Change background to black instead of white

[dude]

Can we change the background of OG Pro to black instead of white so it doesn't burn my eye's of their sockets? I can do this in AutoCad and it makes a big difference for me.

Is this possible with OG Pro?

[priceless]

If you open up the "Canvases" bar, you'll see a little box to the right of the of the master or Canvas. Clicking that box allows you to pick the colour of the canvas.

That should do the trick. I find it helpful to do that when building images for powerpoint / keynote where I do often use a darker background.

Also, I sometimes simulate a gradient background by sticking in a box with a gradient into the master template.

HTH

Morgan

[TommyW]

Apple's OSX has built in aids for disability which cover this too... My son needs it but I do this too from time to time. It's system wide...

Ctrl-Opt-Cmd-8 will toggle between black on white and white on black, for all apps.

(Depending on your Apple experience level... no offence intended... Opt is probably called Alt on your keyboard and Cmd is that funny Apple/Pretzel key...)

[dude]

Thanks guys! I am looking for a bit more functionality though on the first suggestiong about the canvas color.

In autocad, it automatically inverses the black font to white along with the lines and other artifacts so you get an easy inverse. It still prints black font on the page but when editing, that black background saves me pain.

In OG, you have to reverse colors of everything and then it prints out with a black background. This is more of an editing setting I am asking for I guess.

Thoughts?

[priceless]

That is an interesting suggestion and one that I would find helpful too - especially when moving similar graphics between screen presentations and print.

I don't have an answer, though. Anyone else?

[dude]

It really has to be implemented by Omni. Any AutoCad users here? They will know more about what I am talking about. Having a black background helps me go longer with less eye strain and less headaches.

maybe Omni can build this in on the next big release.

[mdawson]

I know exactly what you are talking about and that type of functionality is near exclusive to AutoCAD due to its lineage. Any other application has specifically colored text, typically black by default, but still user-definable, and therefore inverting the text color to contrast the background color is a huge GUI no-no; if I make text green, then it should not become purple, green's complimentary color, if I change from a white to a black background. AutoCAD predates the proliferation of GUI-based systems and was designed to work on dedicated workstations with displays that were monochromatic or had 8 to 16 colors. The last version of AutoCAD I used still had a user interface that still seemed a throwback back to that time excepting the clunky patched on Windows GUI and to the best of my knowledge AutoCAD is still not a pure GUI application.

Unless the user has no control over the color of text in an application, it is generally a bad idea to have the application adapt the color of objects within a document based on the background/canvas color. That point is even more true in any type of graphics-based design package where color selection is more critical to the final design; in the traditional application of CAD, color is of less importance for documents that will ultimately be printed as a monochromatic blueprint. The best you can hope for is that you can set the preferences for any given design software so that new documents open with a black background and white text by default.

[dude]

Correct, very few programs offer this functionality. Most CAD programs do though.

AutoCad 2007 still has the black back ground feature and inverts only the white text while keeping colored stuff the same color and this is only for editing.

It is a eye ball saver and OMNI could do it. They are too smart. :)

[mdawson]

Well, you have kind of answered your own question here. Yes, most CAD programs do offer the ability to work with an inverted canvas because most CAD programs worth considering that were developed primarily for the desktop market typically have some degree of AutoCAD compatibility, albeit with, more often than not, a substantially better user interface. Older CAD packages , such as MicroStation, also have this functionality because they have the same dedicated workstation roots as AutoCAD.

As I stated earlier, CAD work is not typically color-critical and WYSIWYG is important only in that what you draw is what should print, color notwithstanding. For other types of graphic design, color ranges from important to critical and the color of the canvas does affect the appearance of the content. A colorful diagram does not have the same aesthetic on a black background as it does on a white background. So unless the final design is intended to be displayed on a dark background, designing it on a black canvas would be a poor design practice.

The GUI protocol uses a white background because it represents the medium upon which most illustration and imaging is created: plain white paper. The same goes for other software that generally represents a real-world activity—e.g. word processing, spreadsheets, etc. The whole point of a graphical user interface is to be a virtual representation of a real-world workspace and people do not commonly work with black paper.

