<![CDATA[[Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode]]>On certain displays, it is very hard to see which tab is selected in the tab bar when using dark mode.

Here is a screen shot of current behavior. The "Speed Dial" tab is selected, and the window has the focus, but the selected tab is almost indistinguishable from the adjacent, unselected, gmail tab.
Screen Shot 2019-05-22 at 9.46.49 AM.png

In case the screen shot shows up differently for you, here is a photo of the same thing. Again, you can see how incredibly difficult it is to distinguish the Speed Dial tab as selected vs the adjacent Gmail tab.
IMG_2032.png

This is using a Macbook
Opera Version: 60.0.3255.95 (up to date). Stable.
System:Mac OS X 10.14.5 64-bit (up to date)
Display: External monitor, BenQ LCD BL3201PH 32" Widescreen Backlit IPS 4K
Display is in Scaled mode in Settings, "looks like 2560 x 1440"

Suggestion:

  • Use the grey shade that is currently used for hovering over a tab to distinguish the selected tab. Use a different shade for hover, likely a somewhat darker one; hover is less in need of strong distinction since you have the mouse pointer to help plus the change in tone as you move the pointer across the tab bar which will catch the eye.
  • Make the text of the selected tab bright white to help identify (Chrome does this already).
  • Make sure the selected tab is clearly visible even when a different window has focus; for instance, use the same lighter shade of grey for the tab in the tab bar, but use bright white text only if the tab has focus within the window but also the window has focus within the desktop (presuming you want to distinguish when window has focus as well).

Why?

  • When looking to change window, or change tab, very frustrating to not be able to tell which tab has focus
  • Especially an issue when you have the same web site open twice in two different tabs, you are in one of the two tabs now, and you want to select the other one - but looking at the tab bar it is hard to see which of the two is selected and which not.

Thanks!

]]>https://forums.opera.com/topic/32619/implemented-make-selected-tab-more-visible-in-dark-modeRSS for NodeSat, 16 May 2026 06:54:15 GMTWed, 22 May 2019 17:17:55 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Thu, 16 Nov 2023 21:54:30 GMT]]>I have been having more trouble finding the active tab than ever now that tab islands have been implemented, which paint the connected tabs with a color halfway to the color of the active tab.

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/334094https://forums.opera.com/post/334094Thu, 16 Nov 2023 21:54:30 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Thu, 16 Nov 2023 20:35:51 GMT]]>Can someone tell me how is this implemented? 4 years later and i have exactly the same issue in dark mode

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/334090https://forums.opera.com/post/334090Thu, 16 Nov 2023 20:35:51 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Sun, 24 May 2020 12:29:28 GMT]]>Open tab should be highlighted with much visible silver tone colour, keep closing wrong tab, very annoying.
Also "x" to close tab should have been on the right, why ? When the tabs open towards right, why on earth you'd put the close "x" on the left side ?
I love opera and the dark theme but these two things needs must be corrected.

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/212162https://forums.opera.com/post/212162Sun, 24 May 2020 12:29:28 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Sat, 01 Feb 2020 14:27:07 GMT]]>I notice that when you mouse over a tab it goes distinctively grey but once activated it turns to indistinguishable black. Why not keep it as grey? That would surely be an easy fix. Contrast this with the dark theme in Vivaldi for example. The latter is fine.

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/197712https://forums.opera.com/post/197712Sat, 01 Feb 2020 14:27:07 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Wed, 08 Jan 2020 16:26:50 GMT]]>They could at least create a couple of different dark themes, letting users select the one they like

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/194590https://forums.opera.com/post/194590Wed, 08 Jan 2020 16:26:50 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Sun, 05 Jan 2020 18:21:05 GMT]]>I agree 100%. It's really sad seeing they aren't doing something about this after so long time. I also prefer the older gray color as well, by the way.

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/194311https://forums.opera.com/post/194311Sun, 05 Jan 2020 18:21:05 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Fri, 03 Jan 2020 12:24:43 GMT]]>Jeez - I wish this was fixed (having once again closed a tab that I thought was the one I had just finished reading, but turned out to be another one).

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/194111https://forums.opera.com/post/194111Fri, 03 Jan 2020 12:24:43 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Tue, 01 Oct 2019 05:52:58 GMT]]>I also find the difficulty in distinguishing the active tab from the other tabs while in dark mode to be the most frustrating thing about using Opera.

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/183200https://forums.opera.com/post/183200Tue, 01 Oct 2019 05:52:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Sun, 08 Sep 2019 15:48:37 GMT]]>@newworldman said in Make selected tab more visible in dark mode:

@jamesconstance I get a popup saying "opera doesn't support chromium theme format." How did you get round this?

I used Brave browser 😃

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/181319https://forums.opera.com/post/181319Sun, 08 Sep 2019 15:48:37 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Sun, 08 Sep 2019 15:41:23 GMT]]>@jamesconstance I get a popup saying "opera doesn't support chromium theme format." How did you get round this?

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/181318https://forums.opera.com/post/181318Sun, 08 Sep 2019 15:41:23 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Sun, 08 Sep 2019 09:02:17 GMT]]>Agree.

