Gestures
Purpose
Gestures are a way to perform common tasks faster and more intuitively. They should never be the only way to perform an action, but rather be treated like a keyboard shortcut or a context menu item.
Principles
Unless you are creating a video game, avoid using non-standard gestures. Don't abuse the standard gestures to trigger non-standard actions. For example don't use a pinch gesture to delete an item; only use that gesture for zooming or scaling content.
Systemwide gestures
Avoid interfering with systemwide screen edge gestures like pulling down the top panel on Plasma Mobile.
Desktop
| Gesture | Action |
|---|---|
| Switch workspace Show app overview |
Mobile
| Gesture | Action |
|---|---|
| Edge swipe top | Pull down the top panel |
Application gestures
Gestures are commonly used both on desktop and on mobile. They can be used to navigate, trigger actions, or manipulate content.
Tap
A tap is handled like a mouse click. It can be used to navigate, trigger actions, or manipulate content.
Long press
A Long press can trigger additional actions on an item or a control or enter a different mode.
Swipe
Swipes can execute actions on list items and navigate between views.
Swipe navigation in a column view.
Pinch
Scales content
Rotate
Rotate content.
Mobile
Additionally to the common gestures, there a gestures especially for Plasma Mobile.
Swipe to reveal
Reveal on-demand actions for list items.
Edge swipe left
Open the global drawer.
Edge swipe right
Open the context drawer.