See attached file. I love the default Monokai theme otherwise, but the tiny difference in color between current and background tabs has been causing me problems. All I see is the “background” setting in the them, which changes everything (foreground of document, current tab, background tabs). I just want to change the background tabs.
Thanks.
The UI of ST2 (tabs, sidebar, panels, etc) is controlled by the Theme. You’ll need to edit the appropriate images within the /Packages/Theme - Default/ folder. You may also look at using the Soda theme, which has well documented settings files.
Thanks, Nick.
On Google Plus, Marek Pełka also suggested editing the PNG files in Packages\Theme - Default\ directly. I was able to get an effect. It’s ugly, but it does work. If I had more time, I could make the background in the image transparent so it doesn’t overlap.
Hi,
I just downloaded ST2 today after getting frustrated with TM for the 100th time. I’m liking what I see very much. As with TM, I immediately sought a way to make the status of tabs clearer (I think the default behavior is way too subtle for easy scanning).
Two tweaks:
Below is my first crude attempt at tweaking some of the tab resource images. The above version is what I was using in TM, and the bottom is the quickie ST2 version (the green on the edges of the tab need better tapering, IMO).
If anyone is interested, I can find a way to make these available.
Just replace the following files:
…\Packages\Theme - Default\medium_dark_selected_tab_bg.png
…\Packages\Theme - Default\medium_dark_unselected_tab_bg2.png
with these attached.
(works for Monokai and Solarized at least)
And now…drumroll…because nobody asked for it. 8-}
Maybe someone might find some of this useful. You can pick and choose any of these as drop in replacements for the current versions to make some of the important UI elements less subtle. I’m not a graphics artist (and I’m sure it shows), but this is just my attempt at improving the world, just a few small images at a time. Just make sure you back up your original versions before swapping in case you want to switch back.
Included:
And the active tab indicators (light, medium, medium dark and dark themes)
They don’t look very different to the eye to me, but the gray line colors and shadow differences are subtle
Final one, sorry for the spew (3 attachment limit per message)
(the taper at the edges on these have been improved over the initial screenshot I posted)
Nice work, guys. 
This actually gave me enough motivation to mess with the theme files myself…
Turns out I really liked the tab stretching effect.
Here’s an example (even though this isn’t a good use of this… doesn’t really fit the Soda theme) with modified hover and selected tabs:
Quite a beautiful gradient for a simple couple-of-pixels modification on the Soda theme!
These tab graphics vastly enhance the interface. It would be great if they were integrated into the main release so everyone would get the benefit.
It would be even better if there were a way to make the green line red when a tab contains unsaved edits.
I’ve got this problem too of course… But I can’t seem to find directories within the Package directory and I can’t find any images anywhere in my sublime directory. Maybe this has something to do with the fact I’m using sublime 3 instead of 2?
Can anybody give me some input on how to replace those images in sublime 3?
Simple solution for SublimeText 3 - change active tab title font color:
Probably is possible to replace tab backgrounds (in archive Theme - Default.sublime-package.zip you can find all needed files), but it’s embarrassing without documentation.
