Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

Firefox 3 beta 5 shiny tab background?

0 views
Skip to first unread message

Nathaniel

unread,
Mar 21, 2008, 2:26:27 AM3/21/08
to
Who else things the shiny tab background in the latest nightly is way
too distracting? It makes it hard to see the tabs in the foreground,
and kind of hurts my eyes as well.

KishoreKumar Bairi

unread,
Mar 21, 2008, 2:32:08 AM3/21/08
to Nathaniel, dev-apps...@lists.mozilla.org
count my vote too.

Mike Beltzner

unread,
Mar 21, 2008, 8:37:40 AM3/21/08
to KishoreKumar Bairi, Nathaniel, dev-apps...@lists.mozilla.org
KishoreKumar Bairi wrote:
> count my vote too.

I'm assuming you're referring to the use of the Windows "Browser Tab
Bar" appearance on the tab strip in Windows Vista. That appearance is
native for the platform.

Thanks for the feedback, but I'm not sure that it's "too shiny", and
while I'm sorry that it hurts your eyes, I'd suggest adjusting the
contrast on your monitor.

cheers,
mike

David McRitchie

unread,
Mar 21, 2008, 3:57:11 PM3/21/08
to
Adjusting the contrast on the monitor will not do any good.
You'll have to go with "Flat Tabs" to make them easily readable.
I think the curved metallic tabs was introduced in 2.0.0.8, because
it seems I had to fix that a long time ago. In fact that's what made
me change things quite a bit, mostly attempting to remove added baggage.

add this to your userChrome.css in the chrome directory of your profile.

/* CHOICE -- Flat Tabs (no image obscuring of text) */
.tabbrowser-tabs, .tab-image-left, .tab-image-middle, .tab-image-right {
background-image: none !important;
background-color: transparent !important;}

My chrome changes are identified beginning in
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/tabs.htm#userchrome
includes additional coloring for tabs, and a colored underbar.

Making appearance of Firefox change to match a system is
not my idea of improvement. The skinning in Internet Explorer
is not something that should be emulated.

--
HTH,
David McRitchie,
Firefox Custom: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/firefox.htm


"Mike Beltzner" <belt...@mozilla.com> wrote in message news:mailman.134.1206103085...@lists.mozilla.org...

Nathaniel

unread,
Apr 2, 2008, 4:23:17 PM4/2/08
to
On Mar 21, 2:57 pm, "David McRitchie" <nospam@nospam> wrote:
> Adjusting the contrast on the monitor will not do any good.
> You'll have to go with  "Flat Tabs"  to make them easily readable.
> I think the curved metallic tabs was introduced in 2.0.0.8, because
> it seems I had to fix that a long time ago.   In fact that's what made
> me change things quite a bit, mostly attempting to remove added baggage.
>
> add this to your userChrome.css in the chrome directory of your profile.
>
> /* CHOICE -- Flat Tabs (no image obscuring of text) */
> .tabbrowser-tabs, .tab-image-left, .tab-image-middle, .tab-image-right {
>    background-image: none !important;      
>    background-color: transparent !important;}
>
> My chrome changes are identified beginning in
>    http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/tabs.htm#userchrome
> includes additional coloring for tabs, and a colored underbar.
>
> Making appearance of Firefox change  to match a system is
> not my idea of improvement.  The skinning in Internet Explorer
> is not something that should be emulated.  
>
> --
> HTH,
> David McRitchie,
> Firefox Custom:  http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/firefox.htm
>
> "Mike Beltzner" <beltz...@mozilla.com> wrote in messagenews:mailman.134.1206103085...@lists.mozilla.org...

> > KishoreKumar Bairi wrote:
> >> count my vote too.
>
> > I'm assuming you're referring to the use of the Windows "Browser Tab
> > Bar" appearance on the tab strip in Windows Vista. That appearance is
> > native for the platform.
>
> > Thanks for the feedback, but I'm not sure that it's "too shiny", and
> > while I'm sorry that it hurts your eyes, I'd suggest adjusting the
> > contrast on your monitor.
>
> > cheers,
> > mike

Although I agree mimicking Internet Explorer is not something to be
desired, I do like the 3-d tabs. What I don't like, is the fact that
the background of the tab bar seems shinier than the tabs themselves.
Tabs should stand out from the background to make it usable. Having a
high contrast bright background is a newbie mistake I last remember
seeing on crappy myspace pages.

