Silver Boolean False State

[JW-JnJ]

Viewing this suggestion requires a bit of setup

1. Forget you know what Silver controls look like
2. Think about it from a user point of view
3. Imagine a set of indicators including a sole boolean indicator show up on the screen. You have no comparison to other states of the boolean indicator.

Is it True or False?

My opinion is that the gradient and lighter shade of green makes the state a little ambiguous. Not too much ambiguity, but enough to give me pause. Decreasing the gradient and darking the shade a little should help.

Yes, I realize this is a property you can set. This is more of a suggestion for setting the standard.

(this suggestion aside, my compliments to the designer of the Silver controls)

[altenbach]

I agree that there should be more contrast. On some LCD displays the difference is too small for certain viewing angles.

Yes, as you said, if there are ON and OFF LEDs next to each other, we can tell what's what, but if there is only one indicator, the state is not entirely clear.

[altenbach]

I think one problem is the shadow in the lower half of the "on" state, which appears to be cast by an external light source. A self-glowing LED does NOT have a shadow on the lit face unless it is off or extremely dim compared to the room lighting.

The ON state should not have a shadow, but be uniformly bright. THe shadow is OK for the off state.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

> The ON state should not have a shadow, but be uniformly bright. THe shadow is OK for the off state.

I've been trying to come up with why it feels wrong to me. I couldn't put my finger on it. Yes. This is the reason! Even if this doesn't get fixed, at least now I know why it makes me confused.

[JW-JnJ]

True, a LED will not have a shadow, but a rounded LED will have a brighter center.

Although, these don't strike me as LEDs. More like a circular OLED or EL panel, which wouldn't have a gradient.

I guess it just depends on what they are.

[Christina_R]

We will consider these changes for a future version.

Just so you know, the indicator is in vi.lib\silver_ctls\Boolean and is called LED NI_Silver.ctl. So, you can easily change the default colors for your installation of LabVIEW, or make copies of the indicator with your own color combinations that you can add to your palettes.

[JÞB]

While we are mentioning the shading of the LED one little thing has been bugging me about the direction of the external light source.  for the Silver LED it is directly from the top dead center.  All other Silver controls (Save the Round Color box which has NO shading) the externat light source is from about 11:00 O-Clock

[Manzolli]

Yes, the shadow should be only in the Off state. Kudos to change to a change that make it more realistic and with better contrast.

[ggunderson]

Here's a method that preserves shading and contrast that I think looks great. 

Using the method below, the LED takes just a hint of its native color when "off", and the color has "sunken" to the bottom of the LED, as if it's gone low. When the LED is "on", the lamp has a modest color gradient to warm up its perceived emission -- it appears to glow. It's a sweeter look, to my eye, than a solid hue and removes visual ambiguity. 

Example: Red LED, where "red" is RGB (255,0,0).

For FALSE, 

Set the upper part of the shading to black. RGB (0,0,0)

Set the lower part of the shading to dark red -- divide the target RGB by 2. RGB (128,0,0) 

For TRUE,

Set the upper part of the shading to the next major clockwise color on the color wheel. For a red LED, it's orange. RGB (255,147,0)

Set the lower part of the shading to the target color of the LED. RGB (255,0,0).

See the images below. 

Example: Blue LED, where "blue" is RGB (0,0,255).
For FALSE, 
Set the upper part of the shading to black. RGB (0,0,0)
Set the lower part of the shading to dark red -- divide the target RGB by 2. RGB (0,0,128) 
For TRUE,
Set the upper part of the shading to the next major clockwise color on the color wheel. For a blue LED, it's cyan. RGB (0,255,220)
Set the lower part of the shading to the target color of the LED. RGB (0,0,255).

Below are TRUE / FALSE examples for blue, red, and another for orange (using the same method as above).

[RavensFan]

Nice examples, ggunderson!