Nylas-mail: Interface zooming resets on message selection

[laughedelic]

I just got updated from 0.4.53 (Beta) to 0.4.55 and now I have a problem with my custom zoom setting. When I open N1 it's fine with 80% zoom, but once I select a message, it immediately resets interface to 100%.
I know that this feature was hidden from settings because it may cause problems with fonts, but so far 80% zoom worked fine for me, I just find the default scale really big and inconvenient.

What operating system are you using?

Mac OS X El Capitan

What version of N1 are you using?

0.4.55

[laughedelic]

This bug remains in 0.4.56 😐

[molstrangler]

I also get this but from 120% to 100%.

It happens when I click on an unread folder for an account that as no unread messages and I get the animated graphic.

[JotaC]

I have the same issue. I have edited the config file to reduce the font size and it works until I click on an unread message. Any solution?

[jstejada]

Another incidence: https://nylas.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/6512

[laughedelic]

This bug remains in 0.4.57 😐

[JotaC]

Yes. I just updated the app and still having the same issue.

[JotaC]

Please, @jackiehluo. Someone can help us with this issue? THere is any way to fix it?

[molstrangler]

I opted for downloading beta updates but this bug still exists.

Please fix ASAP as using the email client on a high res display is impossible. Potential customers trailing your software on a HDPI display will not become customers.

[JotaC]

Any solution?

[jstejada]

Another incidence: https://nylas.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/6962

[jstejada]

We haven't gotten to this one yet. Thanks for your patience!

[bengotow]

Hey folks - we aren't officially supporting any sort of zoom adjustment because it caused a range of random problems (things like the underline of misspelled words being rounded down to 0px, a few size calculations failing, people not seeing draggable dividers, etc.)

Would definitely be interested to hear more of the use cases for interface zooming. I think that the best way to resolve this would be to create a new N1 Theme that has a smaller font-size-base and scales down the content of message iframes, rather than trying to adjust the scale of the entire UI. I'd love to revisit the interface scaling sometime in the future, but our small dev team can't afford to debug / triage all the issues that crop up when folks are zoomed out / zoomed in.

[laughedelic]

This is very sad ☹️

The use case is very simple, on my 13" MacBook, this is how the N1 window looks:

| 80% zoom | 100% zoom |
| --- | --- |
| | |

I can't show the left case with a message exactly because of this bug. But you can see all that big empty space on — all this could belong to the messages that I'm going to read. In the 100% zoom case the interface just occupies too much space:

• I need to scroll and/or fold/unfold my labels
• I don't open the right panel because then the message area is too narrow
• since the last release I don't see the tool-bar buttons (probably it's unrelated, but it feels like they are shifted somewhere)
• some messages are simply wide and are with some fancy HTML which doesn't adapt nice to the narrow field

I could get used to the single-pane interface, but then I need proper shortcuts to avoid clicking back and forth between the thread view and messages list. There are plenty of related open issues: https://github.com/nylas/N1/issues/2254, https://github.com/nylas/N1/issues/2072, https://github.com/nylas/N1/issues/1682, and some more that I saw before, but didn't find now.

Would it be feasible for the team to maintain just several preset values for the interface zoom?

[bengotow]

Ahh I see - could you try this theme I made? It reduces the base font-size from 15px to 12px, reduces the base padding, and scales message iframes by 80%. This might make it easier to get everything on your display:

Just unzip the file below and move the folder into ~/.nylas/packages. Then you can choose it from Nylas N1 > Change Theme...

If there's enough interest, we could definitely include a small theme out of the box.

I'm not sure about the toolbar buttons disappearing... I don't think we've seen reports of that before. Do you see any errors if you open Developer > Toggle Developer Tools?

ui-smaller.zip

[laughedelic]

This is much better! Thank you. Such a theme (being maintained by somebody with relevant skills) would be very appreciated. One thing is that there is some limit for resizing the left panel (can't make it smaller):

(by the way is it a know bug in the "Screenshot mode" that it doesn't cover cyrillic and greek characters?)

