Active tab difficult to see when tab text color is non-default

[esseb]

Issue Type: Bug

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Use the default theme (Dark+)
2. Open multiple TypeScript files
3. Create an error in each file in order to make the tab text color red (this does not require an extension)

Actual result:

The only difference between the active tab and the other tabs is that the active has a slightly darker background and a close button, which is not enough for me to tell which tab is active without actively looking at all the tabs.

Further information:

When the tabs have the default text color it's easier to see which tab is active since it has a white text color while the other tabs have a gray text color. I usually don't have this many tabs open with TypeScript errors, when I notice that it's hard to see which tab is active it's because a lot of my open tabs have an orange text color, but I'm not sure what triggers that tab text color.

This issue has been reported before in https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/122588 but was closed.

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes

VS Code version: Code - Insiders 1.57.0-insider (Universal) (fe23c2041f848d6c2f6bd27875112a37bcc82f84, 2021-05-06T05:50:00.296Z) OS version: Darwin x64 19.6.0

System Info

|Item|Value| |---|---| |CPUs|Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6920HQ CPU @ 2.90GHz (8 x 2900)| |GPU Status|2d_canvas: enabled
gpu_compositing: enabled
metal: disabled_off
multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on
oop_rasterization: enabled
opengl: enabled_on
rasterization: enabled
skia_renderer: disabled_off_ok
video_decode: enabled
webgl: enabled
webgl2: enabled| |Load (avg)|3, 3, 3| |Memory (System)|16.00GB (0.07GB free)| |Process Argv|-psn_0_4121582| |Screen Reader|no| |VM|0%|

Extensions: none

A/B Experiments

``` vsliv695:30137379 vsins829:30139715 vsliv368:30146709 vsreu685:30147344 python383cf:30185419 pythonvspyt602:30291494 vspor879:30202332 vspor708:30202333 vspor363:30204092 pythonvspyt639:30291487 pythontb:30258533 vsc_aa:30263845 vspre833:30267464 pythonptprofiler:30281269 vshan820:30294714 vscorecescf:30290706 pythondataviewer:30285072 vscus158cf:30286554 pythonvsuse255:30296409 vscgsv2ct:30286873 vscorehov:30295781 ```

[vscodebot[bot]]

(Experimental duplicate detection) Thanks for submitting this issue. Please also check if it is already covered by an existing one, like:

• Terminal Tabs enabled by default. (#123134)

[miguelsolorio]

You can always customize the active tab colors by adding this to your settings.json:

    "workbench.colorCustomizations": {
        "tab.activeBackground": "#ff0000"
    }

and then find the right color that works for you. Or use the active tab border color setting:

    "workbench.colorCustomizations": {
        "tab.activeBorderTop": "#007acc"
    }

You can choose a different theme that may suite you preference. Hope this helps, will close this as it is by design.

[miguelsolorio]

I misread the issue and thought this was about the current tab colors. Turns out that the decorators change the opacity on non-active tab text, so re-opening. Thanks to @bpasero for the ping.

[mirao]

I can confirm the issue and I think it worsened in some of recent versions (one or two versions ago? I think that the active tab background was lighter than inactive tab whereas now it's opposite. But not sure). It's hard for me to recognize which tab is active

At least the change of active background color helps me a bit, thanks @misolori

Used SW:

• VSCode 1.56.1, theme "Dark+"
• Ubuntu 20.10

[jrieken]

We can add more colors but tab decorations can also be disabled via workbench.editor.decorations.colors and workbench.editor.decorations.badges