Comment by ofalkaed

1 day ago

A 20 pixel knob has considerably greater resolution than a 20 pixel slider with its max resolution of 20. I don't think I have come across a digital knob that you have to turn with the mouse since the previous century, just drag up or down or left or right.

A slider is just a UI element as is a knob, the underlying resolution does not have to correlate 1:1 with the exact number of pixels something takes up on a screen. The resolution could be effectively infinite depending on the implementation of the controls.

  • Sure but if you need to resort to tricks to make it work are they really the right UI element for the job? Their being 1:1 is what makes these work. If you fill your UI with 20 pixel sliders which all cover .2khz to 20khz and use shift clicking or the like to make it work, it is going to get irritating rather quickly. 20 pixel knob will not be much better with such a wide range but has the advantage of being able to be used endlessly; one rotation per octave, it will still be a little irritating but a vast improvement.

    • shift-clicking isn't necessary. Your screen has a resolution higher than 20 pixels wide, doesn't it? Maybe your screen is 1280 pixels wide? Well that could be 1280 steps for a slider, or a knob. It's also a bit dependent on the resolution of the pointing device, too.

      And 20 pixels wide on a modern screen is so tiny you would have trouble seeing it, so the whole premise of a "20 px knob" is blown. A slider with 100 pixels width would also be pretty small. The smallest I'd make it to work on a modern screen is at least 250 pixels wide. And that's plenty of resolution for most things. If a slider is more important, make it bigger, and you get more resolution.

      Arguing about a 20 pixel knob or slider is kind of stupid considering how small that actually is in screen real estate. If the knob or slider is 20 pixels in any direction then you have other UX problems.

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