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Tab titles don't have enough text to identify them

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 10 views
  • Last reply by Oldneweng

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A couple of months ago I asked about the lack of delineating features around tab titles and was warned the fix would be temporary. Having just updated the problem is now much much worse and I would just like to know what is the reasoning behind making the tabs impossible to identify. I am getting 5 characters in each tab title plus an addon icon. I have no idea what most of the tabs contain now. Most of them are just a couple of meaningless letters. There is not enough information to identify tabs. What is the point in this? Is there a way to provide enough space to identify what is in a tab?

A couple of months ago I asked about the lack of delineating features around tab titles and was warned the fix would be temporary. Having just updated the problem is now much much worse and I would just like to know what is the reasoning behind making the tabs impossible to identify. I am getting 5 characters in each tab title plus an addon icon. I have no idea what most of the tabs contain now. Most of them are just a couple of meaningless letters. There is not enough information to identify tabs. What is the point in this? Is there a way to provide enough space to identify what is in a tab?

All Replies (4)

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In Firefox 91+ you can no longer disable Proton and revert changes that come with this design via "browser.proton.enabled = false" on the about:config page. Best in Firefox 91+ is to set browser.proton.enabled at its default value true as the false setting can cause issues.

In Firefox 91+ you need to use code in userChrome.css to override changes coming with the Proton design.

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Why is this happening? The tab text is unreadable? It is completely ridiculous. Should I start looking for a different browser now or is this actually going somewhere?

I do not intend to program preferences just to get a browser that works for me. I had one before, until Mozilla went stupid. Should I just bail now? There are 2 options, Firefox provides a usable interface, or someone else does. It is just a tool and any tool that does not do the job should be discarded. Can you give me any reason not to discard Firefox?

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You can set a minimum width for the tab via the about:config page.

  • browser.tabs.tabMinWidth

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can click the button to "Accept the Risk and Continue".


Start Firefox in Troubleshoot Mode to check if one of the extensions ("3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions) or if hardware acceleration or userChrome.css is causing the problem.

  • switch to the DEFAULT theme: "3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Themes
  • do NOT click the "Refresh Firefox" button on the Troubleshoot Mode start window
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Thank you for your partial reply. You still haven't said if you know what is the reason for these stupid changes and whether I should bail.

My themes have never been changed. I don't waste my time with aesthetics unless it is for a reason. Safe mode did not change the problem. I have increased the Tab width. Thanks for that. I cannot say the problem is solved because it hasn't. The text is still tiny and the space wasted. I have enough text to identify a tab now but it is still stupidly hard to read. Titles are meant to be clearly visible after all. I just hope it will be at least some time before Mozilla decides to mess things up again.

I have included a screen shot of the top corner to show the text size. It is a single line. There is easily room for 2 lines in the space. The "Unmute Tab" icon is annoying but having control over tab muting is absolutely essential for your sanity. If there was a better way to do this I would be happy.