2060614 - [Nova][linux] Address bar has poor contrast when the window is unfocused in Dark theme

Status: REOPENED

(Firefox :: Theme, defect, P3)

Description

[Simona Badau, Desktop QA]

Attachment: Screen recording with the issue

Found in

• Nightly 155.0a1

Affected versions

• Nightly 155.0a1

Tested platforms

• Affected platforms: Ubuntu 24.04
• Unaffected platforms: macOS 26, Windows 11 x64

Preconditions

• Ensure Nova is enabled.
• The Dark theme is enabled.

Steps to reproduce

1. Open a new tab.
2. Move focus away from the Firefox window.
3. Observe the Address bar.

Expected result

• The Address bar should remain clearly visible when the window is not focused.

Actual result

• The address bar has poor contrast when the window is not focused. It blends into the gray toolbar because it is a similar shade of gray, and its border is very thin and only slightly darker, making it difficult to distinguish. See the attached screen recording for details.

Regression range

• This issue is introduced with the new Nova styling.

Additional notes

• Reproducible with the Dark theme and the System theme when the OS is also using the dark theme.
• When the "Use Linux system theme" option is unchecked in the New Tab Settings, the address bar matches the Figma design.

Comment 1

[Drew Willcoxon :adw]

I can't reproduce this. It was probably fixed by bug 2059160, which landed after you filed this. Can you confirm?

Bug 2062042 might affect this further, not sure.

Comment 2

[Simona Badau, Desktop QA]

Attachment: Screenshot with before and after the patch

Indeed, I can no longer reproduce the poor contrast issue in the Address Bar on the latest Nightly 155.0a1 - the address is now clearly visible when the bar is not focused.

However, I noticed a couple of other UI changes that I’m not sure are intentional:

1. The Sidebar is no longer the same color as the Address Bar.
2. The Tabs bar no longer has the Nova colors.

Drew, are these changes intended?

Comment 3

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

(In reply to Simona Badau, Desktop QA from comment #2)

However, I noticed a couple of other UI changes that I’m not sure are intentional:

1. The Sidebar is no longer the same color as the Address Bar.
2. The Tabs bar no longer has the Nova colors.

Since these questions are about the UI components unrelated to the address bar, I'll resolve this bug as fixed and ask the Sidebar/Tabs team whether we should open new bugs for the issues you see.

Comment 4

[Sarah Clements [:sclements] | PTO until Sept 8th]

Simona, please file this in the Firefox::sidebar component and we'll then look into it. I think these changes might be from bug 2059160.

Comment 5

[Drew Willcoxon :adw]

Yes, as Sarah said I believe those changes are from bug 2059160 and are intentional when "Use Linux system theme" is checked. The purpose of that bug was to use the system colors rather than Nova colors in that case.

Comment 6

[Simona Badau, Desktop QA]

Attachment: Screenshot with the Address bar when Linux System Theme is not used

Drew, I checked the Address Bar again when not using the Linux system theme, and it is still hard to see when the Nova style is applied.

Comment 7

[Simona Badau, Desktop QA]

(In reply to Sarah Clements [:sclements] from comment #4)

Simona, please file this in the Firefox::sidebar component and we'll then look into it. I think these changes might be from bug 2059160.

Logged Bug 2063199.

Comment 8

[Drew Willcoxon :adw]

Urlbar uses the border color called for in the Components Figma, toolbar/field/border/color, so if there's a problem here it's a Linux theme problem. I'll reopen this and move it to Themes so they can confirm.

This looks correct to me though. According to the inspector, the actual color value of --toolbar-field-border-color in the light theme is #d6d5da, which is --color-gray-20, which is the color token called for in the Figma. In the dark theme, the actual color value is #3f3e42, which is --color-gray-60, which is the dark-mode color token called for in the Figma.

These Linux colors were updated in bug 2059160, and they're correct afaict.