Charm - Tabs

Handle Tabs Consistently

Lip Gloss standardizes tab character (\t) rendering, converting tabs to 4 spaces by default due to inconsistent terminal behavior. You can customize this on a per-style basis to suit your terminal app’s needs.

Pair tab customization with formatting and rules for polished terminal layouts.

Tab Rendering Options

Lip Gloss provides flexible tab width settings:

Tabs render as 4 spaces by default:

style := lipgloss.NewStyle() // tabs will render as 4 spaces, the default

Set a custom tab width (e.g., 2 spaces):

style := lipgloss.NewStyle().TabWidth(2) // render tabs as 2 spaces

Remove tabs or leave them intact:

style := lipgloss.NewStyle().TabWidth(0) // remove tabs entirely
style := lipgloss.NewStyle().TabWidth(lipgloss.NoTabConversion) // leave tabs intact

How It Works

Customize tab rendering for consistent output:

Understand Default Behavior

Lip Gloss converts tabs (\t) to 4 spaces to handle inconsistent terminal rendering (e.g., 4 or 8 spaces).

Customize Tab Width

Use TabWidth to set a specific width or disable conversion:

style := lipgloss.NewStyle().TabWidth(2)
fmt.Println(style.Render("Text\twith tabs"))

Apply to Styled Text

Combine tab settings with other styles for consistent layouts in CLIs or Bubble Tea TUIs.

Tab rendering may vary across terminals. Test your app in your target terminal (e.g., iTerm2, Alacritty) to ensure consistent output.