The Artwork view

[SimonBRT]

what do people think of this approach:

i think it looks great and is an improvement on the current look.  that said, my preference would still be for the overlaid text/transparency as in the opening post. i know not everyone has agreed with that but i like it...

[Bee-liever]

The current highlight frame could be changed to highlight the background colour, and possibly combined with the other mouse-over wish (http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=7817.0)


Using the default skin. This is a 2 pixel spacing all-round. Amy Winehouse is highlighted/selected. Andreas Vollenweider is moused-over.
I've probably left the coloured tag too big (@ 50 pixels), but it's only a quick mock-up 

[Zak]

(3) Option to turn on/off the possibility of making MB 'fit' all the panel space with the covers (so increasing automatically artworks' size until they fit all the space in the panel).

The problem with sizing artwork to fit the panel width is that the number of covers shown in a row can vary. For one person "fitting all the space" might mean five large images but for someone else it might mean ten small images.

I can't think of any reason someone would actually want a large blank gap between their covers, so maybe it would be easier if this was implemented and the setting/slider thingy implementation was changed from "how large do you want your artwork?" to "how many covers do you want in a row?".

[lnminente]

At the beginning i also thought the gray text background was no longer necessary but i think it is there for providing an easier look of the frame artwork+text for people which feels the 0 pixel solution like too cluttered.

Another solution for that could be respecting the actual background color and drawing a new grid over it which would be the pixels added as margins. So if we can set 0 pixels horizontally and 0 pixels vertically it wouldn't draw the grid.

I like the autosizing covers idea, but maybe that would cause MB to work slow and continuously rewriting the artwork cache. I don't know. To implement it i think it should need a minimum and a maximum size set for covers. Anyway what i feel important for it looking nice is leaving fixed the space between artworks, and not justifying the empty space, leaving a bigger empty space at the right border like ex.fm/trending does.

[Steven]

http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_1/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip
i've added the following settings to the Artwork layout:
1. fit artwork to the size of the panel with minimal spacing
2. show fields text inside the pictures

1. puts 3px around each picture and fits the picture size to the panel. The fields are displayed below the picture like in the screenshot i posted earlier in the topic
2. displays the fields text as a semi-transparent overlay on the picture. Personally I dont like this, but i will see what feedback is given. If no one really likes it i might change it to only show the text when hovering over a picture

If neither of these are ticked, the artwork shows as now with some minor spacing tweaks

[jistme]

Works well here.
(especially unticking the new options ;-)

I only guess that for the way it works now you would want the option 'Show fields text inside the picture' to be greyed out when 'fit artwork to the size of the panel with minimal spacing' is not ticked.
Or else maybe make that option also working without 'fitting artwork to the size...'.
Currently it isn't.

[Bee-liever]

I like the coloured panel on the bottom, and the spacing works well.
But I don't like the semi-transparent overlay.

[beeing good]

I really like both options, looks great.
Unfortunately though it makes it impossible to make the artwork fit vertically, which I think I much more important, so I won't be using either of these two new options.

Actually, I can get them to fit vertically but only with the sort bar showing, hiding that makes it very difficult.
I really, really like this though, it looks so much neater.

[phred]

Let's face it Steven.  You're not going to please everyone with this one.

While I do like the tighten-up spacing between the artwork, I don't like the background color under the text.  As for placing the text over the art, I said from the beginning that I like my art unadorned.  Now that it's been implemented, I feel even stronger about this.  Mainly (I think) because I have three lines of text under each cover - album title, artist, and year.  That covers up a -lot- of the album.  Maybe if I liked having only line I could accept the idea more easily. 

So, for the time being at least, I will be keeping my layout has it had been previously.  If you find the time or user support to remove the background color from the text and still minimize the spacing, I'd applaud it right away.

Thanks.

[redwing]

1. puts 3px around each picture and fits the picture size to the panel. The fields are displayed below the picture like in the screenshot i posted earlier in the topic
2. displays the fields text as a semi-transparent overlay on the picture. Personally I dont like this, but i will see what feedback is given. If no one really likes it i might change it to only show the text when hovering over a picture

How about making the grey color and the black overlay changeable by editing a skin file?
Only need two elements that can override the default values. For instance, bg="0,0,0,0" will make the first completely transparent, and bg="100,30,30,30" will adjust the transparency level of the second.

[Zak]

I'll weigh in, and say that I think the artwork view with the two new options checked looks brilliant. Well done!

Only suggestion I would um... suggest.. is that if the artwork is non-square, align it to the top instead of the bottom to avoid the empty gaps:

[lnminente]

That's very nice Steven! It's a pleasure navigating by the covers, it feels as nice as a theatermode. Really nice

One handycap i feel now is an important LAG for showing the covers, sometimes of four seconds being stopped, and even as long as i am scrolling down and the artwork cache was not recalculated. That happens each time the size of the covers is changed: so when resizing the window or showing/hiding any lateral panel. I think setting an fixed size and leaving the empty space at the right side if one cover more doesn't fits in and maintaining the same space between covers as now would make this as fast as the default artwork view. TIA

[phred]

Only suggestion I would um... suggest.. is that if the artwork is non-square, align it to the top instead of the bottom to avoid the empty gaps:

@Zak - If the art isn't square, and it's aligned at the top, wouldn't there then be a gap at the bottom?  With the art centered vertically, then at least the gap is equal top and bottom.

[SimonBRT]

I have to say I think this looks absolutely fantastic.  I know the text overlay/transparency seems to be a divisive issue, but personally I love it, especially when used with artist pictures rather than album covers.

[Iasc]

the fit artwork to the size of the panel with minimal spacing isnt bad but i dont like the background colour, i would prefer if was transparent and just takes the colour of the skin. as i like my artwork to be untouched i wouldn't use the show fields text inside the pictures view. for the moment i will be sticking with the original view.