Comments on: Chromatabs followup http://blog.mozilla.com/dolske/2006/11/14/chromatabs-followup/ The odd parity bit Sat, 17 Oct 2009 05:26:38 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: yhancik http://blog.mozilla.com/dolske/2006/11/14/chromatabs-followup/comment-page-1/#comment-6665 yhancik Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:01:05 +0000 http://blog.mozilla.com/dolske/2006/11/14/chromatabs-followup/#comment-6665 http://www.degraeve.com/color-palette/ this might also interest you http://www.degraeve.com/color-palette/

this might also interest you

]]> By: Christopher Galpin http://blog.mozilla.com/dolske/2006/11/14/chromatabs-followup/comment-page-1/#comment-1956 Christopher Galpin Fri, 02 Feb 2007 11:55:35 +0000 http://blog.mozilla.com/dolske/2006/11/14/chromatabs-followup/#comment-1956 HashColouredTabs (and now HashColouredTabs+) has always been a favorite extension of mine, but I wasn't completely satisfied that my tabs were well enough differentiated. And then I found ChromaTabs, which is very excellent - thank you! The comment in your previous entry about Tab Mix Plus compatibility does indeed work, and is mentioned here: http://tmp.garyr.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4223 It's a rather elementary change that actually breaks ChromaTabs from working stand-alone if used exactly as given. My only problem with CT now is that too many site colors do indeed look the same. Munsell palettes, also, certainly sounds worthy of implementation, and in any sort of code dealing with perceptual separation by color. I bookmarked it. :) Now if only this "Tab Sidebar 2" that's in the works (http://www.oxymoronical.com/web/firefox/TabSidebar) would be finished... and if the colorization applied there too... hmm. Well to avoid getting overly complicated: It would be excellent to bring more organization to Firefox tabs. These different colors in ChromaTabs help me see the similar sites easier, but it doesn't do anything like automatically keep them side-by-side. It would be very useful to be able to sort tabs by domain name. With the release of this Tab Sidebar 2 in combination with HashColouredTabs (which I would *hope* would apply to the sidebar) I could at least do some quick and easy dragging and dropping to get things better organized... and I'll dream of a "Sort By"... ;) Just some input and a thank you. HashColouredTabs (and now HashColouredTabs+) has always been a favorite extension of mine, but I wasn’t completely satisfied that my tabs were well enough differentiated. And then I found ChromaTabs, which is very excellent – thank you!

The comment in your previous entry about Tab Mix Plus compatibility does indeed work, and is mentioned here: http://tmp.garyr.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4223
It’s a rather elementary change that actually breaks ChromaTabs from working stand-alone if used exactly as given.

My only problem with CT now is that too many site colors do indeed look the same. Munsell palettes, also, certainly sounds worthy of implementation, and in any sort of code dealing with perceptual separation by color. I bookmarked it. :)

Now if only this “Tab Sidebar 2″ that’s in the works (http://www.oxymoronical.com/web/firefox/TabSidebar) would be finished… and if the colorization applied there too… hmm. Well to avoid getting overly complicated: It would be excellent to bring more organization to Firefox tabs. These different colors in ChromaTabs help me see the similar sites easier, but it doesn’t do anything like automatically keep them side-by-side.

It would be very useful to be able to sort tabs by domain name. With the release of this Tab Sidebar 2 in combination with HashColouredTabs (which I would *hope* would apply to the sidebar) I could at least do some quick and easy dragging and dropping to get things better organized… and I’ll dream of a “Sort By”… ;)

Just some input and a thank you.

]]> By: Sam Hayes http://blog.mozilla.com/dolske/2006/11/14/chromatabs-followup/comment-page-1/#comment-1839 Sam Hayes Mon, 29 Jan 2007 17:52:18 +0000 http://blog.mozilla.com/dolske/2006/11/14/chromatabs-followup/#comment-1839 Very odd. I love this extension...it makes my tabs exceedingly more readable than they were before. But I had to quit using it. I started having trouble with page scrolling. I spin my mouse wheel, there is a two second pause, and then the page scrolls. So I started disabling/uninstalling extensions. I never would have guessed it, but the culprit was Chromatabs! Once I removed Chromatabs, no more scrolling problems. Hmmmm? Very odd. I love this extension…it makes my tabs exceedingly more readable than they were before. But I had to quit using it. I started having trouble with page scrolling. I spin my mouse wheel, there is a two second pause, and then the page scrolls. So I started disabling/uninstalling extensions. I never would have guessed it, but the culprit was Chromatabs! Once I removed Chromatabs, no more scrolling problems. Hmmmm?

]]> By: Santiago Roza http://blog.mozilla.com/dolske/2006/11/14/chromatabs-followup/comment-page-1/#comment-26 Santiago Roza Sat, 18 Nov 2006 14:08:46 +0000 http://blog.mozilla.com/dolske/2006/11/14/chromatabs-followup/#comment-26 I really like the idea, but I don't think it will have much use until the colors are visually related to the site, as suggested in previous posts (Slashdot = green, Mozilla = red, etc). The color combinations could be derived from many methods: - the site's HTML / CSS / whatever. - the site's banner logo and/or favicon (analyzing this could be tricky I guess). - a hardcoded list included in the extension, with contributions from users (which would be the most accurate way IMHO). Another suggestions for improving the extension could be: - add support for more than one color, like PageStyle2Tab, which would be great for sites like BBC News (reddish / blue), Amazon (orange / blue) or ESPN (red / grey): https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1523/previews/ - add support for Aging-Tabs-like behaviour, for marking differences between tabs from the same site: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3542/previews/ - add support for "colored icons", not just colored tabs, for a more subtle approach, like HashColouredTabs: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/437/previews/ BTW, I don't think you'll find many solutions to the "tabs look too similar" problem... there's a limited palette which we can differentiate easily, and you won't be able to change that. But you could improve things significantly, by adding the two-color support and Aging-Tabs-like support suggested earlier, and maybe an optional feature for moving tabs apart from each other, when they have a similar color (like you said: all Google tabs to the right, all Yahoo tabs to the left, etc). In order to mark which tab is active, wouldn't it be enough to just make its title bold? I really like the idea, but I don’t think it will have much use until the colors are visually related to the site, as suggested in previous posts (Slashdot = green, Mozilla = red, etc).

