Tab Text colors, Tree Text colors display incorrectly?

[12thXy]

System

XYplorer v28.00.703 64-bit
Windows 11 25H2
Screen Resolution: 4k @ 200% scale

Description of Problem

[Selected Tab Text] color (white FFFFFF) incorrectly uses [Breadcrumb Bar 1 Active Text] color (green 00CF00).
[Other Tabs Text] color (red C50000) incorrectly uses unknown?? color source.
[Tree Text color] (bright yellow FFFF00) incorrectly shows a faded dark yellow.

Steps to Reproduce

Highlights & Dark Mode:

• Adaptive colors : [off]
  Level of darkness: 15
  Text contrast: 15

Colors:

• Tree
  Text: FFFF00 (bright yellow)

• Tabs
  Selected Tab Text: FFFFFF (white)
  Other Tabs Text: C50000 (red)
  Apply Colors: [off]
  Match selected tab with breadcrumb bar: [off]
  Preserve custom colors: [off]

• Breadcrumb Bar 1
  Active Text: 00CF00 (green)
  Match breadcrumb bar with custom colored tab: [off]

tab-breadcrumb-maybe-bug.png (193.71 KiB) Viewed 193 times

[admin]

Do you see the same problem in light mode?

[12thXy]

In light mode, the tree text color appears correct (bright yellow).
The breadcrumb bar color still affects the Active tab text color (lime green).
The Other tabs text color becomes #000000.

Still in light mode, I turned dual pane on and noticed it displays this:

Pane 1 (selected pane)
Active Tab text color: lime green (should be white, seems sourced from Breadcrumb 1 Active text)
Other tab text color: black (should be red, unknown color source)
Breadcrumb 1 text: lime green (correct)

Pane 1 (not selected)
Active Tab text: #777777 (should still be white? seems taken from Breadcrumb 1 or 2 Inactive Text)
Other tab text: black (should still be red? unknown color source)
Breadcrumb 1 text: #777777 (correct)

Pane 2 (selected)
Active Tab text: #cfcfcf (should be white? taken from Breadcrumb 2 active text)
Other Tab text: black (should be red? unknown source)
Breadcrumb 2 text: #cfcfcf (correct)

Pane 2 (not selected)
Active Tab text: #777777 (should be white? also seems taken from Breadcrumb 1 or 2 Inactive Text)
Other Tab text: black (should be red? unknown source)
Breadcrumb 2 text: #777777 (correct)

Toggling back to dark mode seems to flip the black Other tabs texts to #d9d9d9 which I don't see defined anywhere in my tab/breadcrumbs settings, so that's also an unknown source.

Screenshot 2025-11-24 090612.png (115.91 KiB) Viewed 114 times

[admin]

The interplay between the various color settings is quite complex and is always governed by readability. If you notice one or more significant usability issues, let's address them one at a time.

[12thXy]

For me, customization is what makes any program usable. The bright colors in my screenshots were just to make the issue easy to spot. They’re not necessarily what I’ll use every day.

I understand the color system is designed with readability in mind, and that makes sense as a default, but when a user specifies exact values, that’s a deliberate, conscious choice, so those values should be treated as absolute rather than overridden.

Customization exists so each person can set up an interface in the way that works best for them. Usability and readability are subjective, and exposing hex values implies full control. If those values aren’t applied, it undermines the whole purpose of customization.

What I'm trying to say is: User‑entered colors should be authoritative. Defaults, algorithms, safeties are helpful for new users, but once someone has chosen their own values and turned off everything that might interfere, those should be shown exactly as entered.

All I'm trying to do is replace Explorer with XYplorer in as close an replica as possible -- icon by icon, colour by colour, metric by metric. And I can't do it. I hit a brick wall here with the colours, and that's why I'm here. To report as much detail as I can.

No developer can predict how everyone will work, although you do a great job of it.