Been in a rut and I'm trying to learn Blender, so I decided to design an app icon fully blind, looked at my dock and picked Zen, cause it's simple and I love this project. After finishing it I was surprised for a first project and decided to share it with everyone who loves this browser as much as I do
None of the existing tools did it well, so I made my own. It migrates virtually everything, all workspaces, tabs, pins, favicons and even workspace icons and background colors.
Full source code, Windows, Mac and Linux binaries at https://github.com/Thinkscape/arc-to-zen
There's never been a better day to migrate off Arc.
Hey everyone, I wanted to share a way to assign a keyboard shortcut to "Unload Tab" in Zen Browser on macOS, since there's no native option for this in the keyboard shortcuts settings.
What you need:
fx-autoconfig: https://github.com/MrOtherGuy/fx-autoconfig
Installation:
config.js and defaults/ from the program/ folder to /Applications/Zen.app/Contents/Resources/profile/ folder to your Zen profile's chrome/ folder (find it via about:profiles → Open Folder)chrome/JS/unload-tab.uc.js with this script:​
let tabHistory = [];
gBrowser.tabContainer.addEventListener("TabSelect", (e) => {
tabHistory = tabHistory.filter(t => t !== e.target);
tabHistory.push(e.target);
if (tabHistory.length > 20) tabHistory.shift();
}, true);
document.addEventListener("keydown", (e) => {
if (e.ctrlKey && e.key.toLowerCase() === "u") {
let tab = gBrowser.selectedTab;
let prevTab = [...tabHistory].reverse().find(t => t !== tab && !t.closing && !t.hasAttribute("pending"));
if (prevTab) {
gBrowser.selectedTab = prevTab;
}
gBrowser.discardBrowser(tab);
}
}, true);
Then restart Zen Browser
The shortcut is Ctrl+U, change it in the script to whatever you prefer. It unloads the current tab and switches to the last active non-unloaded tab.
Hope this helps!
Hi guys, I'm a newbie, I was wonder how can I remove the space completely, as I do not use it
A while back I shared my zen tabs panel extension. It started out as a small extension to fix a few things that were broken in other firefox extensions on Zen but as it accumulated more features I renamed it to ErgoZen.
The basic idea is that it's a menu driven keyboard shortcut UX for Zen. You only need to remember one keyboard shortcut: ⌘. on macOS, or ⌃. on Windows (I havent tested on anything but macOS). This shortcut pops up a menu that you can navigate via keyboard or mouse to access lots of useful functionality from zen, including stuff zen doesn't have (like browsing the tree structure of your open tabs). It uses short single character mnemonic keys as much as possible like 'r' to see recent tabs, 'm' to move a tab etc...
Where this gets interesting is that these keyboard shortcuts you use to navigate the menu UI can also be used in quick chord sequences to bypass the UI. For example, ⌘. opens the main menu, the r opens the recent tabs sub menu then 2 opens the second most recent tab. If you do ⌘.,r,2 in quick succession then you switch to the 2nd most recent tab without popping up the menu UI at all. If you only remember part of the sequence just pause and the menu will pop up showing you the options, so ⌘.,r will show you the recent tabs menu.
This means that you naturally learn and memorize your most used keyboard shortcuts as you use them, and shortcuts you dont remember are easy to find. While all the functionality of this extension of available from keyboard shortcuts it's also fully mouse driven too, so you can use chords to quickly do things purely from the keyboard with no menu, open the menu and interact with it with the keyboard, or open the menu and navigate purely with the mouse.
There's a lot of stuff in here. I'm a tab hoarder so many of these features are there to make tab hoarding more manageable. It's pretty performant too, I regularly have browser sessions with 3000+ tabs open and this extension handles it fine while remaining feast and responsive.
Some notable features (see README for full list):
https://github.com/cfilipov/ergozen
NOTE: This was only tested on mac os, I have no idea if this works on other OSes. No reason it shouldn't, but I haven't tried.
NOTE: Unfortunately this extension can't be published on the official addons store because it relies on the experiment api. This means you need to manually install it and set a few flags in about:config. To make this easier there's a single-line command that runs an install script that automates the install (the script is mac only). See the README.md for more info.
Kind of like how in firefox how I can open or duplicate a tab and have it open right next to the active one inside the same folder? Whenever I try it opens a tab all the way at the bottom of my spaces window and not in said folder at all.
