Please don't remove the compact density option for the Proton redesign

Firefox Development
#63

I’m also joining in to call to not phase out compact mode. It has always been the default mode for me and I’ve been sticking with it ever since the tabs moved to the titlebar, since version 4.0.

Over the years I upgraded from 1280x768/1280x1024 - 1600x900, 1920x1080 and now 2560x1440 and never did I think it’d improve my experience with more vertical space or whitespace in general, and always reset the mode to compact and removed all the whitespace.

It’d be a fat shame if it disappeared, though I have a feeling it will in the next major version bump, it’s marked as [Not supported] after all.

Also a word on telemetry - most people who’d stick to the compact layout probably also opted out of telemetry. I certainly do, and from the complains it seems more people are in a similar situation.

Anyway, all I can do is just add my voice on top of all the other comments and hope Mozilla acknowledges there is a decent user base for this feature.

For now I’ll just stick with the Photon theme while it’s still enabled.

1 Like
#64

@jscher2000, I have followed the instructions in that article and I can see that it makes the tabs smaller but it doesn’t fix everything.

The main problem for me is the bookmarks menu; I’ve a lot of bookmarks which are split up into child folders. Before the update they everything fitted on the screen, but afterwards the menu has sprawled so that I’ve got to keep scrolling up and down to try and find things.

To be honest this looks like change for the sake of change because there is no advantage to the end user. All the additional vertical spacing just takes space away from the browsing - the very task I’m trying to perform.

#65

Suggestions for this issue here: https://www.userchrome.org/firefox-89-styling-proton-ui.html#menuspacing

#66

That’s a bit of black magic, the the results are so much better :- D

This needs to be an option in the main UI

#67

I did, but frankly it makes nearly no difference. On my laptop screen, it’s still well over 1 inch. It’s almost as if they’ve never looked at it / tried to use it on a screen with lower pixel density. I’m sure it’s fine on a 38 inch wide screen, or in 4k, but some of us are in less than HD.

#68

Yes, Compact mode makes only a small difference, as illustrated below. You can look at tab restyling to make more of a difference: https://www.userchrome.org/firefox-89-styling-proton-ui.html#tabstyler

869×594 29.9 KB

1 Like
#69

Yeah, probably a lot of the same people who use compact mode have telemetry turned off, including me.
I would be very disappointed if compact mode was phased out - please support it Mozilla.
If Mozilla doesn’t take user feedback onboard for this issue, I will be very worried about the Firefox’s future

2 Likes
#70

That would in my opinion fix all the problems in Proton

#71

You’ll use Proton without compact.
And you’ll be happy.

#72

Yup. I’ve switched to the Brave browser, I’m really sad that Firefox did this, but it was the last straw, and honestly now there is just no reason to stay.

1 Like
#73

I agree that Proton is now creating a serious problem of compactness. Compared to other browsers / competition, it has now a clear disadvantage.

Instead of us saying “please keep compact mode”, why not “ask for a compact mode”, as it is clearly missing in Proton, and get Proton fix itself its own problems ?

=> there is already a bug on bugzilla for that, or close to that: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1707686

I voted on it, and I would encourage anybody who desire a more compact mode of Proton to vote also or contribute (a patch has been proposed I believe, but is declined for now)

Or create another bug if you believe that one is not the good one, and let us know …

#74

I think firefox should consider asking user about proton compact or not after first install or update especially on windows. On Linux Gnome it seens good, but on Windows, I want to kill myself. at least now userChrome.css been here to help with lepton style from Github. I think firefox should reconsider this condition… really…

#75

First time commenter, 11 year user. Firstly, thank you for all you do. But on behalf of myself and the undoubtedly thousands of users who have been biting their tongues recently, respectfully request a compact menu option.

1 Like
#76

about:config -> browser.compactmode.show -> true

see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/compact-mode-workaround-firefox

#77

Thank you, Benyamin. Followed all directions, and though it seemed to squeeze the top elements some, which I can see being useful sometime, there doesn’t seem to be any change in the spacing of menu items. I still have to scroll where I didn’t need to scroll before, and wait a bit longer to get to the bottom of 11 years of bookmark folders.

But again, thank you, it’s nice to know someone’s paying attention. I guess I understand the spacing, to make it easier when using a touch screen, I just don’t understand ignoring the inconvenience it causes otherwise.

Cheers.

#78

Well you could use my userChrome.css
see https://github.com/benyaminl/firefox-proton-compact

How to enable userChrome

https://www.userchrome.org/how-create-userchrome-css.html

#79

For spacing menu they already fix it at 94 I think, but I don’t know how long will it stick. It already landed on Linux 94, on Windows it’s still the same sadly. Well, I just use my own userChrome CSS

#80

In Firefox 93 (due out in October), the optional Compact density setting will tighten up the bookmark menus that drop from the main toolbar and bookmarks toolbar (but probably not other menus). Here’s a preview from the Developer Edition (based on the beta test version of Firefox 93):

2021-09-08-08-56-37-c5c640.png950×360

#81

The menu padding still too big, only on Linux the padding follows DE padding, so it seen as native, on windows the menu padding is too big

1 Like
#82