Sidebar Grain

Adds a fine texture behind your tabs, like paper or fabric. It sits behind the sidebar, and behind the tab bar when your tabs are at the top.

Tabs in the sidebar	Tabs at the top

Why use it

Dia's sidebar and tab bar are smooth. A little texture gives them some feel, and it stays behind your tabs, so they look and work the same.

• Handy if you want the window to feel less flat.
• Skip it if you like Dia's clean, smooth look.

Turn it on

Open Dia → Settings → Patches and switch on Sidebar Grain. Or run:

diatweaks enable sidebarGrain

Options

The options sit under the switch in Settings, with a small preview.

• Texture: Grain, Sand, Tweed, Denim, Matte or Fine. The default is Sand.
• Grain: how strong the texture is, from 0% to 100%. The default is 50%.
• Softness: how much the texture is blurred, from 0% to 100%. The default is 0%.
• Scale: how large the texture is, from 50% to 300%. The default is 100%.
• Reset puts grain, softness and scale back to their defaults.

You can also change them without opening Settings: right-click an empty part of the sidebar and choose Edit Sidebar Grain…. With tabs at the top, right-click an empty part of the tab bar.

Each profile its own grain

In Edit Sidebar Grain…, set Apply to to This Profile to give the profile you're in its own texture, grain, softness and scale, or untick Show grain in this profile to turn it off there. Anything you don't change follows the settings for all profiles. Reset clears that profile's own settings. Settings always edits the settings for all profiles.

FAQ

Does it work with tabs at the top?

Yes. The texture goes behind the tab bar instead of the sidebar.

Can each profile have a different grain?

Yes. Right-click the sidebar, choose Edit Sidebar Grain… and set Apply to to This Profile. Each window shows the grain of the profile it's on, and switches with it.

Does it get in the way of clicking?

No. Clicks pass straight through it to your tabs.

Why does the texture fade when I switch to another app?

It follows the window. When the window isn't the active one, the texture hides, like the rest of Dia's window styling.

Why doesn't "Edit Sidebar Grain…" show up on my tabs?

It only appears when you right-click empty space. Right-clicking a tab gives you the tab's own menu.