changing firefox tabs

[Skaperen]

i would like to change the color of which tab is the currently viewed tab in firefox because when i have a lot of small tabs which is often the case for me i find it hard to see which tab i am currently at. if an extension exists to do this, i'd like one that can give another color to the previously viewed tab so i can go back quickly. even better would be a (fading) rainbow of colors for a few previous tabs, like red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet. how can i do something like this? the current method is just too hard for my age old eyes to see very well.

[crip720]

I have not used them myself, but do remember reading about a few extensions for tab management. A google search for 'firefox tab management' should point you in the right direction.

[Holger_Gehrke]

Or you could set up a userChrome.css file.

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

/* red background on the active tab */
tab.tabbrowser-tab hbox.tab-content[selected=true] {
  background-color:red !important;
}

Copy and paste this into an editor and save as userChrome.css in ~/.mozilla/firefox/your_profile_directory_here/chrome/ (replace the red part).
The browser reads userChrome.css when it starts, so a restart of the browser should be necessary. To find the right selector to change other parts of the browser use the Browser-Tools from Extras->Web-Developer.

Holger

[Skaperen]

i added the file and restarted Firefox. there is no change. all the tabs are still the same one shade of gray.

[Holger_Gehrke]

That's strange. With these settings in ~/.mozilla/firefox/39z18i5t.default/chrome/userChrome.css I get what you can see in the attached image.

Holger

Firefox-red-tab.png

[Dennis N]

Just changing the Firefox theme might help. Many show a difference in the active tab that makes it easy to pick out. See attached screenshot of Adwaita Arc Firefox theme.

[Skaperen]

Just changing the Firefox theme might help. Many show a difference in the active tab that makes it easy to pick out. See attached screenshot of Adwaita Arc Firefox theme.

how do i change theme? i see nothing for this in preferences. is Adwaita Arc included?

[Dennis N]

how do i change theme? i see nothing for this in preferences. is Adwaita Arc included?

Open the Firefox Menu (at far right of address bar), then
Customize > Themes > Get More Themes.
On next screen, there is a search box at the top if you know the name (or part of it), or you can browse the categories.

I think you need to briefly install a theme to see what it really looks like. If you don't like it, click Remove and try another. You can switch between installed themes from the Add-ons Manager:
Tools > Add-Ons

[bernard010]

I like your idea of changing tab colors. Let me know if you find one.
I tried all of the other Themes did not care for any of them. Firefox even has Stylish - custom themes. It is a Firefox Extension with over 1000 themes. That is all I could find.
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/stylish/

Go to ad-on's or ctl+shift+A

[Skaperen]

Open the Firefox Menu (at far right of address bar), then
Customize > Themes > Get More Themes.
On next screen, there is a search box at the top if you know the name (or part of it), or you can browse the categories.

i go to Customize but there is no Themes there.