Version: 1.19.13b
recently encountered this bug just today where it automatically switches between the two spaces that I made, has anyone encountered the same bug? thought it was an error on my end, like a misclick or something, but it's keeps happening more often now that even as I'm writing this, it keeps switching spaces :/
I tried updating the browser but it's still happening. any help is appreciated 🤔
A bright white background is 100% un natural for reading, historically we used animal skins, carved stone, or used paint on cave walls.
Books are traditional un-bleached tree cellulose paper, a tan color which most would say is much easier on the eyes for reading.
Newspapers are dim grey, not even close to light grey or white.
So why should we look at full white backgrounds? Obviously that's the highest possible contrast a computer screen is capable of, so that's part of the reason.
I guess it is automatically assumed that absolute maximum contrast will be best for reading, and the way to reduce contrast is to simply turn down the brightness if it's brighter than your surroundings. I can't argue that this isn't good enough 99.9% of the time, it really is, but what if you want something different?
Enable hidden secret setting in dark reader
Dark reader addon menu, go to settings
Dev tools
In dark reader dev tools, advanced
preview new mode
Exit browser, reopen and click "see all options" in dark reader
Click colors
Did you know a vast majority of led-lit screens (not oled, which is what almost all iPhone uses since iPhone 10) have a scientifically proven purplish hue from the cheap phosphor coating of the lights? It's 100% true and provable, here's scientific measurement from equipment costing more than $10,000!
https://fluxometer.com/rainbow/#!id=iPad%20Pro/6500K-iPad%20Pro
This website is from the same developers of f.lux in 2008, which is why we now have night light / red shift and other programs on our computers and phones, because of this program.
OLED is quite balanced, and since 99% of new phones now are oled, this is a non issue
https://fluxometer.com/rainbow/#!id=iPhone%20X/6500K-iPhone%20X
But if you have an older phone or tablet, which has probably no more security updates and is now electronic waste, or a laptop with a traditional LED backlight, changing the webpage background could help provide a more balanced look, and be more relaxing to look at.
https://fluxometer.com/rainbow/#!id=Thinkpad%20T440s/6500K-ThinkpadT440s
fluxometer equipment shows this screen has a more green tone, because of the lower red content. Blue is TWICE as bright as everything else. if you switch back and forth between this thinkpad and the retina screen, using back and forward buttons, you might be able to notice the blue spike moves toward aqua side for thinkpad.
This increases the aqua light as well, where as the apple led lights used shift slightly more violet blue, and have less aqua, leading to a more purplish glow.
Here's a high-quality apple led-lit screen, much better but still has a blue spike twice as bright as red and green
https://fluxometer.com/rainbow/#!id=Thunderbolt%2027/6500K-Thunderbolt27
Retina macbook 2014
https://fluxometer.com/rainbow/#!id=Retina%20Macbook%20Pro%202014/6500K-RetinaMacbookPro2014
Here's sunlight at 10 in the morning
https://fluxometer.com/rainbow/#!id=Outdoors/10AM%20LA%20sunny
And a foggy morning, notice how much closer green is to blue, compared to double in brightness with our cheapo LED lights
https://fluxometer.com/rainbow/#!id=Outdoors/7AM%20LA%20foggy
So if you have an laptop or LED-lit screen, consider using dark reader to modify the background color.
Hello folks. I've been using it for a while, at least a full year. One thing that I noticed recently, after taking some time off, is that Zen is working very differently on different environments.
What do I mean? It's somewhat a lackluster performance mixed with poor visual integration that led me to take some time off. I was using my own Debian with a manually installed Budgie Desktop, and Zen wasn't good at all. Before that, on Nobara, it was kinda okay. Not as good as it was in my days in Aurora, but it would do well.
In Debian I ended up trying Brave and found it was good. But then I went for Zorin and decided to try Zen again, since Brave wasn't good enough for me.
Holy shit. I've never seen any browser run so good. Not only did Zen integrate perfectly to the theming and the visuals in Zorin, but it's also running so smoothly and doing a perfect smooth scrolling, something I've not seen any browser deliver in years. There's something about Zorin, it seems, that Zen finds everything it needs to deliver all its functions properly.
And that gets me to the second point: even though sometimes chromium-based browsers load webpages faster, gecko-based browsers deliver a more linear performance, with less inconsistency or spikes overall.
