Feat: Bolder Typeface + Configurable Letter Spacing for Minimap's Section Header Labels ✨ (#209990)

* Rendering Section Header Labels with space in
between the characters for better readability.

* Making Section Headers Bold

* Added settings for the Section Header Letter
Spacing of the Minimap

* a more performant and non-breaking way to render characters

* fixed the git problems

* add test default value

* Allow fine-tuning the letter spacing, minor tweaks

---------

Co-authored-by: Alexandru Dima <alexdima@microsoft.com>

src/vs/editor/browser/viewParts/minimap/minimap.ts

@@ -94,6 +94,10 @@ class MinimapOptions {
 	public readonly minimapCharWidth: number;
 	public readonly sectionHeaderFontFamily: string;
 	public readonly sectionHeaderFontSize: number;
+	/**
+	 * Space in between the characters of the section header (in CSS px)
+	 */
+	public readonly sectionHeaderLetterSpacing: number;
 	public readonly sectionHeaderFontColor: RGBA8;
 
 	public readonly charRenderer: () => MinimapCharRenderer;
@@ -139,6 +143,7 @@ class MinimapOptions {
 		this.minimapCharWidth = Constants.BASE_CHAR_WIDTH * this.fontScale;
 		this.sectionHeaderFontFamily = DEFAULT_FONT_FAMILY;
 		this.sectionHeaderFontSize = minimapOpts.sectionHeaderFontSize * pixelRatio;
+		this.sectionHeaderLetterSpacing = minimapOpts.sectionHeaderLetterSpacing; // intentionally not multiplying by pixelRatio
 		this.sectionHeaderFontColor = MinimapOptions._getSectionHeaderColor(theme, tokensColorTracker.getColor(ColorId.DefaultForeground));
 
 		this.charRenderer = createSingleCallFunction(() => MinimapCharRendererFactory.create(this.fontScale, fontInfo.fontFamily));
@@ -196,6 +201,7 @@ class MinimapOptions {
 			&& this.minimapLineHeight === other.minimapLineHeight
 			&& this.minimapCharWidth === other.minimapCharWidth
 			&& this.sectionHeaderFontSize === other.sectionHeaderFontSize
+			&& this.sectionHeaderLetterSpacing === other.sectionHeaderLetterSpacing
 			&& this.defaultBackgroundColor && this.defaultBackgroundColor.equals(other.defaultBackgroundColor)
 			&& this.backgroundColor && this.backgroundColor.equals(other.backgroundColor)
 			&& this.foregroundAlpha === other.foregroundAlpha
@@ -1788,6 +1794,7 @@ class InnerMinimap extends Disposable {
 	private _renderSectionHeaders(layout: MinimapLayout) {
 		const minimapLineHeight = this._model.options.minimapLineHeight;
 		const sectionHeaderFontSize = this._model.options.sectionHeaderFontSize;
+		const sectionHeaderLetterSpacing = this._model.options.sectionHeaderLetterSpacing;
 		const backgroundFillHeight = sectionHeaderFontSize * 1.5;
 		const { canvasInnerWidth } = this._model.options;
 
@@ -1798,7 +1805,8 @@ class InnerMinimap extends Disposable {
 		const separatorStroke = foregroundFill;
 
 		const canvasContext = this._decorationsCanvas.domNode.getContext('2d')!;
-		canvasContext.font = sectionHeaderFontSize + 'px ' + this._model.options.sectionHeaderFontFamily;
+		canvasContext.letterSpacing = sectionHeaderLetterSpacing + 'px';
+		canvasContext.font = '500 ' + sectionHeaderFontSize + 'px ' + this._model.options.sectionHeaderFontFamily;
 		canvasContext.strokeStyle = separatorStroke;
 		canvasContext.lineWidth = 0.2;
 

src/vs/editor/common/config/editorOptions.ts

@@ -3071,6 +3071,10 @@ export interface IEditorMinimapOptions {
 	 * Font size of section headers. Defaults to 9.
 	 */
 	sectionHeaderFontSize?: number;
+	/**
+	 * Spacing between the section header characters (in CSS px). Defaults to 1.
+	 */
+	sectionHeaderLetterSpacing?: number;
 }
 
 /**
@@ -3093,6 +3097,7 @@ class EditorMinimap extends BaseEditorOption<EditorOption.minimap, IEditorMinima
 			showRegionSectionHeaders: true,
 			showMarkSectionHeaders: true,
 			sectionHeaderFontSize: 9,
+			sectionHeaderLetterSpacing: 1,
 		};
 		super(
 			EditorOption.minimap, 'minimap', defaults,
@@ -3162,6 +3167,11 @@ class EditorMinimap extends BaseEditorOption<EditorOption.minimap, IEditorMinima
 					type: 'number',
 					default: defaults.sectionHeaderFontSize,
 					description: nls.localize('minimap.sectionHeaderFontSize', "Controls the font size of section headers in the minimap.")
+				},
+				'editor.minimap.sectionHeaderLetterSpacing': {
+					type: 'number',
+					default: defaults.sectionHeaderLetterSpacing,
+					description: nls.localize('minimap.sectionHeaderLetterSpacing', "Controls the amount of space (in pixels) between characters of section header. This helps the readability of the header in small font sizes.")
 				}
 			}
 		);
@@ -3184,6 +3194,7 @@ class EditorMinimap extends BaseEditorOption<EditorOption.minimap, IEditorMinima
 			showRegionSectionHeaders: boolean(input.showRegionSectionHeaders, this.defaultValue.showRegionSectionHeaders),
 			showMarkSectionHeaders: boolean(input.showMarkSectionHeaders, this.defaultValue.showMarkSectionHeaders),
 			sectionHeaderFontSize: EditorFloatOption.clamp(input.sectionHeaderFontSize ?? this.defaultValue.sectionHeaderFontSize, 4, 32),
+			sectionHeaderLetterSpacing: EditorFloatOption.clamp(input.sectionHeaderLetterSpacing ?? this.defaultValue.sectionHeaderLetterSpacing, 0, 5),
 		};
 	}
 }

src/vs/editor/test/browser/config/editorLayoutProvider.test.ts

@@ -60,7 +60,8 @@ suite('Editor ViewLayout - EditorLayoutProvider', () => {
 			scale: 1,
 			showRegionSectionHeaders: true,
 			showMarkSectionHeaders: true,
-			sectionHeaderFontSize: 9
+			sectionHeaderFontSize: 9,
+			sectionHeaderLetterSpacing: 1,
 		};
 		options._write(EditorOption.minimap, minimapOptions);
 		const scrollbarOptions: InternalEditorScrollbarOptions = {

src/vs/monaco.d.ts

@@ -4318,6 +4318,10 @@ declare namespace monaco.editor {
 		 * Font size of section headers. Defaults to 9.
 		 */
 		sectionHeaderFontSize?: number;
+		/**
+		 * Spacing between the section header characters (in CSS px). Defaults to 1.
+		 */
+		sectionHeaderLetterSpacing?: number;
 	}
 
 	/**