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.
IMO this could be an additional option in Preferences > Appearance
A comparison between Orion compact and Firefox (v. 88) compact with address bar and tab bar.
For what it's worth, I really like Safari's new compact tab design. I would like to see it in Orion personally, but I can understand that the vast majority don't. For me it's not really about the pixel count, but just more on how it feels; it just blends into the web content and is practically invisible until you need it.
Yes it's the feel, not really the pixel count for me as well.
Just want to point out that I use the compact size toolbar in Orion and I love it. More options for those who want to customize Orion are welcome but I don’t think the changes should supplant the current two-row compact design which I think is just the right size (i.e. any shorter would feel too cramped).
adorabilis Glad you do. We are going to trim the size bit more in compact mode by trimming tab height. Stay tuned!
Vlad The tab bar height is standard for all native mac apps. I’m afraid altering it will make Orion look out of place as that goes against macOS UI convention. In my opinion, Firefox is not a good reference for designing a mac app (quite the opposite, actually). My suggestion is to make the change optional so those who want extreme reduction in vertical UI pixels have the choice to do so. I’m aware that too many options can lead to undesired complexity so it may be necessary to find a middle ground via experimentation.
adorabilis I agree. That is why I would rather have a simple compact tab bar just like how it is done in Safari 15…
Arguably, you can remove the top and bottom areas highlighted in red as an option for a single very compact tab 
So here is how safari 15's tab bar works I guess… it is a dynamically sized toolbar button, with tabs taking up around 200px wide until it reaches tab saturation width, in which that tabs will then become
Yes but I grouped them together… will take in mind next time to make them two separate posts.
I would love to see colored bar as well, but not with compact tabs. With tabs on the left colored bar would be look great.
I love Safari's compact tabs. The design just looks so fresh and unique, even if it is less practical. I was a bit disappointed with the lack of a similar design on my first use of Orion, but the availability of vertical tabs somewhat makes up for it. I would still love to see compact tabs in a similar style to Safari's — they're just so aesthetically pleasing.
I use compact tabs without the color and its amazing.
This is something that I was just going to ask about i the discord chat. The old school tab design takes up so much screen space compared to Safari 15.
By far the most requested feature…
The option to have a compact tab view like in Safari where the search bar becomes part of the tab would be awesome. I like the look of it, and it is an elegant way to save space.
This is our most upvoted feature request so wanted to spend a bit more time understanding it.
I assume the request here is to really save vertical height?
Because I can not imagine that a tab that looks like this, looks good to anyone (I am pretty sure Apple themselves are ashamed of some of the choices they made here).
So if we can deliver the same vertical height with really thinking it true we should be OK?
The request is the compact tabs themselves where the search bar becomes a part of the tab. Otherwise it would have been titled "Vertical tab space." Although I named it precisely as such, users may have upvoted it in support of either the vertical tab space-saving or the radical Safari 15 compact tabs. Although there has been major backlash against the Safari 15 design and Apple reverted back disappointingly.
It seems to be roughly 2:1 ratio of Safari 15 tab's design against vertical tab saving from my counting, because I do not know the current views of the users who have upvoted this post on whether they seem to be in support of the shortened vertical height or the design of Safari 15's tab toolbar itself. Perhaps a community poll would be better than a single-dimensional constant.
Edit: I did not articulate enough, but it's not that the address bar is embedded within the tab bar, but rather that you can see multiple tabs while still having only a one-row toolbar.
Vlad That only happens when you are on that current tab, and currently Safari in it's non-compact mode takes up double that of a normally-sized toolbar, warranting the great sacrifice a currently niche usage for some people who like Safari 15's tab design. Normally, the address bar would even be fatter and have additional reader icons, website preferences icons, and the three dots icon embedded inside the top toolbar, taking up even more vertical and horizontal space already than that current tab design. There is nothing that can be done about it, but this should be relayed to a few months from now perhaps with a community poll as many users still haven't clarified which exact one they want.
