How to change the active tab header's color in IntelliJ 14.1.4?

la76 picture la76 · Aug 24, 2015 · Viewed 14.3k times · Source

I'm using a dark theme in IntelliJ 14, the problem is that I have difficulties in distinguish the active tab, because its header's background is not different than the other tabs I have opened (or it is, but very little). I looked all over the place for a method to change the color of the active tab header's background, no luck so far. Please help?

Answer

XSYS picture XSYS · Nov 18, 2015
  • Please note that this setting has worked for IntelliJ 14 back then, but is no longer applicable for newer versions
  • Find the comments below for plugins as a great alternative (Material Theme UI, Active IntelliJ Tab Highlighter)

Although, if you are still using IntelliJ 14:

Under File \ Settings \ Appearance & Behavior \ File Colors,

turn off "Use in Editor Tabs", as test tabs background are dark-green by default, which is similar to the dark-grey non-selected tabs.

After that, optionally you can set the colors under:

File \ Settings \ Editor \ Colors & Fonts \ File Status

and change the Foreground color of "Modified" status.

Now it will highlight the modified files (in version control).