Colour-coding your tabs: a simple system that works
How to pick tab colours that mean something, so you can find the right tab at a glance, plus a ready-made colour scheme to copy.
Colour-coding your tabs works when every colour means one thing, always: for example blue for work, green for learning and pink for social. Use Chrome's tab groups to apply the colours, keep to three to five of them, and never reuse a colour for something else. Within a week you'll spot the right tab by colour before you read a single title.
Why colour beats reading
Your brain notices colour long before it reads text. A strip of 30 tab titles has to be read one by one; a strip of three coloured groups can be taken in at once. Colour also tells you what kind of tab you're about to click, which is a small but real check against drifting into a feed when you meant to open your notes.
The rules
- One meaning per colour. If blue is work, it's work in every window, every day.
- Few colours. Three to five. More than that and you're back to reading.
- Purpose, not website. Colour by what the tab is for. YouTube for a tutorial is learning; YouTube on the home page is probably not.
- Warm colours for temptation. Put distracting sites in a warm, loud colour (pink, red or orange) so they stand out as something to be careful with.
A scheme you can copy
| Colour | Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Blue | Work | Email, docs, project tools |
| Green | Learning | Courses, articles, documentation |
| Pink | Social | Feeds, chats, video |
| Purple | A big project | Everything for one client or thesis |
| Grey | Later | Things to read or save at the end of the day |
Chrome's tab groups offer nine colours: grey, blue, red, yellow, green, pink, purple, cyan and orange. Right-click a tab, choose Add tab to new group, then pick the colour.
Keeping colours consistent
The weak point of colour-coding by hand is consistency. New tabs open without a group, so after a busy morning you have colourless tabs everywhere and the system fades.
TabHue applies the colours for you. Each category has a fixed colour (Work, Learning and Social to start), and every tab you open joins its category's group automatically. TabHue uses Chrome's own tab group colours, so the dot you see in TabHue always matches the group in your tab strip. Change a category's colour once and every tab in it follows. See Categories and website rules.
Want the reasoning behind three groups specifically? Read the three-group method for browser tabs.
Frequently asked questions
Can you change tab colours in Chrome without groups?
No. Chrome only colours tabs through tab groups. Each group has one colour, shown on its label and as a line under its tabs.
What colour should work tabs be?
Any colour you'll keep, but a calm one like blue or green works well for the place you spend most of your day. Save the loud colours for distractions.
How many colours should I use?
Three to five. Fewer than three doesn't separate enough; more than five means you start reading labels again.
- Tabs
- Guides