Possible to have dark mode be application specific?

[MikeonTV]

I am a heavy Apple Mail user (and I don't plan on changing that). While I love dark mode I actually need to screenshot emails quite often and the dark mode really changes the tone of some of my emails.

Is it possible to keep dark mode on but select applications that don't use dark mode?

 

[steveaburns]

In dark mode, to keep Mail light, enter the following in terminal, and restart mail.

defaults write com.apple.mail NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool YES

In general, if you know where the preferences are for an app, you can try this -- here's some others.

defaults write com.apple.Notes NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool YES
defaults write com.apple.Safari NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool YES
defaults write com.apple.iCal NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool YES
defaults write com.apple.Maps NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool YES
defaults write com.apple.Preview NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool YES

 

[MikeonTV]

In dark mode, to keep Mail light, enter the following in terminal, and restart mail.

defaults write com.apple.mail NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool YES

In general, if you know where the preferences are for an app, you can try this -- here's some others.

defaults write com.apple.Notes NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool YES
defaults write com.apple.Safari NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool YES
defaults write com.apple.iCal NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool YES
defaults write com.apple.Maps NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool YES
defaults write com.apple.Preview NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool YES

Thanks for the reply Steve. I tried what you posted but it did not change anything.

 

[steveaburns]

Thanks for the reply Steve. I tried what you posted but it did not change anything.

You have dark mode on, and you restarted mail after applying the setting in terminal? It's been working consistently for many people. Any chance you mistyped?

 

[Binarymix]

There’s a nice little app that does this:

https://github.com/zenangst/Gray/releases