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Has this been considered yet? Vertical real estate is at an exceptional premium on the Macbook 13". It also does not necesarily have to be in the way Safari exatly does it with the horrendously ugly iPad-like user interface. I have redacted this as I find that it blends into the web content with more experience using it. Perhaps a blend of Safari 14's tab bar and Safari 15's compact tab layout can be considered. Not sure with how the current tab can be done, but perhaps it can be mdae ot be having a slightly lighter color than the rest of the tabs.
A quick mockup I made is right here.

From top to bottom, 1st is Safari with these options enabled:

The third is Orion, the third is Safari with the start page replaced
The fourth is Safari with compact tabs but color disabled.

If you compare these four, I would say Safari without the color enabled is best for general web usage, and it saves much more space.

Neither do you need to sacrifice extension buttons, as Safari 15 incorporates them into the design. So in essence, what you would be doing is taking the tab bar and placing it inside of the toolbar as a button that has a dynamic width.

    Fortrikka If the goal is to have a web-application like experience, have you tried using Focus mode? It does not get better than that?

        Fortrikka

        There should also be an option for people such as myself who want a web-application-like experience and wish to remove flotato and instead use this browser

        Just note that this is exactly what focus mode achieves. We will improve it in the future so its per website and you can have one website run in focus mode while the rest of the browser works normally.

            Vlad I don't really like focus mode as I cannot the other websites that I have open. I would say Safari's compact tab mode is better.

            • Vlad replied to this.

                Fortrikka 'flotato-like web-application-like experience' does not include visiting other sites, I am just referring to your main argument for this from the first post.

                    +1 to the compact mode option - by which I mean that a mode where pixels in height are shaved off the address bar and the tab bar. Currently, without the bookmarks bar, the height seems to be 76 pixels. Would request the developer to consider if it can be reduced to around 65 pixels or thereabouts. Many of us erstwhile Firefox users would be happy 🙂

                    Context: I am on a Mac Air 13 (1440x900) where vertical real estate is very important for me. To clarify, I am not looking for the radical safari 15 style compact mode (which is terrible IMO). All I would request the developer to consider is make the address bar and tab bar as short in height as possible while maintaining the current design.

                      I have a question about compact mode, if I end up opening like 20-30 tabs, then the current tab name/option comes at the last with very little space to even see the text of site. How can this be changed/improved?

                        Pluto Thanks Pluto. How much is the height in Firefox and can you send a screenshot comparing the two compact modes? Where we would shave these extra 11px from (tab bar?)

                            DoD The screenshot (and your question?) refers to Safari?

                            • DoD replied to this.

                                Pluto I disagree, I love the radical change. I don't care about other toolbar buttons and it looks absolutely practical in the context of cognitive load and psychology.

                                    DoD Not really any way other than to use vertical tabs. This is the heart of the limitation of having tabs which are horizontal in the first place.

                                        Pluto I too have a Macbook Pro M1 13" and view the compact tab option as superior to everything. I even use Safari occasionally for reading some websites because Orion has too much vertical estate used, and not that mainly but just the fact that there isn't iCLoud bookmark syncing.

                                            Only the current tab has to look like the active tab, the other tabs can remain looking like their previous selves except that now they are in the toolbar looking like… gigantic buttons?

                                              Vlad

                                              The Firefox (ver. 88) compact mode is 60 pixels (iirc). We could shave pixels from above and below the address field. The address bar in Orion is 51 pixels in height, while the address field is 25 px. The tab bar could be correspondingly reduced ( maintaining aesthetic proportions? )
                                              It seems to me that reducing the address bar height is the first step. An address bar height of 31 or 33 pixels saves 20 px by itself without making any other changes.

                                              • Vlad replied to this.

                                                  Pluto That does not look like Orion is in Compact mode?

                                                      Vlad my bad. I did not realise that in Orion there is already a "use compact size". That already saves a lot of address bar vertical space and looks fine.
                                                      Maybe, reduce the tab bar height by few pixels in 'compact size'?

                                                      • Vlad replied to this.

                                                          Vlad
                                                          I did not get your question. Comparison to Firefox?

                                                          After discovering 'compact size' option, I am quite happy with the current state of the address bar height. Possible improvement could be reducing the tab bar height a bit when using compact size option.
                                                          Right now it looks to me that when a user in Orion chooses the compact option, the address bar gets reduced, while the tab bar stays the same height.

                                                          • Vlad replied to this.

                                                              Pluto I meant Orion compact size vs Firefox compact size screenshot.

                                                              What can we do to make this feature more discoverable?