The rough idea for animations would be slightly complex but it would roughly look like getting the areas of both the targetted tab to be focused and the currently focused tab, take all of the tabs in between them and shift them to the right or left depending if you are targetting the left side of the current tab or to the right.
On the second to last demonstration, the last two tabs are left untouched in terms of tab horizontal positioning, while on the final one all of the tabs are shifted to the rijght to make space for the first tab's expansion and transformation into the address bar. And vice versa for the right side being transformed into the address bar and hence the entire left side of the browser becoming shifted to the left.
Vlad There are in fact three requests which somehow were expanded because of my mistake in posting the vertical tab spacing from the compact mode on the 32nd post. I should have made another post regarding that issue on October 31st instead of lumping that additional feature request in the same area, because now people are confused between vertical tab spacing being named "compact tabs," and the people who support it being lumped in together. So what would be the best is a community poll regarding this.
Our (still very rough) thinking about this is something like this
Basically it is one "row" like Safari, but keeps a usable, fixed address bar on the left side and then has a place for dynamic tabs on the right side. So it accomplishes compactness but without jeopardizing UX.
Just to clarify, what many Firefox castaways (myself) are looking for when we asked for a compact tabs option:
Conventional UI yet looking for more vertical space - that is, separate tab bar and address bar (two row) - but reduced pixel height for address bar and tab bar. The user benefits apart from increased real estate in 13" screens, there is space for extensions in the address bar, and the tab bar can fit in more tabs without scrolling or reducing in width.
Currently, with the present compact option in Orion, just shaving off a few vertical pixels in tab bar height will probably satisfy these set of users.
( Separate issue: with the Version 0.99.109-beta, it seems Orion always shows the tab bar even when only one tab is open. Not sure, if this is a bug or intended change. The expected behaviour is when only single tab is open, the tab bar should not be present.)
There is another set of users who would prefer "Safari 15-style" compact mode - that is where the address bar and tab bar is clubbed together. They are not necessarily looking for vertical space saving(?), if I understand correctly.
I am not a fan of this UI since it compromises too much on tab area +extension icons, but would leave it to the UX experts and community to take a call.
Separate from this is the coloured tab option. Again, I am not a fan of this as I prefer my browser chrome and content to be separate. For immersive mode, I would look to go full screen or focus mode.
Currently, with the present compact option in Orion, just shaving off a few vertical pixels in tab bar height will probably satisfy these set of users.
We tried reducing the height of tab bar but decided that the few pixels were not worth the cramped look. Do you feel strongly about those few pixels?
Separate issue: with the Version 0.99.109-beta, it seems Orion always shows the tab bar even when only one tab is open.
Yep, will be fixed.
There is another set of users who would prefer "Safari 15-style" compact mode - that is where the address bar and tab bar is clubbed together.
We will make this an option.
Separate from this is the coloured tab option. Again, I am not a fan of this as I prefer my browser chrome and content to be separate. For immersive mode, I would look to go full screen or focus mode.
This is my preference too, but I understand that are other users who prefer colored chrome.
Vlad We tried reducing the height of tab bar but decided that the few pixels were not worth the cramped look. Do you feel strongly about those few pixels?
Ah! I strongly do - My reasoning was simple - logically, when I select compact option, address bar and tab bar both should reduce in height. Currently, only address bar reduces in height.
However, I understand there is a difference between my theory and mockup and actual implementation. If you feel it is getting too cramped for most users, I will leave this to the developer/designer judgement. 
Thank you for being responsive and considering.
For reference this is what trimmed compact mode looked like (we were much more compact that Firefox compact mode)
Oh I absolutely love this! The address bar and tab bar height ratio look better and not cramped at all. I would totally go for this.
If you could push me an update with this, I can happily test it out.
I want a compact view in Orion that's EXACTLY like Safari (including same width and height).
Vlad That reminds me of Internet Explorer 9 which (iirc) was the first browser to adopt such design. It’s definitely better than Safari’s compact mode in terms of UX. If that’s your vision, we just need to agree on an optimal size for the fixed address bar or should it be user-adjustable?
adorabilis Yes that is the idea. Not sure how would we let the users adjust the address bar in this case.
