Control Button label colors

MIDI Target Manufacturer(s): Other/Unlisted Maker

I am designing a layout to control Hauptwerk (HW) Master Generals from MDP and have several issues. The attached layout on Page 2 of both Bank1 and 2 show the current implementation and explains the desired functionality. The application is for using HW in an orchestra situation with low lighting. See the following Facebook Comments. https://www.facebook.com/groups/42378139859/permalink/10159811019224860/

The first issue is the color of a button label is dependent on the page texture and color. The desired colors and texture seem to always have Off buttons with white labels and On buttons with black labels. Is there some way to use dark page and panel colors, such as blue, and have the button label be black for Off and white for On? Or really, blue for On?

I added a second set of buttons to invert the On/Off state of the first set of buttons, but their state is now reversed. All buttons are On except the button intended to be On is Off. This messes up the intended midi output. So I added a third set of buttons to output the correct on-only midi with data =127 when a button (1-32] is depressed.

Is there some way to achieve the desired function without having to add 2 extra sets of 32 buttons?

Downloads: 153
Test Layout
Downloads: 153

asked Mar 29, 2022 in Advanced by dsabou2062 (3,570 points)

Will let Dan consider the possibility of more flexible colors. But instead of two levels of buttons to reverse the colors, why not just invert the midi commands on the top level button, with 127 as off and 0 as on? This should work whether they are direct acting or super controls.

commented Mar 30, 2022 by jkhiser (19,810 points)

I use Inverted in Supercontrol Options to invert the On/Off state of the Subcontrol. I don't see any difference using 127-0. I inverted at both the first and second Button level. This gets the 3rd Button level back in phase to output the proper midi. Trying to output the second level using 127-0 just sends the Midi On for the button going off. This doesn't work since I need the button going on to send 127 and the button going off not to send midi at all.

So it's back to Dan to be able to select the button label color (at least white vs black) in the first place. The HW capability is for 100 buttons, not 32 as in my current layout. Tha means a full implementation using 100 buttons will require 300 total buttons! I believe I will be able to use Stream Byter output code to reverse the On-Off state of the buttons from the 2nd level of buttons. I will try that later.

commented Apr 2, 2022 by dsabou2062 (3,570 points)

Seems this workaround I describe should avoid one level of buttons.
Supercontrol button off - white text ~ pseudo on state -> subcontrol on (send on only selected at individual control, not supercontrol)
Supercontrol button on - black text ~ pseudo off state -> subcontrol off (no send with above option)

commented Apr 5, 2022 by jkhiser (19,810 points)

I dug a little deeper. I couldn't get your workaround to work, I looked at the Page Highlight color. In my layout, it was set to Auto. Auto is affected by the page Texture and Color. However, when set to black, all labels are black including the "On" button. The "On" button was "lit", all other buttons were not. This may be acceptable. If so, I can output the desired Midi set to "Send on only" directly from the Button Group buttons, eliminating the two additional sets of 32 buttons. On only is required by HW.

When Page Highlight is set to white in my layout, On buttons were black, off buttons were white. Thus Auto actually invoked white, since this is my original, unsatisfactory inverse button label colors.

I still would like to be able to select white button labels when on and black when off for extra clarity.

commented Apr 5, 2022 by dsabou2062 (3,570 points)

I had missed that these were grouped, so my workaround doesn't help you.

commented Apr 5, 2022 by jkhiser (19,810 points)

I'm not sure where this question ended up, but coming soon in 10.3.0 -- and already in Beta -- we've got Highlight (text) color choice for individual controls. For buttons, if you override and choose white, it does NOT flip to black when the button turns on.

commented Apr 2, 2024 by MIDI Designer Team (Dan)

At the time I used a color label overlay. I will try out the highlighted text concept on Beta.

commented Apr 2, 2024 by dsabou2062 (3,570 points)

We're rolling this back for right now. For the next beta White is the same for Page and for Control: it changes color when you press it. We'll give you the option to kill this annoying behavior on a control level later. Thanks, sorry for the whiplash.

commented Apr 3, 2024 by MIDI Designer Team (Dan)

2 Answers

Finally spent some time looking at the highlight behavior, and testing a set of combinations of page highlight color, page background color, and control color.

Page highlight color

"Black" selected - the control text is always black, off or on
"White" selected - the control text is white off, black on
"Auto" selected - see table.

I guess one question is why white doesn't stay white, but changes depending on control state. I think the auto selection is not bad. Maybe if we make white stay white, then this will minimize disappearing controls.

Downloads: 153
Highlight Color Test
Downloads: 153

Images

Highlight Colors.png

answered Apr 19, 2022 by jkhiser (19,810 points)

It looks to me that when Black is selected as the highlight color, the On should be white. The Auto may not matter what happens.
Thanks for the detail. I actually ended up using the White Highlight so white is off and on is black for the buttons. Then I added a Label with label source of the on button and yellow text to overlay the on button. In effect, White text turned Yellow. But white off was a bit too bright, so I added a panel to overlay all buttons which darken the white a little. I plan on adding the procedure and layout to Community Shares when I get a chance.

commented Apr 19, 2022 by dsabou2062 (3,570 points)

Control Button label colors

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Add LCD Color bar to Label Properties

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