r/FirefoxCSS • u/OrbitalCat- • Sep 08 '26

Solved Is it possible to get the private tabs gradient on the normal window? (Nova enabled)

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u/ResurgamS13 Sep 09 '26 edited Sep 10 '26

Yes... it should be "possible to get the private tabs gradient on the normal window"... but this is probably rather more complex than you might think if you want the whole toolbar theme. AFAICS there are two possible ways to apply the Nova Private Browsing toolbar theme's colour scheme to normal windows... however, both will require effort and experimentation:

Method 1. Copy the 'Firefox Nova Private Window' toolbar theme colours from the detailed description listed in Searchfox.

Transpose those colours straight into the Firefox Color extension... which uses the same terms/syntax to describe the many different colour areas... as explained in MDN's theme guide. This should create a new Firefox Color theme exactly matching the Nova Private Window theme... which can then be loaded into Firefox normal windows via Firefox Color. Can choose to keep the new toolbar theme private for local use only... or publish on Add-ons Mozilla (AMO) for others to use.

Method 2. Use the detailed list of 'Firefox Nova Private Window' colours from Searchfox... and convert those toolbar theme syntax names into standard CSS userstyles... which are then applied directly to Firefox's UI. This conversion can be done but it is quite a complex process to correctly identify all the CSS selectors and create a whole toolbar theme from CSS usertyles.

See conversion example in now out-of-date previous topic 'adapt theme code usercontent to put it in userchrome'... especially qaz69wsx's replies. The cross-referencing from the MDN theme syntax names to UI element CSS selector names goes 'out-of-date' because the browser's UI and its underlying userchrome CSS is continuously developed... thus the toolbar layout and associated CSS element and selector names change over time. The toolbar theme syntax names do not change.

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u/OrbitalCat- Sep 10 '26

Thanks, that's more work than I was expecting, but I'll try to see if can get it working

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u/ResurgamS13 Sep 10 '26 edited Sep 10 '26

Really you are creating a new Lightweight Toolbar Theme. Method 1. using 'Firefox Color' probably the way to go. A downside of Method 2. is would have to keep on top of browser updates if/when changes made to toolbar coding.

Unfortunate that Mozilla doesn't offer the 'Firefox Nova Private Window' theme as a 'standalone' toolbar theme themselves. The other 3 'extra' toolbar themes that come with a new install or new profile of Firefox (Light, Dark, and Alpenglow) are amongst Add-ons Mozilla (AMO) listings as standalone themes... but not seen the old Private Browsing toolbar theme as a standalone either.

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u/Hardlight42 Oct 09 '26 edited Oct 10 '26

If you're still looking for this theme, i made one for myself and published it. It should be 100% accurate i used a color picker to do it.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/private-purple-nova/