Smaller size / better resizing of docked panels

Can't reproduce screenshot in today's SVN under Fedora Core 6. What OS are you running?

Windows. I forgot to state OS and Inkscape build, sorry. Can't remember the build now, but it doesn't seem to be present in the current ones. I'm considering it fixed.
The new panel has other issues with vertical sizing, It wastes an awful lot of screen real-estate. In the above example of the current Feb.7 build for Windows, the buttons on the Layers palette are poorly spaced because the Filter Effects dialog is such a Screen hog.I've got a wide-screen 20" minitor (1650 wide), and the side panel takes up a good 3rd of the screen. I know it's a new feature, but some thought needs to go into making panels smaller, smaller text and buttons, etc. At least have it an option.

Low priority since mainly aesthetic problem with known workaround (undock/hide/minimize panels when you need more screen space).

Martin: some more specific ideas for improvement would be helpful. Do you know of other applications that handle this better? Do you think stretching all panels to the width of the widest panel is incorrect? A mockup would probably help the developers attack this problem a lot more effectively...

I'm going to do some mockups of how the panels can be made a bit more compact and not stretch or resize with opening or closing of other panels. This bug may not be the right place. Would Blueprints https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/ be a better place? Or a Wiki somewhere? It would basically spell out some layout guidelines with mockups, which maybe others could build on. I cannot code, I sometimes wish I could. I can only suggest what I think might be a more professional polish, though I understand Inkscape is basically still alpha software. A lot of Opensource projects, particularly in Gnome/GTK, has a problem there.

Another screenshot from the Feb.7 build for Windows showing the problem of resizing in both directions after the large Filter Effects panel has been opened and minimised.

At Bug 197749 (now marked a duplicate of this one), Stojance Dimitrovski wrote:

"After using Inkscape 0.46pre1 for quite a while, I've been impressed by the new features and great improvements. However, I find the User Interface too big. For example, the new docked "dialogs" (which I will be referring to as side panes in this bug report) are a nice deviation from the usual UNIX "Million Windows" way, but I find them too big. Mainly because their functionality is irreplaceable, but having them too big is actually removing their functionality and substituting it with a lot of screen space and clutter - like a new version of the UNIX "Million Windows" way. Here are some examples of what I would do to conserve their functionality and make them smaller.

One of the biggest side panes is the Fill and Stroke side pane. When the "Wheel" tab is activated, there is approx. 132 pixels between the farthest point of it (to the right) and the end of the most inner GTK+ Frame. This is due to the absolute hugeness of the Alpha bar. I think it shouldn't be as long. Even a minor 20px off it would make a much better experience. Considering the other tabs like "RGB", "HSL", "CMYK" and so fourth, I think their bars should also be a bit shorter than the current space used. I would also like to recommend the usage of smaller font sizes in these side panes, as it would gradually lower the actual width of the side pane. Maybe font size like 8 for 96dpi would be good enough, or something smaller/bigger. Another thing which I personally think should be considered is smaller icon sizes for the side panes. The current ones are around 24px, but that is considered to be huge in screen size for something like a side pane. I would recommend 22x22px, even though I like the sizes used by the GIMP. They might be around 16px, and they're still usable.

The "Allign and Distribute" dialog would sure use smaller icon sizes and font.

I would also like to recommend using 22x22px sized icons all over the UI of Inkscape.

I would be happy to help as much as I can if this task gets approved.

Sincerely,
Stojan Dimitrovski"

At Bug 220652(now marked a duplicate of this one), mrEd wrote :

"I use a ASSUS EEEPC with your LCD Display: 7″ WVGA (800×480) TFT-LCD with LED backlight
Inkscape run perfect, but the interface is very BIG for the Display 7"
please is posible have diferents THEMES for customize the interface with small buttons"

Related new reports:
Bug #930235 “Missing option to freeze height of docked dialogs”
Bug #1062134 “ability to scroll inside the filter/stroke & fill docks”