[Idea/Request/Suggestion] FamilyTreeView Stylization

[amikot]

I think it would be very nice to add some stylization settings to the View.

Simple option to set the background for each type of box (male/female/couple) and one for the view window itself would give nice results.

I would suggest options similar as available for backgrounds in CSS - solid color, gradient, image repeated, centred or stretched.
Above would let us do almost everything to get nice looking tree already in gramps itself.

I don't know Python too well, but assume that if View can display photos of the people from the database, there should be no problem to display images from settings.
Of course the font color and color for relation lines - that would need to be adjustable too (color selection).

I've used GIMP to generate some sample with default patterns available in GIMP.
I know - it is horrible, but I just wanted to show the idea.

If you don't like it - no problem. The plugin is anyway the best thing since sliced bread :D

[PQYPLZXHGF]

@amikot Do you know the addon uses the colors selected on the Edit>Preferences>Colors tab? See my screenshot example; I would not use these colors normally!:

I like the idea of expanding those options to cover your suggestions, so probably a feature request with the main Gramps program is a better idea as FTV only uses those settings?

[wroldwiedbwe]

Of course the font color and color for relation lines - that would need to be adjustable too (color selection).

How about line styles like xkcd 😊 random thickness and looking hand drawn or looking like tree branches?

Instead of boxes being able to choose different shapes for the boxes and sizes eg: like tree leaves?

Being able to toggle between work view (current boxes) and presentation view (shape and lines of choice) for printing.

[amikot]

@PQYPLZXHGF : I didn't know I can change colors already, but if we could set PNG images with transparency we could visually reshape the boxes (setting border to 0px) and we could make whole thing look beautiful.
Setting the background image/color/gradient would also help.

@wroldwiedbwe : Lines are generated dynamically - I'm not sure if that wouldn't be too hard to prevent potential glitches.

[wroldwiedbwe]

@amikot I'm aware the lines are dynamic, which is why I talk about a work view as ftv currently is and a potential presentation view option for output like a preview before printing.

[ztlxltl]

@amikot
@wroldwiedbwe

Thanks for all these ideas. Most of them seem theoretically possible.

• solid color, gradient, image repeated, centred or stretched

  A quick look in the GooCanvas docs shows that there are GooCanvas.CanvasItemSimple.props.fill_pattern and GooCanvas.CanvasItemSimple.props.fill_pixbuf. I haven't tried them, but the description (The pattern/pixbuf to use to paint the interior of the item) sounds promising. I'm not sure if a gradient is possible and if you can choose between centered/stretched, but something basic seems to be supported.

• random thickness and looking hand drawn or looking like tree branches

  like tree leaves

  All boxes and lines are parameterized svg paths (lines and cubic beziers), so theoretically any svg path you can think of is possible, including a hand-drawn style (assuming there is a good algorithm that can generate it for a given length), a "box" with a leaf-shaped outline, etc. Instead of the (whatever shaped) boxes, custom images might also be possible (e.g. an image of a leaf with the background of the leaf transparent).
  The big issue with custom box shapes that are not similar to the boxes is the increase in size required (the boxes are very space efficient) and the specification of the content area. Simply replacing the boxes with an arbitrary shape will most likely result in some content being on or outside the stroke of the shape. Since the content can currently use almost the entire height and width of the boxes, a more complex shape can easily reduce the amount of space available for the content of a box. Also, there is no auto-wrap, so the actual shape available to the content is not directly available.

• toggle between work view (current boxes) and presentation view (shape and lines of choice)

  It would definitely make sense to be able to define different style sets for different use cases. This should be easy to implement once the issues discussed above work.

While these ideas could be useful, there are definitely other todos with a higher priority. Currently, visual effects like these can be added using other software, so there is definitely a workaround if you really need specific styles (outside of Gramps).

I'm working on customizing the box background color (similar to the options available in the other views). Once they are released, your ideas could be implemented.