very big.

Comment 9

[vinf100]

Andre Klapper: I installed both Firefox and Thunderbird from the package manager. Yes, I use Ubuntu.

For the menu, should a new bug be created for it so someone could pick it up if it interests them?
The color scheme should be relatively quicker to fix. Would that be something that could be worked on?

Thanks

Comment 10

[L]

This bug should be closed, as current Thunderbird has the Firefox-like "three-bar" that the bug reporter wanted.