How to change the active tab header's color in IntelliJ 14.1.4?

Question

I\'m using a dark theme in IntelliJ 14, the problem is that I have difficulties in distinguish the active tab, because its header\'s background is not different than the oth

Answer 1

• Please note that this setting has worked for IntelliJ 14 back then, but is no longer applicable for newer versions
• Find the comments below for plugins as a great alternative (Material Theme UI, Active IntelliJ Tab Highlighter)

Although, if you are still using IntelliJ 14:

Under File \ Settings \ Appearance & Behavior \ File Colors,

turn off "Use in Editor Tabs", as test tabs background are dark-green by default, which is similar to the dark-grey non-selected tabs.

After that, optionally you can set the colors under:

File \ Settings \ Editor \ Colors & Fonts \ File Status

and change the Foreground color of "Modified" status.

Now it will highlight the modified files (in version control).