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Feek

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 9, 2009
1,382
2,050
JO01
I always liked being able to switch off transparency in the menu bar.

This is horrible and effectively unreadable.

E82RvCW.png
 
just change your desktop picture, and back to what you want, that 'jump-started' the correct color for me (the icons should adapt to a dark or light background, ie black on light backrounds, white text on dark backgrounds.

if needed, try changing from light to dark (or vice versa) in system preference>general...
 
I already tried those, it didn't make any difference :(
 
ok, well this is not how it generally works, so it's something specific to your setup.

have you rebooted? tried "automatically hide and show the menu bar"? (system prefs, dock & menubar). have you tried changing date & time settings?
 
I don't like the new transparency but at least mine stays legible.

Here's a screen recording as I flick through my four desktops which all have different coloured backgrounds.

I swiped 1-2-3-4-3-4 as the fourth one switches the text from white to black, so I did that twice just for fun. It's not a smooth transition!

 
ok, well this is not how it generally works, so it's something specific to your setup.

have you rebooted? tried "automatically hide and show the menu bar"? (system prefs, dock & menubar). have you tried changing date & time settings?
I've rebooted multiple times but just tried all the other things you've suggested but still none of them have made any difference.

This is running as a VM within Parallels and without Parallels Tools installed (if I install it, Big Sur fails to boot) and the OS only reports a 3Mb GPU despite me allocating 512Mb to it. This is probably something to do with that so I won't worry too much about it.
 
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Since Mac OS 1.0 the menu bar has been white, and now they are experimenting with something that have worked for years.
I have really tried to like the transparent thing they are trying now, but it just doesn't work. It's hideous and distracts me all the time. I want the white menu bar back!

This was a preference in the recent systems, but it seems that preference is gone. Please bring it back Apple!
 
Since Mac OS 1.0 the menu bar has been white, and now they are experimenting with something that have worked for years.
I have really tried to like the transparent thing they are trying now, but it just doesn't work. It's hideous and distracts me all the time. I want the white menu bar back!

This was a preference in the recent systems, but it seems that preference is gone. Please bring it back Apple!

well, i't been white for the light GUI, and translucent black for the dark GUI. funny how these things are; i've been waiting for a transparent menubar since forever, so i really like it.
 
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I've rebooted multiple times but just tried all the other things you've suggested but still none of them have made any difference.

This is running as a VM within Parallels and without Parallels Tools installed (if I install it, Big Sur fails to boot) and the OS only reports a 3Mb GPU despite me allocating 512Mb to it. This is probably something to do with that so I won't worry too much about it.

You're running without hardware acceleration - it doesn’t look like that on a normally functioning machine.
 
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I switched off transparency completely. It is the only way that I can work. I believe you might look in the Display option under Accessibility in System Prefs. I think that is where I made the change. I am not on Big Sur right now so I can't be positive on the exact location of the setting
 
I agree. Haven't touched Big Sur since the beta came out partially because of this (and a few annoying bugs with my peripherals).

As for the spacing, I don't like it either, but its obvious Apple is setting this up as a touchscreen interface. There should be an option to bring everything closer together.
 
Since Mac OS 1.0 the menu bar has been white

Not true. 10.5 (Leopard) introduced a translucent menu bar, very similar to now, and by 10.5.3, introduced an option to turn it off, presumably due to the high volume of complaints. Big Sur offers a similar option, only you'd have to turn on "reduce transparency" in Accessibility. However, maybe by the 3rd update of Big Sur, Apple will add an option to make the menu bar only opaque. Let's see.
 
You can turn off all the translucency effects in the Accessibility preferences. If not, you can just make a wallpaper with a white bar behind the menu bar, there is even an app to do so.

The bugs mentioned by adrianlondon and by the op (the space switching and the menu bar being white on grey) have been fixed.
 
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You can turn off all the translucency effects in the Accessibility preferences. If not, you can just make a wallpaper with a white bar behind the menu bar, there is even an app to do so.

Thanks, I want everything else to be translucent though...
The fact that there is a special app for creating the wallpaper should tell Apple that the translucency should be an option. :(
 
With the global menubar as a main affordance on the Mac since 1984, this design truly is "form over function" and just bad design. There are plenty of cases of background pictures where the thing just does not work. Having to manipulate the image to overcome a design error is stupid.
 
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I don't like the new transparency but at least mine stays legible.

Here's a screen recording as I flick through my four desktops which all have different coloured backgrounds.

I swiped 1-2-3-4-3-4 as the fourth one switches the text from white to black, so I did that twice just for fun. It's not a smooth transition!

View attachment 942133
please report that as a suggestion or bug, that transition. I know it can look way better. even if it just faded.
 
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