I think I have a starting point for you but it is a little bit fiddly. Setting up the action bar with the following code you can set the tabs to use you custom look:
//...somewhere in oncreate
ActionBar bar = getActionBar();
bar.setNavigationMode(ActionBar.NAVIGATION_MODE_TABS);
ActionBar.Tab tab1 = bar.newTab();
TextView tv1 = createTab("Tab 1", R.drawable.firsttabdrawable);
tab1.setCustomView(tv1);
tab1.setTabListener(this);
ActionBar.Tab tab2 = bar.newTab();
tab2.setCustomView(createTab("Tab 2", R.drawable.secondTabDrawable));
tab2.setTabListener(this);
ActionBar.Tab tab3 = bar.newTab();
tab3.setCustomView(createTab("Tab 3", R.drawable.thirdTabDrawable));
tab3.setTabListener(this);
ActionBar.Tab tab4 = bar.newTab();
tab4.setCustomView(createTab("Tab 4", R.drawable.fourthTabDrawable));
tab4.setTabListener(this);
bar.addTab(tab1);
bar.addTab(tab2);
bar.addTab(tab3);
bar.addTab(tab4);
createTab method as follows:
private TextView createTab(String titleText, int tabBackgroundDrawableId)
{
TextView tv = new TextView(this);
//set caption and caption appearance
tv.setTextAppearance(this, R.style.MyDefaultTabTextAppearance);
tv.setText(titleText);
//set appearance of tab
tv.setBackgroundResource(tabBackgroundDrawableId);
tv.setLayoutParams(new android.view.ViewGroup.LayoutParams(android.view.ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, android.view.ViewGroup.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT));
//Make sure all tabs have the same height
tv.setMaxLines(2);
tv.setMinLines(2);
return tv;
}
However the actionbar seems to add the tab view to a parent view that adds padding so for each one you need to remove it. I did this in the oncreate after the first code block like so:
View view = (View) tv1.getParent();
LinearLayout.LayoutParams lp = (android.widget.LinearLayout.LayoutParams)view.getLayoutParams();
view.setPadding(0, 0, 0, 0);
view.setLayoutParams(lp);
You may find a more graceful/straightforward way of doing this but as a starting point I thought it was worth posting.
Hope this helps.
ADDED:
It may also be worth pointing out that if you have a more complicated layout for your tab you can inflate a layout xml file in the createTab method instead. For example using the following xml (mytab.xml):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content">
<ImageView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:id="@+id/tabIcon"/>
<TextView style="@style/MyDefaultTabTextAppearance"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_toRightOf="@+id/tabIcon"
android:minLines="2"
android:maxLines="2"
android:id="@+id/tabText"/>
</RelativeLayout>
createTab becomes:
private RelativeLayout createTab(String titleText, int tabBackgroundDrawableId)
{
RelativeLayout rl = (RelativeLayout)this.getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.mytab, null, false);
//set appearance of tab
rl.setBackgroundResource(tabBackgroundDrawableId);
TextView tv = (TextView)rl.findViewById(R.id.tabText);
//set caption
tv.setText(titleText);
ImageView iv = (ImageView)rl.findViewById(R.id.tabIcon);
iv.setImageResource(R.drawable.ic_launcher);//or supply unique drawable to method?
return rl;
}