Is there any way to kill the blinking cursor?

[MarjaE]

I have neurological issues, and blinking cursors blind me and trigger my migraines. I often have to be able to see what I've typed.

Unfortunately, MacOS has no system-wide way to get rid of the blinding cursors, and the latest update seems to intensify the cursors. There are 3 defaults settings which can slow cursors as much as desired, but they only work in NSText applications.

I switched to a flicker-free monitor, and it helps with some other triggers, but it is not enough to deal with the accursed cursors.

I am not sure what to do-- I can't find a Calibre setting to get rid of the blinding cursors, but then, I can't see very well in certain Calibre tools and might have missed it.

Or I may be able to use some other app to edit Calibre preferences, work with metadata, etc.

Or I may be able to download the Windows version and run it in Wine or Wineskin. I'm not sure how to set it up to either use or import my existing libraries, or how well it works in a virtual environment.

Or I may need an alternative to Calibre.

[MarjaE]

I tried turning the red component of monitor color to 0, but still had trouble seeing around the blinking cursor, so that doesn't fix it either.

[BetterRed]

I presume you know Windows has a system wide setting for cursor blink rate, which includes no blinking.

BR

[MarjaE]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

I presume you know Windows has a system wide setting for cursor blink rate, which includes no blinking.

BR

Yes, I know that. I don't have Windows. I don't know how well it works.

Calibre seems to use qt-everywhere. And at least some bug reports indicate that qt-everywhere didn't used to follow Windows' accessibility settings either:

https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-37200

[Sirtel]

What's a blinking cursor? I can't remember having ever seen one (I use Windows).

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

What's a blinking cursor? I can't remember having ever seen one (I use Windows).

I think the is the Insert Point marker in the editor (just like it is when typing here in the message composition box)

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by theducks

I think the is the Insert Point marker in the editor (just like it is when typing here in the message composition box)

Ah, right. I've never even noticed it blinks.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Ah, right. I've never even noticed it blinks.

Changing the Mouse pointer scheme might help.
I use (need ) Large Inverted for contrast

[BetterRed]

Control Panel->Keyboard, viz:



@MarjaE - it's a global setting, it seems to apply to all programs. I just tried it in calibre, Sigil and MalwareBytes (they use various versions of Qt). Also tried File Manager, MS and Libre Office, a couple of text editors, three browsers, some Fluent apps (Settings, Snip and Sketch), and an old Win98 program I run in compatibility mode - they all had a non-blinking cursor when I set the slider to None.

BR

[MarjaE]

Thank you!

I've used CursorBlinkRate=-1 in win.ini when running other apps in Wineskin.

But I'm not sure whether I'll be able to run Calibre in Wineskin, and it seems drastic to install a whole new operating system for one app.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by MarjaE

Thank you!

I've used CursorBlinkRate=-1 in win.ini when running other apps in Wineskin.

But I'm not sure whether I'll be able to run Calibre in Wineskin, and it seems drastic to install a whole new operating system for one app.

Sigil uses Qt, and it has a smaller footprint than calibre. So, you could install Sigil for Mac, to see if it has the blinking cursor problem; and if it does you could try running Sigil for Windows under Wineskin and trying the CursorBlinkRate setting.

If it works then it may be worth trying calibre for Windows under Wineskin - the differences between Windows and MacOS file handling would need to be considered.

FWIW : 5 top ways to run Windows on a Mac | Computerworld

And some other Windows configuration options that may be relevant



BR

[gbm]

Originally Posted by MarjaE

I have neurological issues, and blinking cursors blind me and trigger my migraines. I often have to be able to see what I've typed.

Unfortunately, MacOS has no system-wide way to get rid of the blinding cursors, and the latest update seems to intensify the cursors. There are 3 defaults settings which can slow cursors as much as desired, but they only work in NSText applications.

I switched to a flicker-free monitor, and it helps with some other triggers, but it is not enough to deal with the accursed cursors.

I am not sure what to do-- I can't find a Calibre setting to get rid of the blinding cursors, but then, I can't see very well in certain Calibre tools and might have missed it.

Or I may be able to use some other app to edit Calibre preferences, work with metadata, etc.

Or I may be able to download the Windows version and run it in Wine or Wineskin. I'm not sure how to set it up to either use or import my existing libraries, or how well it works in a virtual environment.

Or I may need an alternative to Calibre.

Change OS X text cursor blink rate

Change Your Mac's Text Cursor Blink Rate with a Terminal Command

There is no system preference setting for adjusting the cursor blink rate in OS X, as with many hidden settings you can change the blink rate directly using a defaults write command (OS X 10.9 and above).

I suggest you use 5000 for the on and 100 for the off.

bernie

[BetterRed]

@bernie - read what the OP posted and you quoted

There are 3 defaults settings which can slow cursors as much as desired, but they only work in NSText applications

Your links refer to NSTextInsertionPointBlinkPeriodOn/Off settings

It would seem that Calibre is not an NSText application

BR

[MarjaE]

BetterRed,

My concerns are with--

1. Whether I will be able to use my Calibre library in Wineskin.

2. Whether I will be able to open my files using MacOS apps after selecting them in Calibre in Wineskin.

3. Whether there will be readability issues involving Antialiasing.

Testing with Sigil could only address the 3rd issue. Note that if both Calibre installations can use the ame library, some of these issues might be a bit easier to deal with-- but switching between Calibre installations would pose its own headaches.

gbm,

I use 10000, but it only works in NSText and Calibre uses qt-everywhere.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by MarjaE

BetterRed,

My concerns are with--

1. Whether I will be able to use my Calibre library in Wineskin.

2. Whether I will be able to open my files using MacOS apps after selecting them in Calibre in Wineskin.

3. Whether there will be readability issues involving Antialiasing.

Testing with Sigil could only address the 3rd issue. Note that if both Calibre installations can use the ame library, some of these issues might be a bit easier to deal with-- but switching between Calibre installations would pose its own headaches.

Yeah, that's what I was getting at with:

If it [Sigil] works then it may be worth trying calibre for Windows under Wineskin - the differences between Windows and MacOS file handling would [then] need to be considered.

My idea was to use Sigil as a stalking horse. If Sigil for Mac doesn't have a cursor blinking issue - then why does calibre have one - afaik both use Qt more or less the same. But assuming it did, then if Wineskin didn't solve its blinking cursor issue, there would no point in thinking about the file handling issues of calibre under Wineskin.

Then you might want to consider running Windows under MacOS using BootCamp or Virtual Box etc. That would probably solve the blinking cursor issue, but you'd still be left with the file handling differences. I don't think they're so bad as to be unusable - you'd just have to be careful and aware of the differences.

BR