Browser Line Density

[Gary_M_Mugford]

I've recently gone to a smaller font in the Browser. In the TAG Browser, the new font has meant a denser view. The grid itself though, the font's smaller, but the density is the same. I see 38 books with a healthy spacing between each line. I'd like to reduce the inter-line spacing and maybe get 44-46 lines per screen in the browser. BUT I can't find a setting that will help me in that regard, I DID reduce the spacing setting to negative 20, but that's as far as it will let me go.

I SUSPECT the line LIMITATION is related to the size of icons I'm using to display in columns under certain conditions (I have a red Flag, indicating READ, a Silver Arrow for ToKindle, a Question Mark for Under Consideration, etc. in the #status column). I also have icons in the Formats column to show which is which. Those are mostly 32pixel icons, though it DOES seem like they shrink in the Calibre screen. Is THE CUSTOMIZED ICONS responsible for the inability to pack more data on the screen?

Suggested solutions? Thanks in advance, GM

[kovidgoyal]

By browser you mean book list?

[Gary_M_Mugford]

Yes, sorry about the poor terminology.

[Gary_M_Mugford]

Should further mention, running Windows 7x64.

[kovidgoyal]

well yeah if you display icons then they will imit the min size. Try removing them and see.

[BetterRed]

I have 128x128 png icons, the size adjusts to the line height - here are 0, +20 and -20 px adjustments



BR

[Gary_M_Mugford]

I spent some time with this tonight and I was able to remove my icons (sigh) and the inter-line gap was less, although I only got four more lines doing so. It still wasn't tight with the 8-pt text still having visible space within the every-other line background grid (thanks to DaltonST, again, for that Customize GUI capability). I understand the need to limit we users from going TOOO crazy with line height adjustments, ergo the min and max on the setting. It's just too bad that I'm once again the guy with a specific need that nobody else needs.

By the way, I decided I would make a 12x12 set of the icons I use. None of them are too complex and irfanview did most of the heavy-lifting with minimal post-resizing clean up needed. I think though that the effort was in vain. The check and the cross that are part of the calibre inner workings look to be 16x16. So, I went back in and put back in my set of 16x16's. Calibre does seem to auto-reduce the 32x32's well and I could probably just still use them, but I might as well try and stay internally consistent.

Thanks BetterRed and Kovid. GM

[lumpynose]

The hardware solution: get a monitor that rotates and put it in portrait (vertical) orientation. Having 2 monitors, one in portrait mode and the other in landscape is the bees knees.

[Gary_M_Mugford]

Yeah, I've been a two-monitor guy for the last 15 years or so, but the desk I DESIGNED, made it two landscape monitors and while I built in expansion space, it was horizontal, so I improved from 20in monitors to the current 27in Samsungs. Now, I have a NEW computer arriving sometime in the next 15 months (I have to finish a project to have the dinero to splurge and I use Windows 7 hating the prospect of being FORCED into Win 10 next summer). And a new desk on the other side of the room, with a triple monitor setup, the vertical going in the centre so that I have WINGS of a sort. The problem then becomes the number of columns WIDE everything is!! I have a half-dozen semi-mission critical user columns in my main libraries. Even in the recreation libraries, there's #xstatus, #readrank (this for how hot am I to read it, 0 being best), Pgs, Omni (Omnibus, Anthology, or multiple whatever), #fvol (Final Volume, to complete the Series number ... like Series=1, FVol = 5 and the Omni checkbox = yes) and #kovids (My 10 pt based ratings, since ranking doesn't allow 2.5 for an average book). In an odd way, it's ALMOST like a decimal system AFTER determining the ranking. A 5 ranking with nine Kovids isn't perfect. But a 5.10 is. Similarly, a 5.9 is better than a 4.9. Over-complicated, I know, but I'm protective about what books I rate a perfect 10 Kovids.

Do I know how to butter up the creator or what????

Having strayed far, I will tell you there's NO solution that satisfies all my needs. But tightening the authors field, the series field and using a vertical monitor that's REALLY got a great pixel dimension set, comes close.

GM

[kovidgoyal]

Is this buttering up preparation for having me on toast?

[Gary_M_Mugford]

No, but if you're having me over for dinner, I'll be there at 5. ))