I quite like this high contast theme from the chrome web store - it uses a different colour for the selected tab :https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/high-contrast-colorful/cdfdkmklcjlnnnlnplffpdiekfhkpbme

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/181298https://forums.opera.com/post/181298Sun, 08 Sep 2019 09:02:17 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Mon, 08 Jul 2019 10:23:52 GMT]]>This is also a problem for me. Please fix this.

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/175382https://forums.opera.com/post/175382Mon, 08 Jul 2019 10:23:52 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Tue, 18 Jun 2019 09:35:49 GMT]]>@concretable A lot of the time I have too many tabs open to read them anyway (69 right now). I do quite often make use of tab search, which I'd probably use. Typing just a part of the page title or site name is generally enough to find what you want. The incremental search works well.

(I customised Opera so that the instant search does tab-search by default using F2).

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/173913https://forums.opera.com/post/173913Tue, 18 Jun 2019 09:35:49 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Thu, 13 Jun 2019 17:36:35 GMT]]>I think it is high time that the developers did something about the interface. I have sent bug reports twice with screen shots, and it has had no effect. I find it difficult to read the tab/toolbar interface at all, never mind telling which tab is selected in dark mode. The one thing that is easy to read is the context menu. Why nobody can seem to make the text in the toolbar area the same colour as in the context menu, I have no clue.

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/173386https://forums.opera.com/post/173386Thu, 13 Jun 2019 17:36:35 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Thu, 13 Jun 2019 13:39:38 GMT]]>I agree. It's one of my bugbears. A simple solution would be to do as Firefox does. E.g., have a blue bar at the top of the active tab.

39eb76ca-9be8-45f3-8484-887e0579eede-image.png

Windows does similar with the active applications on the task bar.

f2461d3b-930b-4528-8b99-b6df732245f9-image.png

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/173341https://forums.opera.com/post/173341Thu, 13 Jun 2019 13:39:38 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Sun, 02 Jun 2019 00:18:30 GMT]]>I totally agree.

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/172460https://forums.opera.com/post/172460Sun, 02 Jun 2019 00:18:30 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Sat, 01 Jun 2019 16:30:12 GMT]]>Strong agree. I am having a huge amount of trouble seeing which tab is active and keep almost closing the wrong one. There's no harm in dialing up the shade of gray (or cyan-ish, whatever that is) used for the active tab and general upper browser area (bookmark bar, address bar, etc.). The color (0.20, 0.24, .028) AKA (51, 61, 72) AKA #323C46 looks great and is not too bright.

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/172441https://forums.opera.com/post/172441Sat, 01 Jun 2019 16:30:12 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Mon, 27 May 2019 00:01:26 GMT]]>I totally agree. Sometimes I open several identical sites (wikipedia, for example) and accidentally close the wrong tab. Delivers a lot of inconvenience. I hope the developers will solve this problem, because I like the dark theme. The light theme is too bright for me, it is impossible to work with it even during the day.

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/172011https://forums.opera.com/post/172011Mon, 27 May 2019 00:01:26 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Sun, 26 May 2019 23:15:19 GMT]]>Dark theme is too dark, I do not see the current tab, it makes it difficult to navigate through the open tabs. Make this a little bit lighter.

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/172005https://forums.opera.com/post/172005Sun, 26 May 2019 23:15:19 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Sun, 26 May 2019 17:27:38 GMT]]>@zalex108 Thanks for the replies.
The "bar" under the text of the selected tab is a neat idea I think. Especially if you made both tab text and the bar bright white, plus adjusted the background grey 🙂

More generally, sounds like a theme could be a good approach BUT (as per @concretable) I also think that the default dark theme should make the selected tab very obvious, which it does not currently especially on some displays.

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/171986https://forums.opera.com/post/171986Sun, 26 May 2019 17:27:38 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Sun, 26 May 2019 16:45:45 GMT]]>I think the selected tab should stand out like a sore thumb. Some Mozilla-derived browsers are still themable, and I have edited the themes I added to make sure that the selected tab had a completely different background colour.

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/171985https://forums.opera.com/post/171985Sun, 26 May 2019 16:45:45 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Sat, 25 May 2019 18:30:41 GMT]]>I like the Dark Skin, but on some situations I'm agree, it's difficult to find the active tab.

For me, an under line or dot, would be simple and enough.

1.- alt text

2.- alt text

3.- alt text

4.- alt text

5.- alt text

🙄 ...

6.- alt text

7.- alt text

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/171904https://forums.opera.com/post/171904Sat, 25 May 2019 18:30:41 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Sat, 25 May 2019 17:31:21 GMT]]>@Cayde said in Make selected tab more visible in dark mode:

I think better solution would be to just come up with more themes 🙂

The best solution would be to change the text as well as the background.

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/171901https://forums.opera.com/post/171901Sat, 25 May 2019 17:31:21 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [Implemented]Make selected tab more visible in dark mode on Sat, 25 May 2019 06:10:10 GMT]]>I think better solution would be to just come up with more themes 🙂

]]>https://forums.opera.com/post/171857https://forums.opera.com/post/171857Sat, 25 May 2019 06:10:10 GMT