Keyboard colors

petvas · Aug 4, 2013

Hi all,

I have a question about the color of the keyboard in iOS 7. I don't understand the logic that makes the keyboard color change.
When I am at the home screen and if I want to bring up the keyboard by doing a search, the keyboard is dark grey. When I am in any of the new 1st party apps, the keyboard is white. In the AppStore it seems to be dark gray again. What is the logic?
I like the dark keyboard much better and I would love to have it as standard...
Can someone explain the logic behind it? Thanks.

Armen · Aug 4, 2013

petvas said:
Hi all,

I have a question about the color of the keyboard in iOS 7. I don't understand the logic that makes the keyboard color change.
When I am at the home screen and if I want to bring up the keyboard by doing a search, the keyboard is dark grey. When I am in any of the new 1st party apps, the keyboard is white. In the AppStore it seems to be dark gray again. What is the logic?
I like the dark keyboard much better and I would love to have it as standard...
Can someone explain the logic behind it? Thanks.

if you're seeing anything other than a grey keyboard that specific app is not updated for iOS 7 yet. At least this seems to be the case with every 3rd party app I've used.

dictoresno · Aug 4, 2013

Armen said:
if you're seeing anything other than a grey keyboard that specific app is not updated for iOS 7 yet. At least this seems to be the case with every 3rd party app I've used.

i know what hes talking about. like in messages app, its light grey with white keys. and in other apps, i recall seeing it darker....almost black. but i forget which apps that was.

petvas · Aug 4, 2013

I am not talking about 3rd party apps. I am talking about 1st party apps and the OS itself. Have a look here:
The first screenshot shows the search dialog in iOS 7. Look at the keyboard.

Now, have a look at the second screenshot. I am creating a new note. Look at the keyboard. The question is simple: What is the logic behind the color change? Why not always have the same keyboard color?

Armen · Aug 4, 2013

petvas said:
I am not talking about 3rd party apps. I am talking about 1st party apps and the OS itself. Have a look here:
The first screenshot shows the search dialog in iOS 7. Look at the keyboard.

Now, have a look at the second screenshot. I am creating a new note. Look at the keyboard. The question is simple: What is the logic behind the color change? Why not always have the same keyboard color?

It must be some new design logic just like the dock changing colors according to background or icon text.

petvas · Aug 4, 2013

Armen said:
It must be some new design logic just like the dock changing colors according to background or icon text.

It must be the transparency I guess, but still I think it is too much. I will try disabling the transparency just to test what happens.

petvas · Aug 4, 2013

I disabled transparency and I still get two different colors, so it is not just an effect, depending on the background color:

DDustiNN · Aug 5, 2013

This is not new to iOS 7. There was always a black keyboard in previous iOS. Black with white keys, instead of the standard gray keyboard. It only showed up at very specific times, though I don't recall exactly when.

I greatly preferred the black keyboard but unfortunately there is no option outside of jailbreaking.

petvas · Aug 5, 2013

DDustiNN said:
This is not new to iOS 7. There was always a black keyboard in previous iOS. Black with white keys, instead of the standard gray keyboard. It only showed up at very specific times, though I don't recall exactly when.

I greatly preferred the black keyboard but unfortunately there is no option outside of jailbreaking.

It is new to iOS 7. I have never seen a black keyboard in iOS 6. Do you jailbreak your device?

GreyOS · Aug 5, 2013

petvas said:
It is new to iOS 7. I have never seen a black keyboard in iOS 6. Do you jailbreak your device?

The keyboard background is a dark transparent in the App Store in iOS 6. When you type a password for a purchase.

virginblue4 · Aug 5, 2013

petvas said:
It is new to iOS 7. I have never seen a black keyboard in iOS 6. Do you jailbreak your device?

No, it's not new to iOS 7. the keyboard that you typed your password in when purchasing apps was always black compared to the usual grey keyboard.

petvas · Aug 5, 2013

virginblue4 said:
No, it's not new to iOS 7. the keyboard that you typed your password in when purchasing apps was always black compared to the usual grey keyboard.

Well, I don't remember it like that. In iOS 7 it seems a big difference compared to the previous version. I prefer the darker keyboard and I don't understand why we have both.

ominx · Aug 5, 2013

I think it works like this...

White keys are used when within an app window (disregard 3rd party for now).