Backgrounds should NOT be distracting, but be, well, backgrounds.

PlancksCnst

unread,
Apr 2, 2008, 5:24:14 PM4/2/08
to

I hate them, too! I had been using the beautiful WhiteHart theme for
a long time, but it is not compatible with FF3. So I opened up the
theme file, took out the background images blurred them and darkened
the background images. There are three images, one for the forground
tab, one for the background tabs, and one for the trough that the tabs
sit in.

Now I have a nice very subtle gradient, and it is very obvious which
tab is forgrounded.

bwa...@gmail.com

unread,
Apr 2, 2008, 6:38:16 PM4/2/08
to
On Mar 21, 2:26 am, Nathaniel <natmas...@gmail.com> wrote:

Ummm no.. They are no more distracting than the old ones. They aren't
really much glossier either. This looks MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH better
than the old background in vista which was a completely different damn
color and looked horrible. Keep it.

Alex Faaborg

unread,
Apr 2, 2008, 7:37:36 PM4/2/08
to dev-apps-firefox
The only thing I'm worried about is that the vertically centered
reflection line is intersecting the text, which I think slightly
reduces readability.
-Alex

> _______________________________________________
> dev-apps-firefox mailing list
> dev-apps...@lists.mozilla.org
> https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-apps-firefox

Mike Beltzner

unread,
Apr 2, 2008, 7:38:07 PM4/2/08
to Alex Faaborg, dev-apps-firefox
Alex Faaborg wrote:
> The only thing I'm worried about is that the vertically centered
> reflection line is intersecting the text, which I think slightly
> reduces readability.

I really don't think it's a big deal.

cheers,
mike

David McRitchie

unread,
Apr 3, 2008, 12:21:05 AM4/3/08
to
The darkened center greatly reduces readability. That is why I had to start
making userChrome change to get back to flat tabs, I think ever since
2.0.0.8, from there just gets worse.
--
HTH,
David McRitchie, extensions I use are briefly documented on my site
Firefox Custom: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/firefox.htm

"Alex Faaborg" <faa...@mozilla.com> wrote in message news:mailman.1185.120717945...@lists.mozilla.org...

ratking

unread,
Apr 3, 2008, 1:53:31 PM4/3/08
to
On 3 Apr., 01:37, Alex Faaborg <faab...@mozilla.com> wrote:
> The only thing I'm worried about is that the vertically centered  
> reflection line is intersecting the text, which I think slightly  
> reduces readability.
> -Alex

I have to agree. I'm not the one calling for total IE appearance
cloning, in fact rather not, but I do have to say that their execution
of the gradient on inactive tabs (actually active ones as well) is
much more readable. What you can see by looking at the IE tab-bar is
that that the reflection lines are placed outside the text, improving
readability (compared to having it in the middle of the text).

Look at http://xs226.xs.to/xs226/08144/ie_tabs771.jpg to see what I
mean

/ Jes

William Ehrich

unread,
Apr 6, 2008, 12:21:31 AM4/6/08
to
The dark backgrounds in the header, especially in the tabs, make the text too
hard to read. Light backgrounds should at least be available as an option.

-- Bill Ehrich

Nathaniel

unread,
Apr 11, 2008, 3:02:29 PM4/11/08
to

I think you're thinking of the tabs themselves. I'm talking about what
is behind the tabs. Hence, the background. (I can see how this would
be confusing, since the tabs themselves have backgrounds.)

So let me be clear: I think the tab's backgrounds are fine, they
barely change from the last version.

What I am complaining about, is all the other space on the tab bar
when you don't have 20 tabs open. This has DRASTICALLY changed from
the previous theme. Before it was a darker color than the tabs
themselves and the gradients were such that it didn't look like it was
a chrome plated bubble. Instead, it looked like it was pushing INTO
the screen, which is good for contrasting with the tabs that push out.
What we have now is a very shiny curved background that pushes out of
the screen as much as the tabs themselves. This means the only
difference between a tab, and the rest of the space is that tabs have
thin little borders around them, and they are less blue. I don't know
about you, but when I look at the tab bar, I want my eyes to be drawn
towards action components (something I can do something with), i.e.,
tabs, NOT a background that I should ignore.

By making something shiny, you attract the users' eye. If you make an
item they should ignore shinier than what they shouldn't, they will
keep wanting to look at it, and thus be distracted. This is basic
human instinct: shiny looks nice.

0 new messages