#422 Appearance tab: grouped cards layout

[Anonymous]

Originally created by: kristofferR

Problem

Settings › Appearance mixes four layouts on one tab: a card grid, a two-column accent/font block, an inline icon row and a checkbox list. "Open themes folder" and the custom.css note sit inside the theme grid as if they were a card. The Light / Dark switch hides in the Theme header. Labels and controls don't line up, and the Display rows at the bottom have little to do with the look above them.

Design (approved: layout B)

Mocks: https://plans.kristofferr.com/d/sg4cwqvputno (layout B, app icon selector 1)

• Order: a compact untitled card first, then Theme, then Accent color + Message font, then App icon.
• Compact card: Page zoom (select), Hide Top Menu (Windows/Linux), Title bar (Linux), System Emoji, Nicknames (select). No "Display" heading.
• Theme card: title with the System / Light / Dark switch on its right, no hint under the title. The gallery is [#428]. "Open themes folder" and "custom.css (Advanced) still applies last." go under the grid, not in it.
• App icon card: [#423].
• One row grammar: label and a one-line hint on the left, the control on the right, all rows on the same right edge. Each group is a card (12px corners, 1px border, dividers between rows) on a light grey tab background.
• Above the fold: at the default window size the Theme header and the first row of theme cards are visible without scrolling. Keep the compact card's hints to one line.
• Hints: Page zoom "Cmd/Ctrl + − / = / 0 also works." · Hide Top Menu "Settings stays on the gear button and F3." · System Emoji "Your system's emoji font instead of Facebook's." · Nicknames "Where Carrier shows real names instead."
• Nicknames: one select replaces the two checkboxes, with the same four states of nickname_scope: all → Show nicknames, groups → Real names in one-to-one chats, direct → Real names in group chats, off → Real names everywhere.
• Stop Media Autoplay moves to General: it changes how media behaves, not how anything looks.
• Switches: on/off rows use switches instead of checkboxes, on every tab in the same change, so the tabs stay consistent.

Testing

• Light and dark Settings on macOS, Windows and Linux; platform-only rows appear only on their platform.
• Every setting on the tab still saves and applies live, including the nickname select round-tripping all four nickname_scope values.
• At the default size, the first row of theme cards is visible without scrolling.

Ref [#357], Ref [#369]

Part of [#434].

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: kristofferR

[!NOTE]
🤖 Claude Opus 5.5 responding on behalf of Kristoffer

Landed in [#438] (merged to main, shipped in v3.0.0). Every Settings tab is now a stack of cards: label and hint on the left, control on the right, switches for on/off settings, and one style for selects. Appearance is reordered, the nickname checkboxes became one select, and Stop Media Autoplay moved to General.

Still to do: a manual check of the real Settings window on macOS, Windows and Linux. The PR was checked with a stubbed IPC.

[Anonymous]

Ticket changed by: kristofferR

• status: open --> closed