Black keys are used when no app window exists.

Hope that makes sense.

petvas · Aug 5, 2013

ominx said:
I think it works like this...

White keys are used when within an app window (disregard 3rd party for now).

Black keys are used when no app window exists.

Hope that makes sense.

If it is like you say, what is the point really? I mean, it doesn't bother me. I just don't see the added value in having two different keyboard colors.

Tyler23 · Aug 5, 2013

petvas said:
If it is like you say, what is the point really? I mean, it doesn't bother me. I just don't see the added value in having two different keyboard colors.

Aesthetics?

Personally, I think the white keyboard would look terrible on the home screen search function, and black would look awful in messages.

Seems perfect the way it is.

nikicampos · Aug 5, 2013

petvas said:
It is new to iOS 7. I have never seen a black keyboard in iOS 6. Do you jailbreak your device?

It's not new to iOS 7, in past iOS's there were some native apps that used the black keyboard.

Runt888 · Aug 5, 2013

My guess would be it has to do with the overall aesthetic of the app. Messages, mail, etc are largely white, so having a black keyboard would look terrible - especially with transparency enabled.

Also, a black keyboard has been an option available to developers since iOS 5.

virginblue4 · Aug 5, 2013

petvas said:
Well, I don't remember it like that. In iOS 7 it seems a big difference compared to the previous version. I prefer the darker keyboard and I don't understand why we have both.

The reason we have both if because the different coloured keyboard suit different apps. For example, the dark keyboard in the notes app would just look stupid.

Here are the grey and black keyboards from iOS 6 and below:

batting1000 · Aug 5, 2013

Whatever is behind the keyboard affects its color. In the first image of Spotlight, your wallpaper is dark making the keyboard dark as well. In the second picture of the Notes app, the background is white making the keyboard white / light as well.

----------

virginblue4 said:
The reason we have both if because the different coloured keyboard suit different apps. For example, the dark keyboard in the notes app would just look stupid.

Here are the grey and black keyboards from iOS 6 and below:

You can see that the keyboard in the App Store picture is tinted and transparent. The one on the left isn't transparent.

C DM · Aug 5, 2013

virginblue4 said:
The reason we have both if because the different coloured keyboard suit different apps. For example, the dark keyboard in the notes app would just look stupid.

Here are the grey and black keyboards from iOS 6 and below:

If that's the difference between the two pre-iOS 7 then it's not really close to what it's like in iOS 7 now where it's not just the background color of the keyboard that changes, but the keys and their lables too, which is a much bigger change/difference than before.

virginblue4 · Aug 5, 2013

C DM said:
If that's the difference between the two pre-iOS 7 then it's not really close to what it's like in iOS 7 now where it's not just the background color of the keyboard that changes, but the keys and their lables too, which is a much bigger change/difference than before.

While I agree it is a bigger difference in iOS 7, the point is, there were still two different keyboards in iOS 6 as there are in iOS 7, regardless of the degree of change.

hamiltonDSi · Aug 5, 2013

petvas said:
It is new to iOS 7. I have never seen a black keyboard in iOS 6. Do you jailbreak your device?

It is not new. The iPad has a dark keyboard in iOS 6.

JoeyCloverfield · Aug 5, 2013

Developers choose what color the keyboard is. It's always been this way. Apple just modified the skin on iOS 7.

[textView setKeyboardAppearance:UIKeyboardAppearanceDefault]; // Gray
[textView setKeyboardAppearance:UIKeyboardAppearanceAlert]; // Black

nikicampos · Aug 5, 2013

batting1000 said:
Whatever is behind the keyboard affects its color. In the first image of Spotlight, your wallpaper is dark making the keyboard dark as well. In the second picture of the Notes app, the background is white making the keyboard white / light as well.

I don't think that's actually true, the dark keyboard in Spotlight is dark even with a white wallpaper.

DDustiNN · Aug 6, 2013

petvas said:
It is new to iOS 7. I have never seen a black keyboard in iOS 6. Do you jailbreak your device?

No, a dark version of the keyboard is not new, and it has nothing to do with jailbreaking.

In previous iOS versions, it seemed to happen most when typing somewhere that wasn't in a fixed view. For example, maybe a UIAlertView popup asking you to enter your password.

Keyboard colors

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