Tell me more ×
Super User is a question and answer site for computer enthusiasts and power users. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 6 down vote favorite
1

Is it possible to make tabs in Chrome more compact? Particularly the pinned tabs.

This is what Chrome vs. Firefox looks like on my machine: enter image description here

share|improve this question
1  
afaik, the only option is to alter Chrome's sources & compile them – Sathya♦ Aug 2 '12 at 12:09
That seems like a design issue, you probably need to talk to the Chrome devs about that one. – jmreicha Aug 2 '12 at 15:58
This badly-posed question (would you accept "yes" or "no"?) could do with a whole lot more explanation instead of assuming that the screenshot explains everything. What if someone looks at it who is visually impaired but can help? Judging from your comments, your attitude and your username are at odds with the bounty you offer. -1 from me. – aaamos Aug 9 '12 at 9:52
1  
@Let_Me_Be: Pinned tabs "more compact" also could mean different things for me, i.e. that you need some Chrome extension which display them in vertical bar or in two rows (then you can see more tabs), or by adding search functionality, or by having higher resolution, or storing them as a separate session and switch between them, or literally make them compact in width size. Before you spend some time answering, it's good to ask if you really mean this or that or something else, or at least which OS are you using, it's important, otherwise one sentence could mean hundreds of other things. – kenorb Aug 9 '12 at 11:35
1  
Secondary, saying "decrease width of pinned tabs", "make them shorter (in width)", "shrink them", "to use less space" could mean more sense than make it "more compact". My English is not my mother tongue, I assume your too, so even something is obvious for you, doesn't mean for others, so my advise is to clarify your questions next time what exactly you're trying to achieve including also your environment and versions. – kenorb Aug 9 '12 at 11:39
show 3 more comments

3 Answers

up vote 7 down vote accepted
+100

The width of pinned tab is hard-coded in Chromium sources to 61 pixels (last year: 53 pixels).

So you have two options:

  1. Customize the width in Chromium sources and recompile it (line 74 in below file).

    File (See line: 74): http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/chrome/trunk/src/chrome/browser/ui/cocoa/tabs/tab_controller.mm?annotate=139352

    + (CGFloat)miniTabWidth { return 61; }

    Depending on your system, here you have instructions how to build it on Linux, Mac and on Windows.

  2. Install older version of Chromium (before September 2011 [16.0.902.0]), it had 53 pixels instead of 69.

    See the committed changes: http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/chrome/trunk/src/chrome/browser/ui/cocoa/tabs/tab_controller.mm?r1=100538&r2=100537&pathrev=100538

    and also related ticket of this change: Issue 96011: Increase width of pinned tabs by 16px

    Some people already asking to undo these changes, so you can try as well, or create a new support ticket.

    Or you could simply download the older version (e.g. 14.0.836.0 from Oct 2011] from here, before this change was applied.

share|improve this answer
You'd have gotten +1 from me simply for answering despite the OP's snarky comments... but it's a very informative (much more so than a silly question deserves, bounty or no) answer as well, so I'd up-vote twice if I could. – aaamos Aug 9 '12 at 9:46
....thank you:) – kenorb Aug 9 '12 at 10:02
If you would provide this without the initial nonsense it would be perfect. Now you deserve both the bounty and a kick in the butt. But thank you for the information. – Let_Me_Be Aug 9 '12 at 10:22
Removed nonsense about theme change, if this is what you meant, thanks. I'm starting to be good in mind reading:) – kenorb Aug 9 '12 at 11:43
up vote 1 down vote

AFAIK, the tabs shape is the main reason for the space they occupy. Since the ones used by Google Chrome have a trapezoid shape, and the ones from Firefox are rectangular, Firefox saves more space with the same amount of tabs.

This subject has been covered, if we look at this problem from another perspective, at this superuser question, and respective answer.

As one can see from the source code, constants for inset and control points for tab shape are defined in the tab_view.mm file and can't latter on be changed neither by extension or browser settings.

at least until the present date.

The solution could be changing the values and compiling the Google Chrome every time a new release comes out. But I don't see any gain at this.

share|improve this answer
up vote -1 down vote

You could buy a screen with high resolution, perhaps even one of the new macs with 'retina display' (you can run Linux and Windows on it too). Maybe that is not the cheapest solution!

You can make your own chrome theme to change the font size used in the toolbar and tab area. I suppose this can make the tabs more compact. I'm not sure if you can change the tab spacing with a theme, maybe not as I see not examples of such themes.

You can also make the font smaller by changing your system font in Windows or whatever operating system.

I use a thing called tab mix plus on firefox, for a larger multi-row tab area. You could try one of the similar extensions for chrome:

If you think it's worth 100 rep, I will make the necessary hack to chrome source code for you and/or write a suitable chrome extension. Please let me know!

You could also try a tabbed, tiling window manager, if you can find one. That is the right way to do it™. I'm not sure if any such program exists for windows. On Linux there are several to choose from including Ion. Ion does not quite replicate the functionality of browser tabs, but it could be modified to do so; and as I said, this is the right way to do it™; a tabbed tiling window manager gives consistent tab functionality across all your windowed programs.

The only tiling window manager I've tried under MS Windows is dwm-win32. It might not give you any joy, but could be used to get a column of tabs down the right side of the screen. In some ways, that would be a better place to put them.

share|improve this answer
1  
Buying a new screen is hardly a solution to this. You cannot alter the dimensions of the browser chrome with themes, so that isn’t an option either, and making a custom build might work, but it would be impractical since you would have to rebuild it every time a new version comes out (unless you provide the patch). The font size has no effect because the tab widths are dynamic and independent of the font. A tab-management extension may work, but they don’t affect the size of the tabs. :-( – Synetech Aug 6 '12 at 16:47

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.