Played around a bit with values, guess it would help to make active tab text brighter ( same as in outliner) and inactive tabtext perhaps light grey, aka inversed.

http://www.jensverwiebe.de/Other/tabs_tuning1.jpg

Jens

I added highlightning to active tab, so could rise the greyness of inactive bg a bit more to emphasize again text readability:

http://www.jensverwiebe.de/Other/tabs_tuning2.jpg

Jens

Alternanate i tried out a lite grey inactive text and darker inactive tab bg:

http://www.jensverwiebe.de/Other/tabs_tuning3.jpg

Jens

Last attempt for tonight:

Using seperators again instead discrete inactive tabs, whiter inactive text:

http://www.jensverwiebe.de/Other/tabs_tuning5.jpg

Jens

Last variant for today:

emphasize the border a bit ...

http://www.jensverwiebe.de/Other/tabs_tuning9.jpg

diff: http://www.jensverwiebe.de/Other/tab_tuning_test9.diff

Jens

I'm liking the latest patch from jens; it feels more subtle while retaining legibility

Tweaks to tabs are fine, However we're discussing making larger changes here: T38050, so I would rather come to some agreement there first before making a lot of smaller changes.

@jens verwiebe (jensverwiebe) - you have lots of patches, are you proposing one to be applied to master?

Indeed, it is more readable and convenient in this way.

HI
Just FYI i'am living now with this approach ( collected from several opinions ) and
it seems to work o.k. without fatigue the eye:

Cheers .... Jens

Adding to last post ( could not edit ??? )
You i rised the aspect by 1.2 so the tab text is now same size as group header

Jens

@jens verwiebe (jensverwiebe) could you upload the patch for your last version? I'd like to compare it with some local versions.

@Jonathan Williamson (carter2422)

Here's my revised patch for tabs:

Jens

The latest version I just uploaded takes inspiration from @jens verwiebe (jensverwiebe) and feedback from @Campbell Barton (campbellbarton).

@Campbell Barton (campbellbarton), I suspect there's a more optimal way than using BLF_position three times, but I couldn't get it working right. Any thoughts? Also, I can probably combine both if (!is_active) into a single statement. Agree?

Here is a screenshot of the latest version.

@Jonathan Williamson (carter2422), @jens verwiebe (jensverwiebe): Nice, both your versions are way clearer. The tabs seem to be a little easier to make out on the @jens verwiebe (jensverwiebe) version, and the subdued text on the unselected tabs makes it clear that they are, well, not selected.

I like the latest version. Well done.

Thanks @Thomas Dinges (dingto). Just awaiting @Campbell Barton (campbellbarton)'s approval on the code before committing.

@William Reynish (billrey), regarding the "subdued" text, this can be totally controlled via the theme. I'm not opposed to slightly tweaking the theme colors as well, but that's a separate task.

@Jonathan Williamson (carter2422), Looks cool, mate, but I would perhaps still darken the out of focus tabs a little rather than making the bright white in the current tab. Perhaps a value of around #f0f0f0 would be better?

This is already way clearer.
Maybe it's pedantic, but I'd agree with @Andy Davies (metalliandy) that the disabled tabs and tab bar are a little too similar to the active tab. There's almost no difference in colour value, except for the text font. Apart from that it's looking good.

Current patch looks like this on factory settings, is this the way its supposed to be?

I kindly suggest to make this toolbar squeezable till only icons on buttons remain. More or less it means that each button must have attribute to show hint bubble. If only icons, then imediate hint describing only name of tool. Description of tool or any other function must be at prompt bar.

@Janis Grinvalds (grinvaldsjanis) icon support has other issues that're beyond this task. Icon support is something that needs to be addressed separately.

Good work. Only one comment for usability: when I scroll down in a tab, for example in Create tab, all tabs are scrolling down. If I change the tab, I only see a gray panel because all the controls are hidden due to the scrolling. I have to scroll up when the few controls of the panel will fit in the available space.
I think the tabs should scroll in a independent way.