How to Turn Off Tab Bar Coloring / Tinting in Safari

[Fowl]

The confusing active/inactive color is the biggest UI snafu in Apple software I've seen in years. It's really wrong. And: when you have just one tab, the title and the URL look similar: rounded rectangular fields at the top of the window. I keep trying to click on the title to type in a URL.
Again, it's been a long time since Apple did something this bad. "Immersive" it is not.

 

[project_2501]

The confusing active/inactive color is the biggest UI snafu in Apple software I've seen in years. It's really wrong. And: when you have just one tab, the title and the URL look similar: rounded rectangular fields at the top of the window. I keep trying to click on the title to type in a URL.
Again, it's been a long time since Apple did something this bad. "Immersive" it is not.

it's almost as if Apple is so cash poor that they can't afford design expertise, testing, user feedback

if that's not the case, then it is pure arrogance

 

[Think|Different]

I, unabashedly, love it.

 

[project_2501]

I, unabashedly, love it.

There were also people who loved the TouchBar and Butterfly Keyboard.

Oh well - enjoy the changes!

 

[VictorTango777]

There were also people who loved the TouchBar and Butterfly Keyboard.

Oh well - enjoy the changes!

Hockey puck mouse

 

[steve333]

Even with it off, open tabs used to be clear now they are dark gray, while the others remain light gray. It is off putting and not the way it is supposed to be.

 

[project_2501]

Even with it off, open tabs used to be clear now they are dark gray, while the others remain light gray. It is off putting and not the way it is supposed to be.

I wish there was a way to revert to the old colours.

 

[Gizmotoy]

I let Safari update when it asked and I wasn't ready for the visual abomination that resulted.

On the FedEx/Ars screenshots, which tab is active? Do I really want a giant purple window? Clicking back and forth toggles between a lot of purple and black. If you separate these into their own windows, would you associate the big purple window being the same app as the big black window?

On the screenshot with only a single tab, which dark grey box do you type into? Because I keep clicking the wrong one.

What were they thinking here? Do they still employ UI experts? I'm really surprised how bad this is.

 

[Arran]

I let Safari update when it asked and I wasn't ready for the visual abomination that resulted.

On the FedEx/Ars screenshots, which tab is active? Do I really want a giant purple window? Clicking back and forth toggles between a lot of purple and black. If you separate these into their own windows, would you associate the big purple window being the same app as the big black window?
View attachment 1840908
View attachment 1840912

On the screenshot with only a single tab, which dark grey box do you type into? Because I keep clicking the wrong one.
View attachment 1840938

What were they thinking here? Do they still employ UI experts? I'm really surprised how bad this is.

Your top picture illustrates the problem beautifully. The "Ars Technica" tab is colored purple - which is Fedex's brand color.

What on earth?

 

[AndreGB]

Do you guys think that Apple polls the number of users enabling/disabling this option? I mean, the OS would have to report back to them somehow. It would be interesting if they had visibility in the amount of users unhappy with a new feature.

Since we can disable Tinting (and fix this aspect of the UI ), for me the worst part of the design is that the active tab replaces the webpage icon (favicon) with the X to close. In the previous UI the X to close and the webpage icon were both there.

 

[arn]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1440806803164463112

https://twitter.com/x/status/1440122909545140227

 

[SirAnthonyHopkins]

The logic of colouring the current tab dark is so wrong!

Look at the following. Which tab is current?

Previously, and as per all good UI design, the lighter tab looks on top and current. Not the darker one.

Yet Apple made this idiotic change with apparently no consultation or input from design professionals. Bonkers.

View attachment 1840706


By comparison look at Firefox. It is blooming clear which tab is the current one.

View attachment 1840714


How does one revert / fix this Apple Safari behaviour?

Use Firefox instead is the only solution I’ve come up with so far.

 

[iLG]

I forgot this option, it's something I used long time ago 😁
But I don't find it for iOS...

In iOS It’s almost in the same path. Settings > accessibility > display. You can also use the search in settings by swiping down to reveal the search bar.

 

[SirAnthonyHopkins]

I'm experimenting with actually making a permanent switch to Firefox cos of how bad Safari looks on macOS now. It's a total disaster.

 

[ecatomb]

In iOS It’s almost in the same path. Settings > accessibility > display. You can also use the search in settings by swiping down to reveal the search bar.

But on iOS, it's ugly 😱

 

[svish]

Great that the option exists. Good to know.

 

[jon9091]

The logic of colouring the current tab dark is so wrong!

Look at the following. Which tab is current?

Previously, and as per all good UI design, the lighter tab looks on top and current. Not the darker one.

Yet Apple made this idiotic change with apparently no consultation or input from design professionals. Bonkers.

View attachment 1840706

Yes that really makes this unintuitive as it’s exactly opposite on 14.8. The lighter tab is the active tab, and the darker tab is the inactive tab.

 

[project_2501]

anyone find any fixes to this the dark/light tab issue?

 

[project_2501]

The logic of colouring the current tab dark is so wrong!

Look at the following. Which tab is current?

Previously, and as per all good UI design, the lighter tab looks on top and current. Not the darker one.

Yet Apple made this idiotic change with apparently no consultation or input from design professionals. Bonkers.

View attachment 1840706


By comparison look at Firefox. It is blooming clear which tab is the current one.

View attachment 1840714


How does one revert / fix this Apple Safari behaviour?

I have now submitted feedback to apple.

I suggest you do the same if you feel strongly about this. https://www.apple.com/feedback/

 

[Octavius8]

The gray tone of the active and inactive tabs is quite similar, not so intuitive. Looks nice, but it really makes it harder to distinguish the active from the inactive tabs.
And possition of the bars fixed???, I want my bookmarks on top of the tabs!, I remember MS IE allowed to move the bars 20 years ago!!, how come Safari fixes the design for me?.
I think I will try to downgrade to the "old" Safari version.

 

[uomodirinascita]

I'm constantly confused whether a dark grey tab is active or not active. This is bad UI design.

Yes! I keep closing the wrong tabs. How could the Apple interface designers get something as basic as this wrong!

 

[sharprichnorth]

​

Safari 15 on Catalina, and I don't see this option available. UI wise, everything is still the same as Safari 14. Am I missing something?

Same. I suspect the article is wrong: the visual changes are not show in Safari 15.0 on Catalina. The preference isn't there, either.

 

[the3ye]

Send the feedback, maybe they will listen - I just did that. I hate the gray color for the tabs. I don't mind the tinted menus, however the colors of active extensions on dark themed sites is painful for eyes

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Why did Apple ruin a once great user interface on Mac? I want the Safari 14 Taskbar und Tabbar back.

Safari is peoples most used app at the moment, so Apple ensures it feels 'new and fresh' for every release. It was the bane of iTunes back in the days when that was their center app. The interface got overhauled every major release, and not for the good of it.

For Apple, 'fresh and new looks and feel' for the masses trumps usability, unfortunately. Then people complain in droves, and then Apple can fix it for the next release, making their 'new and fresh' thing repeat, while at the same time fixing the horrible design decisions that was included for no other reason than 'new'.

 

[Mwillems]

First, the open pages tabs don’t look like tabs. And then, even when you turn off the colouring, it’s still grey on grey: what genius thought that was a good idea??