Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

What Appearance Setting Do You Use: Blue or Graphite?

Appearance Setting: Blue or Graphite

  • Blue

    Votes: 33 75.0%

  • Graphite

    Votes: 11 25.0%
  • Total voters
    44
Traverse

Traverse

macrumors 604
Original poster
Mar 11, 2013
7,727
4,517
Here
I haven't seen one of these threads in a while (actually, I can't recall one recent one.)

Since updating to Yosemite I've noticed that I prefer the Graphite appearance setting, while in previous versions I preferred the Blue.

I'm just curious, what setting do you use in your version of OS X?
 
I'm a long-time graphite user :)
That's pretty much the first setting I manually switch... and when I do, it always reminds me of how MobileMe used to store your Mac settings, and iCloud doesn't do that any more.
 
In short, both.

I use Graphite on my 13" rMBP to match its case, and on my Mac mini running Mavericks server. Most of my other Macs are on Blue, but a few such as my Graphite iMac G3 do use Graphite.
 
Blue.

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=21350567#post21350567 includes a screenshot that includes some greening of menus, and subtle use of colours and iconography in the title bars of non-key windows.

With Flavours on Mavericks, I tried a variety of themes that default to something other than tricoloured buttons for close, minimise and zoom. (As far as I can tell, overrides are never forced – it's always possible to retain the Mavericks default for those three buttons – but I usually chose to try those themes in their entireties, as the designers had intended them to be seen.)

It seems that:
  • with OS X, I always prefer those three buttons (traffic lights) to be coloured
  • with alternatives to OS X (Lumina, GNOME, KDE and so on), I do not expect equivalent parts of the UI to be coloured.

Postscript

I prefer what Apple describes as blue 'for buttons' primarily because it allows red, amber and green (not blue) for close, minimise and zoom.

I'd like that tricolour approach, combined with grey (instead of blue) for things like textual radio buttons.
 
Last edited:
I use blue. I do like graphite, but after a while it gets boring. I like the blue on the menus.
 
Graphite makes everything look 'disabled', and on Yosemite its really weird seeing a grey monotone hue against these really vibrant UIs and app icons.

Also, its a pain in the ass to develop for. NSAquaControlTint and NSGraphiteControlTint only returns the NSTableView grid colour, which is useless, and the more important colours like the NSColor highlight colour don't change with the appearance setting, so you have to find them yourself. This is even more of a pain in the ass now thanks to Yosemite's 'Vibrant' views which cause the colours to be brighter/more contrasted than what they actually are so trying to match the actual highlight colour on the translucent menu background is near impossible

But I digress, I use blue
 
  • Like
Reactions: grahamperrin and T'hain Esh Kelch
Blue, with the dark mode enabled. I do wish though that apps like Safari or iTunes get a dark mode too. Looks badass.
 
I have always loved the Graphite setting. I use "dark mode" with the graphite setting and I think it looks nice together.
 
I stick with blue. I wish there were a few different options so far I've had to use the Flavors app to modify that. I to use the "dark mode" and I love it, just wish finder would go dark as well.
 
KoolStar said:
I stick with blue. I wish there were a few different options so far I've had to use the Flavors app to modify that. I to use the "dark mode" and I love it, just wish finder would go dark as well.
Click to expand...
If they can get finder to be "dark" also, I think we would definitely have a winner.
 
Using f.lux and a bit of AppleScript I have my machine automatically switch to Graphite and the dark theme at nighttime. Then back to Blue and the light theme during the day.
 
  • Like
Reactions: grahamperrin
I prefer blue for everything except the window controls. I can't explain why, but they just irk me colored so I use graphite. It is kind if dull. I wish you could control the stoplight buttons independently.
 
  • Like
Reactions: grahamperrin
luke lau said:
Graphite makes everything look 'disabled', and on Yosemite its really weird seeing a grey monotone hue against these really vibrant UIs and app icons.
Click to expand...

Good point. With all the monochrome window frames and panels, the grey buttons are just not very visible. Using the OS is mostly interacting with buttons and toggles, so I want them to stand out.
 
  • Like
Reactions: grahamperrin
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back