feat: release 1.2.2 — dark-mode readability fix for translated mail

Wrap translator output in a minimal HTML document with explicit
color-scheme: light + white background before loading into the
message view. Without this wrapper e_web_view_load_string()
loads the content raw and WebKit applies its dark UA stylesheet
on dark desktops (KDE Breeze Dark, GNOME dark preference) —
making white mails flip to dark on translate, hurting readability.

Cache stores the raw translation; the wrap is applied at load
time, so it is idempotent across cache hits. Restore-original
goes through Evolution's normal pipeline and is unaffected.

Mails carrying their own inline body styling (e.g. dark-themed
newsletters) keep their look — inline styles outrank the
wrapper's CSS rule via specificity.

Long-standing readability bug inherited from the upstream
project (costantinoai/evolution-mail-translate); never fixed
there.

Author: MoDD0

CMakeLists.txt

@@ -27,10 +27,10 @@ if(NOT DEFINED VERSION)
     if(DEB_VERSION)
       set(VERSION "${DEB_VERSION}")
     else()
-      set(VERSION "1.2.1")
+      set(VERSION "1.2.2")
     endif()
   else()
-    set(VERSION "1.2.1")
+    set(VERSION "1.2.2")
   endif()
 endif()
 

README.md

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 [![License](https://img.shields.io/badge/license-LGPL--2.1%2B-green.svg)](#license)
 [![Documentation](https://img.shields.io/badge/docs-complete-brightgreen.svg)](docs/USER_GUIDE.md)
 
-> 🆕 **Latest: v1.2.1** — Verified on **GNOME Evolution 3.60.1**, plus optional CPU quantization (`ARGOS_COMPUTE_TYPE=int8`) for 2–4× faster translation.
+> 🆕 **Latest: v1.2.2** — Dark-mode readability fix: translated mails no longer flip to a dark background under dark GTK themes (KDE Breeze Dark, GNOME dark preference). Previous release (v1.2.1) verified the plugin on **GNOME Evolution 3.60.1** and added optional CPU quantization (`ARGOS_COMPUTE_TYPE=int8`).
 > See the [release notes](https://github.com/MoDD0/moddo-evolution-translator/releases/latest) or the full [CHANGELOG](docs/CHANGELOG.md).
 
 > **Tested on Manjaro Linux with GNOME Evolution 3.58.3 and 3.60.1.**
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ This Evolution extension adds instant, privacy-preserving email translation dire
 > **No prebuilt packages yet.** All distros currently install via build-from-source.
 > Prebuilt `.deb` and an AUR package are on the roadmap (alongside our v1.5 release).
 > If you want a `.deb` locally, run `cd build && cpack -G DEB` after the build step
-> below — it'll produce `moddo-evolution-translator_1.2.1-1_<arch>.deb` you can
+> below — it'll produce `moddo-evolution-translator_1.2.2-1_<arch>.deb` you can
 > `apt install ./...`.
 
 #### Ubuntu / Debian

debian/changelog

@@ -1,3 +1,17 @@
+moddo-evolution-translator (1.2.2-1) unstable; urgency=medium
+
+  * Bug fixes:
+    - Translated mail no longer flips to a dark background under dark
+      desktop themes. The plugin now wraps the translator output in a
+      minimal HTML document with an explicit `color-scheme: light` and
+      a white background, so e_web_view_load_string() no longer falls
+      back to WebKit's dark UA stylesheet. Mails with their own dark
+      design (e.g. dark-themed newsletters) keep their inline styling.
+      This was a long-standing readability issue inherited from the
+      upstream project — never fixed there.
+
+ -- MoDD0 <139858927+MoDD0@users.noreply.github.com>  Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000
+
 moddo-evolution-translator (1.2.1-1) unstable; urgency=medium
 
   * Compatibility:

docs/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,5 +1,19 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## 1.2.2 — Translated mail readable under dark desktop themes
+- **Dark-mode readability fix**: On systems running a dark GTK theme
+  (KDE Breeze Dark, GNOME's dark preference, etc.), translated mails used
+  to switch to a dark background while the original mail stayed light —
+  hurting readability. The translator output is now wrapped in a minimal
+  HTML document with an explicit `color-scheme: light` and a white
+  background before being loaded into the message view, so the rendered
+  translation no longer falls through to WebKit's dark user-agent
+  stylesheet. Mails whose own design carries explicit styling
+  (e.g. dark-themed newsletters) keep their look — only mails with no
+  color hints of their own are affected. This was a long-standing
+  readability issue inherited from the upstream project; it was never
+  fixed there.
+
 ## 1.2.1 — Evolution 3.60 verified, optional CPU quantization
 - **Evolution 3.60.1 verified**: builds and runs unchanged against the
   3.60 series on Manjaro. No EUI / EUIManager API changes were needed

src/translate-dom.c

@@ -99,6 +99,33 @@ get_current_uid (EMailDisplay *display)
  * INTERNAL HELPER FUNCTIONS
  * ============================================================================ */
 
+/* Wraps translator output in a minimal HTML document with explicit
+ * color-scheme so the rendered translation stays readable. Without this,
+ * e_web_view_load_string() loads the content raw and WebKit applies its
+ * user-agent stylesheet — which under a dark desktop theme picks a dark
+ * background, turning white emails black after translation. Evolution's
+ * regular formatter pipeline applies webview.css separately; load_string
+ * bypasses it. */
+static gchar *
+wrap_translated_for_webview (const gchar *html)
+{
+    return g_strdup_printf (
+        "<!DOCTYPE html>\n"
+        "<html>\n"
+        "<head>\n"
+        "<meta charset=\"utf-8\">\n"
+        "<meta name=\"color-scheme\" content=\"light\">\n"
+        "<style>\n"
+        ":root { color-scheme: light; }\n"
+        "html, body { background: #ffffff; color: #000000; }\n"
+        "body { padding: 8px; }\n"
+        "</style>\n"
+        "</head>\n"
+        "<body>%s</body>\n"
+        "</html>",
+        html ? html : "");
+}
+
 /**
  * apply_translation_internal:
  *
@@ -151,10 +178,13 @@ apply_translation_internal (EMailDisplay *display,
         }
     }
 
-    /* Load translated HTML into the web view FIRST — translated_html may
-     * point into s_translation_cache, and the insert below frees the old
-     * value.  e_web_view_load_string copies the string internally. */
-    e_web_view_load_string (E_WEB_VIEW (display), translated_html ? translated_html : "");
+    /* Wrap the raw translation in a minimal HTML document with explicit
+     * color-scheme: light so a dark desktop theme doesn't repaint the
+     * mail dark via WebKit's UA stylesheet (see wrap_translated_for_webview).
+     * Cache stores the unwrapped translation; wrap is idempotent across
+     * cache hits. */
+    g_autofree gchar *wrapped = wrap_translated_for_webview (translated_html);
+    e_web_view_load_string (E_WEB_VIEW (display), wrapped);
 
     /* Cache the translation by message UID */
     if (current_uid) {
@@ -164,8 +194,9 @@ apply_translation_internal (EMailDisplay *display,
     }
 
     if (verbose_logging) {
-        g_message ("[translate] Applied translated content (%zu bytes) to preview",
-                   translated_html ? strlen (translated_html) : 0UL);
+        g_message ("[translate] Applied translated content (%zu bytes raw, %zu bytes wrapped) to preview",
+                   translated_html ? strlen (translated_html) : 0UL,
+                   wrapped ? strlen (wrapped) : 0UL);
     }
 }