the active tab is not well distinguished

[Izibia]

1) appearance with Classic Theme
(tested with Windows XP SP3)

the active tab is not well distinguished from other tabs: this is because TC uses the exact look of the system tabs (this is fully true for TC 8.0x only; TC 8.5 beta makes both the active and non-active tabs lighter)
TC works better with Windows XP Theme than Classic Theme, because Windows XP Theme distinguishes the active tab by a yellow bar.
Suggestion: with Classic Theme add a yellow bar to the active tab

2) comparison of tabs in TC and Notetab++

Notetab++ not only adds a yellow bar to the active tab also with Classic Theme, it distinguishes the active tab even more, and with any theme:
XP Theme:
http://oi39.tinypic.com/npl8qs.jpg
Classic Theme:
http://oi42.tinypic.com/2199ik7.jpg
Suggestion: do something similar like Notepad++ does

[MVV]

I think it is not a good idea to add yellow bar (if it is possible at all with standard tabs): with different background color it may look ugly.

So I think customized background color for active tab would be better.

[Izibia]

Just opened TC 8.50b9 (32/64), TC 8.0 (32/64) and TC 7.0.4a: tabs look absolutely identical. So it is interesting to see the difference you're talking about. Can you make a screenshot?

This is TC 8.50ß9 in Win XP SP3, Classic Theme (but the effect with XP Theme is similar) :
http://oi41.tinypic.com/r2nnfo.jpg
(TC is affected by autohotkey that adds the path to the window name)

TC 8.01 colors the tabs by the same grey hue like menus, icons atc.

[Izibia]

(A note: I added another picture of Notepad++ ; now there are both pictures of XP Theme and Classic Theme in the starting post.)

I think it is not a good idea to add yellow bar (if it is possible at all with standard tabs): with different background color it may look ugly.

So I think customized background color for active tab would be better.

You are probably right with the yellow bar ... but ... I don't know how Windows does it, and maybe yellow represents some system color. Then it might look well with any theme.
(You can see notepad++ uses diferent colors (red and blue) for the images of floppies in the active tab. These colors may be picked from system colors too. Or notepad++ derives the color of the floppy from another system color someway.)

With the customized background color for active tab you might get into similar problems - you must not pick an ugly color.

[MVV]

Looke like some color bug (sometimes I've seen similar effects after starting old game that changed color depth)... Or maybe some special colors set... There is no such effect for me under Win7.

With the customized background color for active tab you might get into similar problems - you must not pick an ugly color.

But you can select desired color and configure TC to use it (e.g. in wincmd.ini) - that's what customized means.

[Izibia]

I can select the background color for the active tab? How?

[MVV]

You can't yet - it was an idea.

[Izibia]

In fact any decent OS should allow an end-user can change API components for individual applications.

[Sob]

Slight OT, but with Windows, you can only keep dreaming. Current customization options are not perfect (well, semi-current, Win<=7) and it's getting worse (Win>=8). If Microsoft keeps current direction, you'll be lucky if they still let you change desktop wallpaper in next version. :\

[Izibia]

I made more tests:
visualization of tab headers depends on Windows Theme

And I see that with Windows XP Theme the active tab is distinguished, although by my opinion the active tab should be stresed more, and notepad++ does it better.