View Issue Details
| ID | Project | Category | View Status | Date Submitted | Last Update |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0009980 | ardour | features | public | 2025-08-16 19:08 | 2025-08-26 21:41 |
| Reporter | sound8 | Assigned To | |||
| Priority | normal | Severity | minor | Reproducibility | always |
| Status | new | Resolution | open | ||
| Product Version | 8.12 | ||||
| Summary | 0009980: Region highlight bars at top of regions | ||||
| Description | By default region filenames are shown at top left corner of each region In `Preferences - Appearance - Editor` there is a setting `Use name-highlight bars in region displays (requires a restart)` which add a label bar to each region However this setting ends up placing the label bar at the bottom of each region. To me this is visually confusing because header bars are typically at the top of items. Suggesting to add a sub setting to this setting that would allow these label bars to appear at the top of each region instead. Unless I am not thinking of something that would conflict with label bars being at the top. Thank You | ||||
| Tags | highlight | ||||
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Do you find those bars useful, and if so why? They just waste precious vertical space, and that option was initially only added for backwards compatibility. Maintaining them and handling edge-case is already often more work that it's worth.. (and they're currently somewhat broken already). |
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Hey Robin Thank you for this response and being willing to at least maybe hear me out on this topic. I have never really been able to convince anyone who has already made up their mind about one of my suggestions but I will try to explain as best as I can. This post might be a little long, hopefully worth the time and effort. I can understand what you are saying about using vertical space, I think that is valid. However, when this is applied, it appears that the default track heights do remain the same, the waveforms seem to just adjust to a smaller height to fit into the default track height. Also user will have choice to use them or not. |
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BENEFITS After trying this setting out and seeing how this looks visually, the more I have looked into this, I honestly really like this personally. I rarely say this but I would even go as far as saying that this should be the default (obviously do not do this because it would probably upset some users). I think it really fits the look of Ardour though. Now remember what I mentioned in my original post, as is with the bars being on the bottom, I personally would not use. I view these bars like little title/header bars so I am expecting them to be at the top of each region (like little windows with headers). When they are on the bottom they are visually a little confusing looking to me personally. Not sure if anyone else would experience the same thing, but if you apply this setting and use Ardour for a while and then go back to the default, the default without the bars to me, regions just do not really stand out. Not only the region names but in general the entire region boxes themselves, just all seem to now look blended together with no definition. With the headers I find that it really defines each region, makes them more clearly visible. Labels are easier to read and also the headers provide solid blocks of color based on the tracks color which really tie them into the track lanes. I think smaller regions benefit from these bars the most. There are also little vertical lines in the label bars where one region ends and another begins, this also add to the defining of each region. (Can test this out by putting a bunch of single shot drum samples one after the other by hitting CTRL+D to duplicate the regions) (Little hard to explain, hopefully this makes sense) I mentioned above it does not appear that the default track heights change, so as is, they are not taking up any more screen space. Another thing to mention about this, is that at a certain point in a project, users maybe are not really having to edit the waveforms, they are more just arranging regions or just leaving them as is. So in this case these label bars/region boxes become more valuable because now the regions maybe are looked at more as boxes/pieces/sections to remain where they are and or if needed to, moved around. The vertical space for these tracks are no longer needed as much. Have noticed that other DAWs/Audio Editors provide header bars at top as well so it is not really a rare request. |
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I definitely think these label bars are valuable if could be fixed/updated. If added to the top, I think if more users were aware of them, I think they would prefer to use them, but who knows. Well at least for me anyways, I think they look good and really fit in with the overall GUI of Ardour, hopefully others agree. Hope the time spent on this post helps you guys in some way. Thank You I also made a separate post about issues I have found with the current state of "region highlight bars" that can be found here if anyone is interested. https://tracker.ardour.org/view.php?id=9990 I figured I would mention just in case "region highlight bars" ever receives an update. I put them in a single list based post because if this is not added probably better in one post then a bunch a separate posts about them. I know you mentioned that you were already aware of some issues with region highlight bars, not sure if any of the ones I mention are the same as the ones you know of. |
