{"id":31989,"date":"2021-03-24T16:49:41","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T20:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=31989"},"modified":"2021-03-24T16:49:41","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T20:49:41","slug":"big-surs-sidebar-translucency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/03\/24\/big-surs-sidebar-translucency\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Sur’s Sidebar Translucency"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Heer<\/a> (tweet<\/a>):<\/p>\n

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But, screen fidelity aside, it was clear after a day that using Catalina felt cramped and messy. Icons and text in the menu bar were not as well-aligned. Rows in the Finder were squished together like every pixel on the display remained precious real estate.<\/p>\n

Big Sur changed all of that for the better. There is subtly more space around many interface elements, and there is a clearer sense of structure. But it also introduced problems for readability, many of which are the result of an obsession with translucency and brightness.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

That is dark grey text atop a mid-grey button texture in a light grey sidebar. Subjectively, I find it unpleasant to look at; more objectively<\/a>, it has insufficient contrast. It is the same with the Search field located in an application’s Help menu[…]<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the rest of the system behaves as though the foreground window is comprised of panes of glass, and the background windows are made of solid plastic. Often, this means background windows actually have better<\/em> contrast than windows in the foreground. […] Several MacOS apps are similarly more legible when they are in the background: Music, Contacts, Calendar’s single day view, Dictionary, and Voice Memos — to name a handful.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n