Sep 5

Auto-hide the bottom toolbar when the mouse is away

I would like the bottom floating toolbar to auto-hide when it is not being used. At the moment, the toolbar remains visible over the image. Its current translucent appearance is excellent and should be preserved, but I think it would be better if the toolbar behaved contextually: When the mouse pointer approaches the bottom toolbar area, the toolbar should fade in and become fully available. While the pointer is over or near the toolbar, it should remain visible. When the pointer moves away from the toolbar area, it should automatically fade out again. This would allow the image to remain completely unobstructed during normal viewing while keeping all controls immediately accessible when needed. I would strongly prefer to keep the current transparent/translucent visual style; the suggestion is only to change its visibility behavior. In short: show the toolbar on proximity, keep it visible during interaction, and hide it when the mouse moves away.

Completed

changed status toCompleted·Sep 6, 2026

Sep 5, 2026

This already works. You can switch the overlay to Hidden mode: - press F or Shift+Tab to cycle overlay modes - click the overlay-mode button in the bottom bar - right-click → Overlay → Hidden In Hidden mode the toolbar fades in when the pointer approaches the bottom edge (or on Tab), stays while you hover it, and fades out when the pointer moves away. The look stays the same, and the setting is remembered.

Sep 6, 2026

Hi Andrew, Thank you for pointing this out. I completely missed the Hidden overlay mode. I have tried it now, and it is exactly the behavior I was hoping for. The implementation is excellent: the toolbar fades in naturally when the pointer approaches the bottom edge, remains available while I interact with it, and disappears again without distracting from the image. I also really like that the current translucent appearance is preserved and that the selected mode is remembered. So please disregard my original suggestion as a feature request — the functionality is already there, and it works very well. This did make me think of one small UX suggestion, though. Would you consider also exposing the Overlay Mode as an option in the main Settings page, while keeping the existing keyboard shortcuts, bottom-bar button, and context-menu entry? Since the selected overlay mode is a persistent preference that Ember remembers between sessions, it feels like the kind of viewer behavior that some users may naturally expect to find in Settings. I only discovered it after you explained it to me, even though the feature itself is already very polished. I do not mean that every command should be duplicated in Settings — that would work against Ember's simplicity. I am thinking specifically of persistent viewing preferences such as the overlay behavior. A small setting with the existing overlay modes and a short description of each could make this excellent feature easier for new users to discover. In any case, thank you again for the explanation. The Hidden mode is genuinely very well designed, and the more I use Ember, the more I appreciate how much thought has gone into keeping the interface out of the way of the image. Please keep going — Ember is already a remarkably pleasant viewer to use. Best, FengYeeLx😉

Sep 6, 2026

Done, will be in the next release.

changed status toReviewing·Sep 5, 2026