settings.json should provide tab color as part of a scheme and/or profile, with an optional way to introduce variant for multiple instances of the same profile

[rbeesley]

Summary of the new feature/enhancement

Profiles.json should provide tab color as part of a scheme and/or profile, with an optional way to introduce variant for multiple instances of the same profile. When a user opens different tabs today, there is very little distinction between the tabs. I'd like to have the ability to apply a color to the tab, perhaps with an alpha so that I could shade both light and dark applications with a accent color representing the type of profile used by the tab. It might be valuable to have an additional accent color which can shade the tab or a portion of the tab uniquely depending on if there are multiple instances of the same profile open, so as to distinguish between them.

Proposed technical implementation details

I'm not entirely sure how the optional portion would be implemented, so I'll address the first portion first.

{
  "profiles" :
  {
    "tabForeground" : "#aarrbbgg",
    "tabBackground" : "#aarrbbgg"
  }
}

or

{
  "profiles" :
  {
    "colorScheme" : "Foo"
  },
  "schemes" :
  [
    {
      "name" : "Foo",
      "tabForeground" : "#aarrbbgg",
      "tabBackground" : "#aarrbbgg"
    }
  ]
}

Just as with the foreground and background properties, the profile definition overrides the scheme definition. This concept could be expanded later to use other foreground and background identifiers such as images.

[mdtauk]

Rather than a tab colour, I would like to see the Tab use the background colour, to make the console and tab connected.

[DHowett-MSFT]

I'm partial to @mdtauk's plan as well, but it does lose the nuance of "how to differentiate multiple open tabs of the same type".

[mdtauk]

I'm partial to @mdtauk's plan as well, but it does lose the nuance of "how to differentiate multiple open tabs of the same type".

Tab/Profile names. But isn't the plan to group different Terminal panes within a single Tab though? #1000

[DHowett-MSFT]

group different Terminal panes

Well, yes, at the user's discretion. If I want to open 600 different powershell tabs and have them all have the same title, I deserve what I get 😉

[rbeesley]

I like mdtauk's solution, but I'd like to accent my Ubuntu tab with an orange to match the Ubuntu orange. Separately I like how this helps distinguish which tab is currently selected... so maybe what I'm suggesting only applies to the text region?

[mdtauk]

Looking at the WinUI Tabs issue, there are thoughts about the design which shows the selected tab with a selected indicator strip. Perhaps that colour could be set, either on the profile or by right clicking on a tab and picking a colour?

Here is a design mock-up I contributed

[DHowett-MSFT]

cc @cinnamon-msft