i know tabs cannot be resized individually, so how do i make the different tabs in a jpanel to display in different sizes when run? (java - netbeans)

A panel in a panel!

I have used tabs where they all bear the same size.i dont understand what you really mean but if you will have to toy around with your panels,tabs and widget,you got to leave gui builder like netbeans matisse and to the dirty work by hand so that you can have full control.however what you what to do might have another way of implementing it.jtabbedpane is meant to give you panels organised in a tab format, but try and google it,try stackoverflow and see if you can get an answer.