Replacement for NSAppearance.performAsCurrentDrawingAppearance on macOS 10.14 and 10.15 to Fetch the Correct NSColor.cgColor

Oct 7th, 2021

Today, I had trouble getting NSColor to work with colors from Asset catalogues when asking for its .cgColor. Since NSColor is appearance-aware, i.e. it switches light and dark mode appropriately when used directly in your views, I wondered why asking for .cgColor always returned the initial value. Say we start the app in light mode, then this is always going to be the light mode color, never dark mode. Yes, not even if you initialize the color anew using NSColor(named: ...).cgColor.

Show Light Text on Dark Recessed NSButton with an Image

Jan 18th, 2020

This is how I made dark NSButton with the NSButton.BezelStyle.recessed display legible light text on dark background with macOS Mojave an up. Recently, a user of The Archive pointed out that the in-app guide doesn’t display properly with a light system appearance. In dark mode, you wouldn’t notice the problem, but in light mode, the button colors rendered them illegible. Only when you press a button does its text light up properly for its background color. Have a look:

NSAppearance Change Notifications for Dark Mode and RxSwift Subscriptions

Jan 8th, 2019

Last year, I had a full-time job from May until November and haven’t had much time to prepare for Mojave. Then it hit hard, and I am still tweaking my apps to look properly in Mojave’s Dark Mode. I welcome that macOS offers two modes now, .aqua and .darkAqua in programmer parlance. Because then I don’t have to implement a homebrew solution in all my writing applications.