Polyester changes for Kubuntu Gutsy

Summary

Kubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" should bring freshness into the Kubuntu appearance, as all the other Kubuntu releases did. This document deals with the KDE widget style, called "Polyester".

Rationale

We should try and keep the evolution of the Kubuntu UI going. We don't have the manpower to create a complete UI Guidelines nor it is the right time to create them (as KDE4 will bring many changes into Kubuntu). Thus, we should improve bits and pieces on the existing GUI style.

Use Cases

• John is a happy Kubuntu user. He is always happy when the new Kubuntu release looks fresh and more polished.
• Frank uses Kubuntu along with other modern OSes. He feels Kubuntu has a lot of things to improve in terms of the appearance - among of them the widget style.

Implementation

In my personal opinion some parts of the Polyester style should be improved. Those are:

• Borders (especially colour) - use less visible lines to separate content
• Tab lines and borders - sometimes there are too many lines on the border of the window

• Scrollers and the like - perhaps use a more "futuristic" handles, like the QtCurve does

We should also monitor the evolution of the Oxygen widget style and perhaps incorporate some smaller elements into Polyester (so there won't be a major change of the User Interface)

Screenshots

Screenshots of some popular KDE widget styles are provided for reference:

Domino - notice the more subtle border lines. In my personal opinion this is the way to go, as Ubuntu has also subtle separators and borders.

Polyester - the current Feisty widget style. Very similar to Plastik/Lipstik in terms of widgets and borders.

QtCurve - another very popular widget style.

UI Changes

Code Changes