CudaText is almost there — it just needs Sublime-level UI polish

[oldcastle]

Hey everyone,

I really think CudaText (CT) is an excellent editor that doesn't get nearly enough love. I know Sublime Text (ST) is still huge, especially on Linux, but honestly, CT isn't as far behind as people might assume.

For me, the main thing holding CT back is UI polish. The current interface works perfectly fine — nothing's actually broken — but it doesn't quite have that refined, premium feel that ST nails so well. I'm talking about things like consistent spacing, more cohesive icons, proper scaling, and everything just lining up nicely. These little details really add up when it comes to how polished something feels.

I think once CT gets closer to ST's level of visual polish, way more people will give it a real shot. Right now, I suspect a lot of folks try it out, compare it to ST's look and feel, and bounce without realizing how solid it actually is under the hood.

I'm not sure if the UI limitations come from Free Pascal/Lazarus itself or if there's still room to push things further within that framework. If it's the latter, it might be worth Alexey bringing in a UI/UX or product designer. That kind of expertise could really move the needle on adoption.

Just my thoughts, but I genuinely believe a more polished look would get CT onto a lot more desktops.

What do you all think?

[main Alexey]

I cannot get the idea what exactly is not ok.
what spacing? (between what elements, how big it must be.)
what scaling? (app has "ui_scale*" options which have ok default 100% on Linux.)
I may try to adjust something. but what.

what is not ok with icons? (they now look ok for all themes, light&dark, as i see.)

[oldcastle]

Screenshot_20251202_170538.png (1.53 KiB) Viewed 103 times

Screenshot_20251202_170524.png (1.71 KiB) Viewed 103 times

I'm not a designer, but when you compare side by side there are a few things to do.

This is not a complain, it's an opnion to help.

[main Alexey]

i want to fix that icon in the title:
- what Desktop do you use? (on my Ubuntu 22, DE Gnome don't show an icon in the window title.)
- gtk2? qt5? qt6 version?

[oldcastle]

qt6


Operating System: Arch Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 6.5.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.20.0
Qt Version: 6.10.1
Kernel Version: 6.17.9-arch1-1 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 8 × 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i3-1215U
Memory: 8 GiB of RAM (7,5 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: Mesa Intel® Graphics
Manufacturer: LENOVO
Product Name: 82VY
System Version: IdeaPad 1 15IAU7

[oldcastle]

One more thing — I don’t think the current logo is working well. The gray tone makes it look washed out, almost like it’s fading. It feels too muted. It’s hard to put into words, but I believe your brand would stand out much more with something like the example below:

[main Alexey]

icon edges are bad: I will post 'small complain' to the Lazarus forum (QT part of the forum) and will ask.

icon design: here I do not agree, for me color palette is OK.

[oldcastle]

Thanks Alexey

[main Alexey]

maybe Lazarus devs won't help here, so I will ask the icon designer to change 16x16 parts - make them full squares w/o empty transparent corners. it must help.

[main Alexey]

I did not get reply from mate designer, maybe he is busy. that pixels at the icon corners is not big problem, it is OS' issue (OS paints bad pixels there), not Cud's issue.