LilMozilla tabs

[lar3ry]

One of the problems that I have with every Phoenix theme out there--yes, I've actually downloaded and installed just about every one--is that, with one exception, none of them provide me with a usable tab bar.

To see what I mean, here's a screen shot of the tabs that I currently have on my screen using the "MZ" skin:

Quick: Which tab is the active tab??? (Hint: it's the middle one!)

Notice how all the tabs have that dark band through them?

I'm using Linux/RedHat 8 with KDE managing my windows. Since Phoenix is built using GTK, I imagine that this is an artifact of GNOME theming on a KDE desktop (I'm not 100% sure on this, of course).

Anyway, LilMozilla is the only theme that actually gives me usable tabs with the active tab easily seen:

The problem with that particular skin is that the icons are REALLY tiny, and the bookmark folder icons are rather ugly. (To be fair, its just that Lilmozilla's icon set is no match for the pretty ones that have been recently created for Phoenix.)

I've tried to figure out what Lilmozilla is doing RIGHT to skin my tabs, hoping that I might be able to add some lines to userChrome.css so that I can get those nice tabs on some other theme. So far, I have been unsuccessful.

Can anybody help me with this? It's frustrating having to squint to figure out which is my current tab when I use any other theme.

[lynchknot]

I don't think it's the Phoenix theme - at least for me. This is how my windows theme renders my tabs (I know I need to adjust the height for favicons)

[lar3ry]

I don't think it's the Phoenix theme - at least for me. This is how my windows theme renders my tabs (I know I need to adjust the height for favicons)

I know that my problem is probably specific to the fact that I'm running RedHat 8.0 and KDE. I don't see the tabs problem when I view on my kids' system. I have considered many times in the past filing a Bugzilla report on this display problem, but I keep hoping that there's a simple or easy userChrome.css workaround instead.

This is definitely a Phoenix issue--at least for the platform that I use the most. As I mentioned, Lilmozilla seems to render my tabs beautifully. No other Phoenix theme (including the lovely ones you have made, lynchknot) renders useful tabs for me on this platform.

[laszlo]

This should help you.

[lynchknot]

I agree, I think there probably is a workaround for this - perhaps one of the knowledgeable members here will respond here soon.

**edit** well I spoke too late! There you go!!!

[asa]

I know that my problem is probably specific to the fact that I'm running RedHat 8.0 and KDE. I don't see the tabs problem when I view on my kids' system. I have considered many times in the past filing a Bugzilla report on this display problem, but I keep hoping that there's a simple or easy userChrome.css workaround instead.

This is definitely a Phoenix issue--at least for the platform that I use the most. As I mentioned, Lilmozilla seems to render my tabs beautifully. No other Phoenix theme (including the lovely ones you have made, lynchknot) renders useful tabs for me on this platform.

Phoenix' default theme (and most theme authors aren't overriding it because it's mostly desired) utilizes the system tab style. This is implemented for winXP and GTK themes so that if a user changes themes with a different tab look then Phoenix picks that up. If theme authors override that and style the tabs in a way that is appealing to that particular theme author then it's very likely that the tabs will clash with some (or most) GTK and winXP themes (including the OS defaults) making the theme look bad for a lot of people.

Right now we have code which does this for GTK, Aqua and winXP. There is a patch sitting in a bug that implements the nsITheme API for win98/NT/2K so soon (hopefully) we will respect the system style there as well. I don't think anyone is working on implementing this for the KDE toolkit but "Mozilla is accepting patches"

In the mean time you can alter your userchrome and there are many tips on doing so in this forum or you can find a theme that overrides the native tab syle to something more your liking. Good luck.

--Asa

[lar3ry]

This should help you.

Actually, it doesn't. Even with the word '!important.'

I actually looked at the contents of lilmozilla.jar to find out how that theme managed to get tabs to look well on my system, but I was never able to do anything other than set the font (and make it bold).

In the mean time you can alter your userchrome and there are many tips on doing so in this forum or you can find a theme that overrides the native tab syle to something more your liking. Good luck.

I've tried just about every tip, and even tried running the gnome-control-center application to switch themes, but none of the four themes available seem to have any effect on the tabs within Phoenix. The mods to userChrome.css (eg, the background suggestion from Phoenix Help) don't make any difference.

It's rather frustrating... I know that this can be overridden. Figuring out the magical incantation within userChrome or whatever is the hard part.

[cdn]

... but none of the four themes available ...

where are there only four themes ?

http://themes.mozdev.org/phoenix/ [*] has at least 9,
and http://texturizer.net/phoenix/themes.html has yet more

* n.b. use link bar on right to get to others from here

[asa]

It's rather frustrating... I know that this can be overridden. Figuring out the magical incantation within userChrome or whatever is the hard part.

I use RH8 and tabs look fine here. <br>
<img src=../weblogs/asa/phoenix/tabs.png><br>
--Asa

[lar3ry]

... but none of the four themes available ...

where are there only four themes ?

http://themes.mozdev.org/phoenix/ [*] has at least 9,
and http://texturizer.net/phoenix/themes.html has yet more

I was referring to GTK themes distributed with RedHat 8.0.

Anyway, I found some userChrome.css that makes things a bit more readable for me, I've only included the things that make the tabs more visible on my setup. I also have font settings, etc. that are unrelated to this.

Code: Select all

@namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul")

tab,
tab:hover,
tab:hover:active {
    background-color:   rgb(192,192,192) !important;
    color:              black !important;
    font-style:         normal !important;
    font-weight:        normal !important;
}

tab[selected="true"],
tab[selected="true"]:hover,
tab[selected="true"]:hover:active {
    background-color:   white !important;
    color:              black !important;
    font-weight:        bold !important;
    padding-left:       5px !important;
}

tab > .tab-text {
    background-color:   rgb(192,192,192) !important;
    color:              black !important;
    padding-left:       5px !important;
    border-left-width:  2px !important;
    border-right-width: 2px !important;
}

tab[selected="true"] > .tab-text {
    background-color:   white !important;
    color:              black !important;
    padding-left:       5px !important;
    border-left-width:  2px !important;
    border-right-width: 2px !important;
}

.bookmark-group > .toolbarbutton-text {
    font-weight:        normal !important;
}

/* bookmark folders */

.bookmark-item > .toolbarbutton-text {
    font-weight:        normal !important;
}

menubar, menubutton, menulist, menu, menuitem {
    font-weight:        normal !important;
}

[djst]

... but none of the four themes available ...

where are there only four themes ?

http://themes.mozdev.org/phoenix/ [*] has at least 9,
and http://texturizer.net/phoenix/themes.html has yet more

* n.b. use link bar on right to get to others from here

OT: Why is the Pinball theme bold in the list at http://themes.mozdev.org/phoenix/ ? It's bold no matter what theme page you go to.