If your display is hurting your eyes, then it seems that the real problem may be that you need to calibrate your display or dump the Dell UltraSharp ;). (Dell’s displays are notorious for being too bright for serious design work even after being calibrated.) A properly calibrated display should cause no more eye strain than looking at real paper all day. I have a 30-inch Cinema Display that lights up my room if I were to turn off all ambient lighting after sunset, the 22-inch Cinema Display did much the same, and it does not hurt my eyes even after working for upwards of 10 to 12 hours on various projects. And trust me, my current beast is substantially brighter than what it replaced which was pretty bright itself.

[dude]

Well, you have kind of answered your own question here. Yes, most CAD programs do offer the ability to work with an inverted canvas because most CAD programs worth considering that were developed primarily for the desktop market typically have some degree of AutoCAD compatibility, albeit with, more often than not, a substantially better user interface. Older CAD packages , such as MicroStation, also have this functionality because they have the same dedicated workstation roots as AutoCAD.

As I stated earlier, CAD work is not typically color-critical and WYSIWYG is important only in that what you draw is what should print, color notwithstanding. For other types of graphic design, color ranges from important to critical and the color of the canvas does affect the appearance of the content. A colorful diagram does not have the same aesthetic on a black background as it does on a white background. So unless the final design is intended to be displayed on a dark background, designing it on a black canvas would be a poor design practice.

The GUI protocol uses a white background because it represents the medium upon which most illustration and imaging is created: plain white paper. The same goes for other software that generally represents a real-world activity—e.g. word processing, spreadsheets, etc. The whole point of a graphical user interface is to be a virtual representation of a real-world workspace and people do not commonly work with black paper.

If your display is hurting your eyes, then it seems that the real problem may be that you need to calibrate your display or dump the Dell UltraSharp ;). (Dell’s displays are notorious for being too bright for serious design work even after being calibrated.) A properly calibrated display should cause no more eye strain than looking at real paper all day. I have a 30-inch Cinema Display that lights up my room if I were to turn off all ambient lighting after sunset, the 22-inch Cinema Display did much the same, and it does not hurt my eyes even after working for upwards of 10 to 12 hours on various projects. And trust me, my current beast is substantially brighter than what it replaced which was pretty bright itself.

I have a 24" iMac at home with 20" Cinema Display tied in and at work just have a 20" Cinema Display.

The 24" of iMac is the Killer...

[mdawson]

The Cinema Displays are designed to serve as mid-range professional displays — and given their price, I do not understand why Apple does not offer a line of general purpose displays — so, even out of the box, they should not be excessively bright. The 24-inch iMac’s display is another matter, as it is a consumer display. I have worked with a 24-inch iMac that an immigrant family that I have assisted purchased last fall and while the display is bright, I do not find it to be too bright. Regardless, one of the first things I did when I set up their computer was use the Display control panel to do basic calibration of their screen by creating a ColorSync profile specific to their display.

For people that are not performing color-critical work, using OS X’s built-in calibration software is good enough. In your case, you may wish to consider using Pantone’s Huey (http://www.pantone.com/Pages/Products/Product.aspx?pid=79&ca=2). The Huey not only assists with color calibration, but it also maintains the display’s output based on the ambient light in your room. That way you can adjust your display to a level that is comfortable for you eyes and maintain that level automatically regardless of the light levels in the room.

[dude]

bump for the next version feature request.

[neilfred]

Certainly it makes sense that the default background color should be white since probably the most common use case involves designing things that will be printed on white paper. But even if you don't buy that the people who don't require absolutely perfect WYSIWYG-ness have a valid reason to want a non-white background ("just recalibrate your display if it's too bright"), it's still a useful feature because not everything is printed on white paper. I happen to be designing something that will be printed on a black t-shirt, so having the option of selecting a non-white background would be quite useful for me.

[dude]

Exactly why we need an inverted canvas for white and black. It is just a toggle switch selection.

Other shades of color are not touched. This is how AutoCad has handled it and it works great. It's easy on the eye's.