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I want to change the way Firefox (or Iceweasel in my case) handles highlighting of tabs. This is how it is done as of now (the bottom tab is highlighted, the top is colored).

firefox highlighting

I basically want to change the shape of the highlighting (which looks like a hill to me, suggesting the tab is located below which is not true for me). I guess I can do this within my userChrome.css and I searched for quite a while now, but haven’t found any clue on the web on how to do that.

Two questions:

  • Is there some default style sheet where I can lookup how tab highlighting is handled by default, so that I can easily put together the code I need by reading in it?¹

  • How can I modify the tab highlighting thing?


Remark: The first question is of course the main question, as it is more general and therefore more useful to others. If the second question is answered satisfactorily, but the first one defies to be answered satisfactorily, I will edit the title to fit the answer better.

¹: I expected something like this in /etc/mozilla/iceweasel/defaults/chrome.css, you know what I mean? Some default style sheet firefox would be using by default.

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You can find information on userChrome.css on MozillaZine and MDN

As for where the default CSS is, that's actually packed inside the browser/omni.ja file, which is in the ZIP format. The browser chrome should be under /chrome/browser/content/browser. IIRC, if you unpack that file then the browser will prefer (and load) the individual files over the package.

For the tab styling, you'll likely have a easier time navigating to chrome://browser/content/browser.xul in the browser itself. You should be able to use the Developer Tools to inspect this page and see CSS changes on-the-fly with the Style Editor.

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  • If you need further assistance on your specific highlighting problem, feel free to ask in chat - I feel a more discussion-friendly medium might be beneficial here. Specifically, you'll have to elaborate on what you mean by tab highlighting - I don't think that's default Firefox functionality.
    – Bob
    Feb 28, 2015 at 13:47
  • Okay, thank you! I found out that it is the default shape of the tab label (not sure if the right word) I want to change – the hill-shaped brightened area around the tab title “Highlight the …” in the image I posted. I couldn’t find a corresponding element or css line via chrome://browser/content/browser.xul.
    – k.stm
    Mar 1, 2015 at 8:52
  • @k.stm The other option is to use the Browser Toolbox. The goal is to get an inspector onto the element.
    – Bob
    Mar 1, 2015 at 8:57

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