For me such theme would be a solution for the problem 👍 But I'd like to know what are the limits of the changes it can make: you say it reduces some padding, scales some frames, etc. Can it reduce the size of the toolbar (not critical) and the left panel?

Also, there are people above in the thread that want the opposite: bigger everything.

[laughedelic]

Forgot to reply to the other question. Looking at the log I think the toolbar issue is caused by the n1-unsubscribe plugin.

• log with the plugin disabled
• log with the plugin enabled

In both cases there is an error occurring only when I select a message. Without the plugin the toolbar is fine.

P.S. apparently it's a known bug: https://github.com/colinking/n1-unsubscribe/issues/61 and manual update of the plugin solves it.

[JotaC]

Thanks @bengotow, it was a good solution. Now looks nice.

[jdoklovic]

I have the same problem with the custom interface zoom setting being reset to 100% after I select a message and it's rendered nylas completely unusable for me.

On launch, it looks like this which is usable:

But when I select a message it reverts to 100%

I can't use that.

Even if zooming messes up some layout or drag bars, I'll live with that. I'm not asking for some default that affects all users, just simply to keep the custom setting I set in the config like it did before. even if it's janked.

[mistermantas]

@bengotow Could you perhaps try making such changes to make the UI bigger? By, say, 120% or 140%?

[nthcatalan]

have the exact same problem, makes nylas-mail completely unusable for me.

changing the zoom ratio by editing the config file works initially, but reverts back to the default zoom
as soon as you click on a mail to read.

please fix the zoom reset issue.

its mind-boggling that the team fails to recognize that the number one case for using a mail client is to be able to "READ" the emails, but this is not possible at the moment without squinting.

it is a solid product otherwise, but _due to zoom-reset problem cannot use it_.

version: Nylas 2.0.15
OS: Ubuntu 16.04,
Display: 34 inch 21:9, 3440x1440

I set the interfaceZoom to 140%

[stephit]

Can I just second this? Same bug for me on Windows 10. Can barely read the tiny fonts! Tried adjusting a theme but with the message window apparently being pulled from an iframe, I couldn't get the fonts to adjust and don't have time to mess with it more than I already have.

This is being marketed as some sort of fabulous enterprise-level solution when a basic thing as the ability to set the font size is totally lacking. This is Accessibility 101. I pretty much guarantee everyone reading this someday will need reading glasses...it hits at about 40...and then you'll feel our pain. :-P

The funny thing is there is an option to "zoom" in the right-hand menu, but that maximizes the window...it does not "zoom" it.

[ktsaou]

Hi,

I have this problem too. Nylas Mail is useless on my HiDPi screens.

We could have a usable workaround if someone could provide a few ready to use themes with bigger and smaller fonts. Until this is done, Nylas Mail is completely useless for me...

[mistermantas]

NYLAS IS NO LONGER SUPPORTED.

Unfortunately, we are no longer providing help support for Nylas Mail or N1. As a company, Nylas is focused on our API products to help other developers build email, calendar, and sync capabilities into their own applications.

While we no longer provide help support, N1 and Nylas Mail will continue working just as they do today – we are not turning them off any time in the forseeable future. If you have a subscription for N1 or Nylas Pro, those will continue to work. If you’re a developer, or you know some developers interested in email or Electron applications, we encourage forks of the Nylas Mail project.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/06/nylas-mail-is-dead-jim

[laughedelic]

Besides that blogpost you should check https://github.com/nylas/nylas-mail/issues/3564, which even has a message from a maintainer (https://github.com/nylas/nylas-mail/issues/3564#issuecomment-305255469). There is also some community effort to continue development on the project: https://github.com/nylas-mail-lives/nylas-mail.

[aurabindo]

This is very sad. if this zoom issue was fixed, Nylas would have been the perfect mail client.