The thing, though, is the inconsistency across-platforms. Specially in a browser that's still in its younger years. Many many users would rush to judge it on the fact of performance factors that, it seems, depend too much on the distros. Specially since a huge share of Zen are web powerusers in general who'll look deep for another browser and be unsatisfied with Edge or Chrome. Let's not kid ourselves: Edge isn't Internet Explorer 9. It's quite good, so to be unsatisfied with it it's likely that a fluctuation of performance like the one I've seen among different Linux distros will be enough to make people think Zen isn't that good. Specially since a lot of Zen users are Linux users as well.
Being it a Flatpak-only, shouldn't the performance be more consistent? It's crazy that getting several versions of Firefox across dozens of distros (normal, snaps, flatpak, ESR, etc) I've never seen such a variation as I've seen with Zen.
But, hell, if you are unsure about Zen and have spare time? Try it with Zorin. It's unlike anything I've seen in years. The perfect smooth scrolling alone is something I've not seen in many many years.
One of the features I love about vertical tabs in Edge, is that you can collapse the tab bar to just show favicons. On hover, it expands to show the tab titles. This is a great middle-ground between having the tab bar open all the time or completely hidden.
Does Zen have something like this, or can I make it so with some custom code?
Edit: Adding a screen recording of the Edge behavior
whenever i scroll click the essentials to unload them they get removed on one of my work spaces, every other work space is fine but one specific work space is doing this behaviour like whenever i middle click or ctrl+w the essential instead of staying in the essentials tab it gets closed for some reason. as i said every other space this doesnt happen its only this specific space. how do i fix this
these are my essential setting if there is any other setting please help thanks you
Update: i tried to fix it now it happens on every space T_T
the settings are the same but its still happening now on every space
Huge for me. I used boosts on Arc a lot for several work sites.
Fastest rise I’ve seen in a while.
People clearly wanted a browser that doesn’t feel like enterprise middleware wearing a hoodie.
Honestly, I’m loving it so far. It feels like I’m finally browsing in a way that actually fits how I use the internet.
The biggest thing for me is having my essentials right there in big buttons. I love being able to get to them fast without opening a new tab every time. They almost feel like little apps, and I can already see how much time this saves in tiny increments throughout the day. I used to try pinned tabs in Brave, but the icons were so small that I’d forget they were there or accidentally close them. Zen’s approach feels way better to me.
I also really like folders. They remind me of bookmarks, but way more convenient and actually part of the flow. One thing I’m still not sure about: do folders sync? Would be good to know, because I’d hate to lose them someday.
Spaces are neat too. Still figuring out exactly how I want to use them, but I can see the potential.
Vertical tabs are taking some getting used to, but I’m liking them more than I expected, they feel like a better use of space.
I’m also using the transparent Zen mod, and that made a huge difference for me. Switching between sites feels less visually overwhelming now, which I didn’t realize I cared about until I tried it. (The Animations Plus mod also makes the experience of browsing so satisfying)
Other than that, I’ve got my usual extensions and a couple small UI mods. Trying not to go too wild with it since I’ve heard things can break on updates, so I’m keeping it pretty light for now.
So far so good. This is my first real experience sticking with a Firefox-based browser. I tried Firefox in the past, but it never felt like enough of a reason to switch. Zen feels fundamentally different, and I’m glad I found it. It feels like it actually respects me and my workflow.
i have 11 mods and 4 addons
Every time I full screen a youtube tab, this weird pop up shows up. I don't know why but this is just annoying to me, I'm pretty sure this is a firefox native feature. Is there anyway top disable this?
I still use zen at work. The workspaces allow me to separate some tasks, for example my 4 panorama sites are pinned tabs in their own workspace. Something that would be cool though, is I want a specific space for Jira, Azure, and maybe something else. What I'd like and don't know if there is something out there, is the ability to have all jira links no matter where they are opened from, to open on the Jira workspace, and Azure links on the Azure workspace. does any one know of any way to do this?
How do i show settings,reload, bookmarks etc on the tab bar. (I am using a zen mod which hides back and forward buttons on toolbar)
I want my Zen browser to use a light theme in the morning and a dark theme at night.
I can switch the theme palette by right clicking the sidebar and selecting Edit Theme, but each time I do that I have to select the mode and pick a color from scratch.
Ideally, I'd like it to keep my selection of theme color palette for both light and dark modes, and let me switch between them with one click. Is something like this possible in browser settings or as a mod?
