Get the window titlebar background color

Question

Hi,
on my macOS app I would like to set the window background color as the titlebar background color such a way to get a unique color all over the window on both light and dark mode.

But I cannot find the way to read the titlebar background color nor I found a standard color name for that. How can I do that?

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Posted by

LeonardoDev

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Answer 1

I think that titlebar has in fact the color of the window background, plus a non transparent effect that dims the bg color.

Making the titlebar transparent will give it the exact color of background.

You could try this (I tested, got a uniform red color):
window?.titlebarAppearsTransparent = true // gives it "flat" look
window?.backgroundColor = .red // set the background color
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47759424/how-to-colour-the-titlebar-of-nswindow

Or look at this:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47759424/how-to-colour-the-titlebar-of-nswindow

Posted by

Claude31

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Answer 2

I think that titlebar has in fact the color of the window background, plus a non transparent effect that dims the bg color.

Making the titlebar transparent will give it the exact color of background.

You could try this (I tested, got a uniform red color):
window?.titlebarAppearsTransparent = true // gives it "flat" look
window?.backgroundColor = .red // set the background color
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47759424/how-to-colour-the-titlebar-of-nswindow

Or look at this:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47759424/how-to-colour-the-titlebar-of-nswindow

Posted by

Claude31

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Answer 3

Thank you Claude. In the window.contentView subclass I set

Code Block - (void)awakeFromNib
{
    self.window.titlebarAppearsTransparent = true;
}
- (void)drawRect:(NSRect)rect
{
    [self.window.backgroundColor set];
    NSRectFill(rect);
}

but the titlebar has still a lighter color than the background color. By chance I discovered that if I set

Code Block - (void)awakeFromNib
{
    self.window.titlebarAppearsTransparent = true;
    self.window.backgroundColor = [NSColor controlBackgroundColor];
    /*  I even tried the color [NSColor windowBackgroundColor] but the titleBar has still a lighter color. */
}
- (void)drawRect:(NSRect)rect
{
    [self.window.backgroundColor set];
    NSRectFill(rect);
}

It works well for both light and dark mode on my macOS Big Sur 11.2. Will this work well on any macOS version? Even on Mojave and Catalina?

Posted by

LeonardoDev

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Answer 4

titlebarAppearsTransparent exists since MacOS 10.10.

So I do not see a reason why this would not work on later OS.

but the titlebar has still a lighter color than the background color. By chance I discovered that if I set
When I test in an app (Swift), even without setting bg color for the window, everything is the same color.

When you add:

Code Block     self.window.backgroundColor = [NSColor controlBackgroundColor];

Does it change the content color ?

Posted by

Claude31

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Answer 5

If I set any background color, it always work, no matter the color I choose, the background color is always equal to the background titlebar color. e.g. self.window.backgroundColor = anyColor;

Anyway, actually I simply turn ON the NSWindow "Transparent Title Bar" check-box on IB. I use no code at all.
So when the window is active I get a window background color equal to the background title bar RGB color as 40,40,40 on dark mode and 246,246,246 on light mode.

I noticed that the other windows as e.g. the System Preferences window, when active, have these RGB colours: 54,54,54 on dark mode and 252,252,252 on light mode. So, the color is indeed different. Unique (titlebar/back) but different than on the other windows.

Posted by

LeonardoDev

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Answer 6

@LeonardoDev, Could you solve this issue? In my app, the color of title bar is slightly lighter than the main content view.

Posted by

PMLBE

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Get the window titlebar background color

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