Comment 16 for bug 335383

I too strongly feel that the default font size, and the size of the notification bubble itself, needs to be customizable. With the current settings, it pops up a tiny 230x93 window (see screenshot) which amounts to 12x7.5% of my screen real-estate. Now I have 20/20 vision, and while the font is readable, when it only pops up for a few seconds, I don't have time to move closer to the screen and focus my eyes intently on that little spot before it disappears! This really comes up for IM and email notifications when I want to actually read the body text and not just the title.

I am making the argument that the notification text needs to be *larger* than the application text, for the very reason that you need to see it and process the information *quickly* before it disappears. When you are working in a single application, you are concentrating on it more, and your eyes are already there looking at it, and so a smaller font size works. I also think that the white text on black background limits readability somewhat at that font size, though I would have no problem with the colour scheme if the font was increased.

I have a 148 dpi screen, and am using Sans 7.5 as my application font size. Assuming that means 7.5pt (there seems to be some uncertainty on this point!), that means my notification text *should* be 12px (1/12 of an inch...already too small!), or 80% of the application font size (15px). However, in the screenshot attached, you can measure the notification text at only 10px, 1/15 of an inch. It is way too small! Is this a bug? Now imagine if I had kept the Ubuntu default setting of 96 dpi...then the text would only be 8px...close to 1/20 of an inch!

Why should I ever need to strain my eyes when I have such a large screen? This just seems crazy to me. And yes, everyone has different screens, and different visual impairments, and you need to allow for these people to customize the system to suit their needs.