I recently migrated to Bear 2 beta on iOS and my experience has been less than impressive.
First, I noticed the jarring difference in page margins compared to Bear 1. The wide page margins on Bear 1 made notes look beautiful, and writing pleasant.
On Bear 2, the margins are just too narrow and ugly to look at.
I also loved that page titles were aligned with the body of text, thereby providing a neater look.
Please tell me the margin style will be reverted, or at the least, an option to configure default margin sizes provided in settings.
For visual reference, below is a screenshot of Bear 1 showing wide margin spacing:
Just created an account to say I absolutely agree with this! Recently started bear beta 2 and wondered why no oneās said anything about the tight ugly margins.
This was widely discussed during the first couple betas couple of years ago, about the placement of the gutter if you want to look it up. But the team has decided against your proposal so I believe it will be what it is now.
Actually I do not like narrow margins too. In macOS or iPadOS (I donāt have an iPad but saw the screenshots) I would hate it if they were near. On iOS however I think these margins are perfect because of the small line width
On iOS the margins were too wide imo, made the line width too small. Phones are already so narrow and Iād rather fit some content per line in this case.
But I liked how the heading indicator was in the gutter vs how it is on B2 if you decide to show Markdown. But Iām not sure how this could be made better, unless enabling āShow Markdownā also enabled a gutter for the heading indicators.
Agree. Bear (iOS) lost itās Zen-style there.
A look at the screenshots clearly shows it is objectively cramped. As in: no webpage w/ text focus, or reader centric app would go for this ā effective ā ānon-margin approachā.
The Bear aesthetics still show in the note list view. The margin there looks twice the width of the note view itself, subjectively. So, sense of style hasnāt been lost; in principle.
Even the preview in the typography settings gives the (wrong) impression of wider margins, ā¦ indicating there is indeeda feeling the margin should be wider, in terms of Bears own aesthetic tradition / self-understanding.
An aesthetic option should be given here, at least.
It would, also, be nice to hear the teams voice on the motivation for changing this baseline aesthetic (for iOS) on such a fundamental level. Like was this consciously done? For what reason?
I believe they explained ages ago that they have changed their overall formatting columns structure, i cannot remember why but there was a post on this forum about it in the panda days:
thanks for that reference, @Vindaloo
ā I do not see any discussion, less explanation / motivation, of the page / outer textbody margins, which ā to me ā is not directly implied by the grid for the internal order / consistency of the note bodyā¦
ā¦ nor anything specific to iOS rendering of note (margins), for that matterā¦
Yeah, i agree. I do recall a discussion of it and an explanation for it at some point around that time, something about standardizing markdown but i donāt really remember anymore.
I also prefer the wide margins and having header tags and list bullets in the margin, but iām sure iāll get used to this version eventually
would be great to know the Bear-teams thinking around this, @trix180
ā especially as it appears ā at least to old users ā as an design change of direction vis-a-vis Bear 1.0, unrelated to any feature introduction or other casual factorā¦
understanding the motivations / logics at play would be highly appreciated
Hello, we agree something was odd with the margin on iPhone and we increased it by 10 pixels in the latest update (11093). I think now the editor looks more coherent with the note list which is why previous margins work in Panda but not for Bear.
Weād prefer not to give control over the margins in the preferences at the moment but let us know how the new margin feels.
Nice update. Margins still a bit narrow, but way better overall imo. Could do with a wider margin. Would be nice to let us control margins ourselves though.
as you asked for feedback: I am on the same line as @pengenius : it somehow amends the problem. so it doesnāt feel objectively cramped anymore. itās better. and we are entering the territory of taste.
for me it a) should still be wider b) still is a little awkwark break from the Bear-profile (on iOS) that I cherished and that to me underscored the minimalist-aesthetics and signature āBear-experienceā here.
