Gigantic Tabs in Eclipse on Ubuntu

Question

EDIT: For anyone coming to this question through searching, you can install a Gnome Theme called Clearlooks Compact to shorten your tabs in Eclipse. This will free up a

Answer 1

In addition to @Varun Mehta answer, I recommend the following tips for Eclipse 4 (Juno), whose interface is partially dictated and configurable by CSS rules:

In YourEclipseDir/plugins/org.eclipse.platform_4.x.y.v2012zzzzzzzz/css, edit:

• e4_basestyle.css
• e4_default.css
• e4_default_gtk.css

... and adjust those files. I use the following set of tweaks:

• set all the margin-* and padding to 0
• set swt-shadow-visible: false everywhere you find it, to get rid of those huge shadows
• set .MPartStack {font-size} to something smaller than 12

Finally, remember you can disable the toolbar. In 4.0, its state wasn't remembered across sessions, but it seems like the issue is solved in 4.2.1

Bonus resources: Eclipse4/CSS will get you started on Eclipse4 CSS, E4/CSS/SWT Mapping lists other interesting CSS attributes, and CSS Spy will help you inspect the UI.

Screenshot of what I end up with:

EDIT: see also How to remove the close (×) button from Eclipse Juno tabs?