Color Tab

An Obsidian plugin that lets you assign a background color to any open tab, making it easy to visually distinguish notes at a glance.

Why use Color Tab?

When working with several notes simultaneously — researching, cross-referencing, or writing — it can be hard to quickly jump to the right tab. Color Tab lets you visually tag each tab with a color, so you can cycle through your open notes faster and reduce mental overhead.

Examples of how people use it:

• 🔴 Red – Note you are actively writing
• 🟢 Green – Reference material you keep coming back to
• 🟡 Yellow – Diagrams supporting my writing
• 🔵 Blue – Other useful reference notes
• 🟣 Lavender – Meeting notes or daily logs

How to install

From the Community Plugins directory (recommended)

1. Open Obsidian → Settings → Community Plugins.
2. Disable Safe Mode if prompted, then select Browse.
3. Search for Color Tab and click Install.
4. Once installed, toggle it on.

Manual installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release.
2. Copy them into your vault at:

   <your-vault>/.obsidian/plugins/color-tab/
   

3. Open Obsidian → Settings → Community Plugins and toggle Color Tab on.

How to use

Assign a color to a tab

1. Right-click on any open tab header.
2. The default Obsidian context menu will appear (Close, Pin, etc.).
3. Scroll to the bottom — you will see a separator followed by the 5 color options.
4. Click a color name to apply it. The tab background and title will update immediately.

Remove a color

1. Right-click the colored tab.
2. Click Remove tab color at the bottom of the menu.

Customize your colors

1. Go to Settings → Color Tab.
2. Each of the 5 color slots has a name field and a color picker.
3. Toggle Prevent Tab Duplication to keep only one tab per file.
4. Changes take effect immediately — open tabs update live.
5. Click Reset to restore the default pastel palette.

Default colors

All defaults are soft pastels so they remain readable in both light and dark themes.

License

MIT