diff --git a/src/guiengine/widgets/dynamic_ribbon_widget.cpp b/src/guiengine/widgets/dynamic_ribbon_widget.cpp
index 524b04225..d5ccd2b5d 100644
--- a/src/guiengine/widgets/dynamic_ribbon_widget.cpp
+++ b/src/guiengine/widgets/dynamic_ribbon_widget.cpp
@@ -66,19 +66,26 @@ DynamicRibbonWidget::~DynamicRibbonWidget()
 /** Function that estimates the area (in squared pixels) that ribbon icons
   * would take given a number of rows (used to estimate the best number of
   * rows)
+  * \param[out] visibleItems number of items that can be displayed in this
+  *                          configuration
+  * \param[out] takenArea    how many square pixels are taken by the icons
+  * \param[out] itemHeight   how high each item would be in this configuration
   */
-int estimateIconAreaFor(const int rowCount, const int wantedIconWidth,
-                        const int width, const int height,
-                        const float iconAspectRatio)
+void estimateIconAreaFor(const int rowCount, const int wantedIconWidth,
+                         const int width, const int height,
+                         const float iconAspectRatio,
+                         int* visibleItems, int* takenArea, int* itemHeight)
 {
     const int row_height = height / rowCount;
 
     float icon_height = (float)row_height;
     float icon_width = row_height * iconAspectRatio;
+    *itemHeight = int(icon_height);
     
     const int icons_per_row = std::min(int(width / icon_width), int(width / wantedIconWidth));
     
-    return int(icons_per_row * rowCount * icon_width * icon_height);
+    *visibleItems = icons_per_row * rowCount ;
+    *takenArea = int(*visibleItems * icon_width * icon_height);
 }
 
 void DynamicRibbonWidget::add()
@@ -177,17 +184,36 @@ void DynamicRibbonWidget::add()
     const float aspect_ratio = (float)m_child_width / (float)m_child_height;
     // const int count = m_items.size();
     
-    int max_area_so_far = -1;
+    int max_score_so_far = -1;
     m_row_amount = -1;
     
     for (int row_count = 1; row_count < 10; row_count++)
     {
-        const int area = estimateIconAreaFor(row_count, m_child_width,
-                                             m_w, m_h - m_label_height, aspect_ratio);
-        if (area > max_area_so_far)
+        int visible_items;
+        int taken_area;
+        int item_height;
+        estimateIconAreaFor(row_count, m_child_width, m_w, m_h - m_label_height,
+                            aspect_ratio, &visible_items, &taken_area, &item_height);
+        
+        
+        // FIXME: this system to determine the best number of columns is really complicated!
+        // the score is computed from taken screen area AND visible item count.
+        // A number of rows that allows for the screen space to be used a lot will
+        // get a better score. A number of rows that allows showing very few items
+        // will be penalized. A configuration that makes items much smaller than
+        // requested in the XML file will also be penalized.
+        const int score = int(log(2*visible_items) *
+                              std::min((float)item_height / (float)m_child_height, 1.0f) *
+                              taken_area);
+        
+        //std::cout << "   " << row_count << " rows : " <<  visible_items << " visible items; area = "
+        //          << taken_area << "; size penalty = " << std::min((float)item_height / (float)m_child_height, 1.0f)
+        //          << "; score = " << score << "\n";
+        
+        if (score > max_score_so_far)
         {
             m_row_amount = row_count;
-            max_area_so_far = area;
+            max_score_so_far = score;
         }
     }
     assert(m_row_amount != -1);