380381 - Winstripe background tabs polish

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, enhancement)

Description

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Attachment: screenshot without background color

(In reply to bug 350690 comment 85)
> (In reply to bug 350690 comment 80)
> > (In reply to bug 350690 comment 77)
> > 
> > > I like https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=237225 more than
> > > https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=237224, as I like having just
> > > the selected tab be lighter.  
> > 
> > I agree that having the selected tab lighter is good, but not at the expense of
> > having the background tabs disappear into the tabstrip. One of the goals of the
> > redesign of the tabstrip was to have the background tabs (on both platforms) be
> > visually distinct from the tabstrip - I feel they're too transparent in the
> > first one.
> 
> From the screenshots I had agreed with Seth, but after testing on Linux I think
> I agree with Jay.  I actually can't easily tell where my background tabs are or
> how many I have with the current patch on this.  I then tried testing with the
> dialog color behind everything, but I think I screwed up the patch, because it
> didn't do what I wanted :).  So I'd like to see a patch that puts the dialog
> color behind everything; I think that would perhaps be better.

I think this needs re-evaluation, as the tabstrip's background images was changed afterwards (bug 350689).

Comment 1

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Attachment: screenshot with background color

Comment 2

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Attachment: screenshots with tabstrip

Apparently removing the background color makes background tabs *more* distinct from the tabstrip.

Comment 3

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Attachment: patch

Comment 4

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Attachment: patch without typo

Comment 5

[Peter Kasting]

The "screenshots with tabstrip" shot makes me a little anxious, as this change doesn't seem to play quite as nicely there as in your first pair of shots, but that first pair is a definite win.  As long as this improves things on all background colors (make sure to test on black/dark backgrounds), I'd say it should go in.  Then again, my opinion doesn't count for anything on this one, as I'm not even really contributing anymore, let alone a UI reviewer!

Comment 6

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

The darker the background the lesser should this change make a difference. (black means no difference at all.)

Comment 7

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Attachment: updated patch

The original goal was to make background tabs more distinct from the active tab. To this, I add to bring Winstripe a bit closer to what mconnor plans for Pinstripe: http://steelgryphon.com/blog/?p=105

Comment 8

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Attachment: updated images

Comment 9

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Attachment: screenshot: before

Comment 10

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Attachment: screenshot: after

Comment 11

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Attachment: updated images v2

tiny fix for some of the images.
not updating the screenshot, as I don't think anybody would see the difference ;)

Comment 12

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

Comment on attachment 269591 [details]
screenshot: after

This is mostly there, but the removal of the outline on background tabs now results in there being too much empty space between background tabs.

I like the darkening and removal of the white outline and the reduction in tab height, but keep the width the same.

Comment 13

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Attachment: updated images v3

Comment 14

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Attachment: screenshot: after

Comment 15

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Attachment: patch, synced with trunk

Comment 16

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

Comment on attachment 276951 [details]
screenshot: after

Nice. Very nice.

Comment 17

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Attachment: patch, synced with trunk

would somebody please check this in?

Comment 18

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Attachment: images, synced with trunk

Comment 19

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

This patch no longer applies cleanly, can you post an updated version please.

Comment 20

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Attachment: patch, synced with trunk

Comment 21

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

Checking in browser/themes/winstripe/browser/browser.css;
/cvsroot/mozilla/browser/themes/winstripe/browser/browser.css,v  <--  browser.css
new revision: 1.79; previous revision: 1.78
done
Checking in browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/alltabs-box-overflow-end-bkgnd-hover.png;
/cvsroot/mozilla/browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/alltabs-box-overflow-end-bkgnd-hover.png,v  <--  alltabs-box-overflow-end-bkgnd-hover.png
new revision: 1.3; previous revision: 1.2
done
Checking in browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/alltabs-box-overflow-end-bkgnd.png;
/cvsroot/mozilla/browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/alltabs-box-overflow-end-bkgnd.png,v  <--  alltabs-box-overflow-end-bkgnd.png
new revision: 1.3; previous revision: 1.2
done
Checking in browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/alltabs-box-overflow-start-bkgnd-hover.png;
/cvsroot/mozilla/browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/alltabs-box-overflow-start-bkgnd-hover.png,v  <--  alltabs-box-overflow-start-bkgnd-hover.png
new revision: 1.3; previous revision: 1.2
done
Checking in browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/alltabs-box-overflow-start-bkgnd.png;
/cvsroot/mozilla/browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/alltabs-box-overflow-start-bkgnd.png,v  <--  alltabs-box-overflow-start-bkgnd.png
new revision: 1.3; previous revision: 1.2
done
Checking in browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/tab-arrow-end-bkgnd-disabled.png;
/cvsroot/mozilla/browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/tab-arrow-end-bkgnd-disabled.png,v  <--  tab-arrow-end-bkgnd-disabled.png
new revision: 1.3; previous revision: 1.2
done
Checking in browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/tab-arrow-end-bkgnd-enabled.png;
/cvsroot/mozilla/browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/tab-arrow-end-bkgnd-enabled.png,v  <--  tab-arrow-end-bkgnd-enabled.png
new revision: 1.3; previous revision: 1.2
done
Checking in browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/tab-arrow-end-bkgnd-hover.png;
/cvsroot/mozilla/browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/tab-arrow-end-bkgnd-hover.png,v  <--  tab-arrow-end-bkgnd-hover.png
new revision: 1.3; previous revision: 1.2
done
Checking in browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/tab-arrow-start-bkgnd-disabled.png;
/cvsroot/mozilla/browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/tab-arrow-start-bkgnd-disabled.png,v  <--  tab-arrow-start-bkgnd-disabled.png
new revision: 1.3; previous revision: 1.2
done
Checking in browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/tab-arrow-start-bkgnd-enabled.png;
/cvsroot/mozilla/browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/tab-arrow-start-bkgnd-enabled.png,v  <--  tab-arrow-start-bkgnd-enabled.png
new revision: 1.3; previous revision: 1.2
done
Checking in browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/tab-arrow-start-bkgnd-hover.png;
/cvsroot/mozilla/browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/tab-arrow-start-bkgnd-hover.png,v  <--  tab-arrow-start-bkgnd-hover.png
new revision: 1.3; previous revision: 1.2
done
Checking in browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/tab-left-bkgnd.png;
/cvsroot/mozilla/browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/tab-left-bkgnd.png,v  <--  tab-left-bkgnd.png
new revision: 1.3; previous revision: 1.2
done
Checking in browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/tab-middle-bkgnd.png;
/cvsroot/mozilla/browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/tab-middle-bkgnd.png,v  <--  tab-middle-bkgnd.png
new revision: 1.3; previous revision: 1.2
done
Checking in browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/tab-right-bkgnd.png;
/cvsroot/mozilla/browser/themes/winstripe/browser/tabbrowser/tab-right-bkgnd.png,v  <--  tab-right-bkgnd.png
new revision: 1.3; previous revision: 1.2
done

Comment 22

[Steve England [:stevee]]

Attachment: before / after animated gif.

The darker frame is after the polish.

Comment 23

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

maybe also interesting for others:

<stevee> for me it has made it harder to distinguish between inactive tabs and the tabbar
<stevee> and also the tab dropdown is harder to notice?
<dao> well, we have only one color to play with (-moz-dialog)
<dao> if you extend the contrast between the active tab and background tabs, that lowers the contrast between background tabs and the tab strip
<dao> that's not ideal, but not particularly a usability problem IMHO
<stevee> hmm.. just feels like it's been dulled more than 'polished' for me on win2k
<dao> it's not literally polished, just revised