The color combinations could be derived from many methods:
- the site’s HTML / CSS / whatever.
- the site’s banner logo and/or favicon (analyzing this could be tricky I guess).
- a hardcoded list included in the extension, with contributions from users (which would be the most accurate way IMHO).

Another suggestions for improving the extension could be:
- add support for more than one color, like PageStyle2Tab, which would be great for sites like BBC News (reddish / blue), Amazon (orange / blue) or ESPN (red / grey):
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1523/previews/
- add support for Aging-Tabs-like behaviour, for marking differences between tabs from the same site:
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3542/previews/
- add support for “colored icons”, not just colored tabs, for a more subtle approach, like HashColouredTabs:
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/437/previews/

BTW, I don’t think you’ll find many solutions to the “tabs look too similar” problem… there’s a limited palette which we can differentiate easily, and you won’t be able to change that.

But you could improve things significantly, by adding the two-color support and Aging-Tabs-like support suggested earlier, and maybe an optional feature for moving tabs apart from each other, when they have a similar color (like you said: all Google tabs to the right, all Yahoo tabs to the left, etc).

In order to mark which tab is active, wouldn’t it be enough to just make its title bold?

]]> By: Justin http://blog.mozilla.com/dolske/2006/11/14/chromatabs-followup/comment-page-1/#comment-17 Justin Wed, 15 Nov 2006 03:58:44 +0000 http://blog.mozilla.com/dolske/2006/11/14/chromatabs-followup/#comment-17 Håkan: Yeah, a drop shadow would help... Although I don't know if it would be enough, since the shadow would only show up on one side of the tab. You'd probably want to add space around the tab too, which might be hard with the current code (although that idea has been suggested as part of tab-grouping, so it might need to be supported anyway)... So, who wants to Photoshop up a UI mockup? ;-) greggles: Yeah, the current Wordpress theme is just one of the less-sucky ones available on this install. This is still basically a new server, and refining the themes is still something we need to do. Håkan: Yeah, a drop shadow would help… Although I don’t know if it would be enough, since the shadow would only show up on one side of the tab. You’d probably want to add space around the tab too, which might be hard with the current code (although that idea has been suggested as part of tab-grouping, so it might need to be supported anyway)… So, who wants to Photoshop up a UI mockup? ;-)

greggles: Yeah, the current Wordpress theme is just one of the less-sucky ones available on this install. This is still basically a new server, and refining the themes is still something we need to do.

]]> By: Andrew Pennebaker http://blog.mozilla.com/dolske/2006/11/14/chromatabs-followup/comment-page-1/#comment-16 Andrew Pennebaker Tue, 14 Nov 2006 18:25:02 +0000 http://blog.mozilla.com/dolske/2006/11/14/chromatabs-followup/#comment-16 It really is hard to tell which tab is active. Also, I thought Chromatabs was supposed to take the most prominent color from a web page and use that for the tab color. Digg would be blue or yellow, for example. The color assignments seem random. It really is hard to tell which tab is active. Also, I thought Chromatabs was supposed to take the most prominent color from a web page and use that for the tab color. Digg would be blue or yellow, for example. The color assignments seem random.

]]> By: greggles http://blog.mozilla.com/dolske/2006/11/14/chromatabs-followup/comment-page-1/#comment-15 greggles Tue, 14 Nov 2006 15:12:18 +0000 http://blog.mozilla.com/dolske/2006/11/14/chromatabs-followup/#comment-15 Thanks for pointing out all of these great tabs. It's funny to me that the blog of a usability guy has gray on white for the text of the body. Could you make the content the nice dark blue and the titles and such the gray? It would be much easier to read :) Thanks for pointing out all of these great tabs.

It’s funny to me that the blog of a usability guy has gray on white for the text of the body. Could you make the content the nice dark blue and the titles and such the gray? It would be much easier to read :)

]]> By: Ian http://blog.mozilla.com/dolske/2006/11/14/chromatabs-followup/comment-page-1/#comment-14 Ian Tue, 14 Nov 2006 10:33:09 +0000 http://blog.mozilla.com/dolske/2006/11/14/chromatabs-followup/#comment-14 How about colouring the tabs only if there is no favicon? (and providing different favicons for the Mozilla sites which needs to be done anyway) How about colouring the tabs only if there is no favicon? (and providing different favicons for the Mozilla sites which needs to be done anyway)

]]> By: Håkan http://blog.mozilla.com/dolske/2006/11/14/chromatabs-followup/comment-page-1/#comment-13 Håkan Tue, 14 Nov 2006 10:15:15 +0000 http://blog.mozilla.com/dolske/2006/11/14/chromatabs-followup/#comment-13 One way to solve the "Difficult to see which tab is active"-problem might be to give it some kind of shadow maybe? One way to solve the “Difficult to see which tab is active”-problem might be to give it some kind of shadow maybe?

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