Both Mac themes and all eight user-selectable highlight colors set the color scheme for window title bars, buttons, check boxes, and other user interface components. For Java applications, changing the theme also sets colors in Java's java.awt.SystemColor objects, which applications may use to customize their user interfaces to match the current theme.
This article discusses SystemColor problems on Macs, and provides color swatches, RGB/HSV values, and downloadable color lists for all SystemColors for the standard Mac theme and highlight colors.
Table of Contents
This article is part of a series on How to use SystemColors to access OS user interface theme colors that catalogs Java's SystemColors for user interface themes in major OSes. The color catalogs provide a resource for comparing theme colors and creating custom Java components that match the themes.
Accessing Mac OS X theme colors from Java
A Mac theme defines the color scheme for window title bars, buttons, and so forth. Mac OS X's iconic glassy blue buttons, gray gradient window frames, and red/yellow/green title bar buttons are all part of its theme.
Java's java.awt.SystemColor class provides access to well-defined theme colors, such as the foreground and background colors for buttons, text fields, and menus. Each theme color has a static SystemColor object. For instance, SystemColor.textHighlight is the background color for selected text in a text field.
A list of SystemColor objects and their use is discussed further in the lead series article. The following article discusses Mac-specific issues, summarizes Mac user theme choices, and provides color swatches and RGB values for theme SystemColors.
Selecting Mac OS X themes
Briefly, Mac OS X themes are selected at the top of the Appearance preferences pane:
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| Figure 1. Theme selections in the Mac OS X Appearance preferences pane. |
Macs have just two themes: Blue (the default) and Graphite. The individual colors for window title bars, window backgrounds, buttons, text, and so forth are all defined by these two themes.
Unlike Windows and Linux themes, Mac themes cannot be changed and users cannot add new themes. The only user configurable color choice is the Highlight color used to indicate selected text and list items. The Highlight color menu includes eight standard colors: Graphite, Silver, Blue (the default), Gold, Red, Orange, Green, and Purple. Users can also select a custom highlight color.
Selecting a highlight color sets the background color of selected text. Mac OS X automatically computes a second darker color to use for selected list and table items.
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| Figure 2. Mac theme highlight color examples for Blue and Red choices. |
Dealing with Mac SystemColor problems
Java's SystemColor class is a flawed approach to accessing OS theme settings. While colors are defined for button backgrounds and text, none are defined for tabs, checkboxes, radio buttons, progress bars, and more. Though a highlight color is defined for selected text, none are defined for selected menu items, toggle buttons, radio buttons, or checkboxes. Beyond colors, Java has no access to OS theme fonts, button styles, window title bar buttons, and so forth. So, while there are specific problems on the Mac (and every OS), the primary problem is that Java's theme access is flawed.
Some specific problems on the Mac include:
SystemColor.activeCaptionandSystemColor.inactiveCaptionare intended to give the window title bar background color for front and back windows. On the Mac, these are set to white and gray, and neither color is correct for the Mac's gray gradient title bars.SystemColor.activeCaptionBorderandSystemColor.inactiveCaptionBorderare intended to indicate a border color around front and back windows. On the Mac, there are no window borders and both of these color settings are irrelevant and default to white and gray.SystemColor.controlis intended to give the background color for buttons and panels. On the Mac, this is incorrectly set to white. The correct control background color is light gray. However, while window backgrounds use this color, the Mac's buttons, tabs, scrollbar thumbs, etc., are all drawn with a glassy blue or gray appearance for the Blue or Graphite themes. The blue or gray color in use has no correspondingSystemColor.SystemColor.infois intended to give the background color for tool tips. On the Mac, this is incorrectly set to white. The correct tool tip background color is light yellow.SystemColor.desktopis intended to give the desktop color, even though most users use a favorite image as their desktop. On the Mac,SystemColor.desktopis always an unexpected bright green.SystemColor.controlHighlightis intended as one of the highlight and shadow colors for beveled buttons. Very few themes use bevels any more, so on the MacSystemColor.controlHighlightis repurposed as the color for halos outlining the component with the keyboard focus. While this is useful, no other OS sets thisSystemColorlike this, so cross-platform Java applications can't count on it. And Java doesn't provide aSystemColordedicated to focus halos.
None of these have workarounds except for SystemColor.control. The correct light gray button and panel background color is available as the "control" UIDefault for the native Mac look and feel. This color can be retrieved and used whether or not your application chooses to use the native look.
Color swatches and values
Selecting a new theme or changing the theme's highlight colors immediately updates one or more Java SystemColors.
Blue and Graphite themes
The Blue and Graphite themes are nearly identical. The Blue theme uses shiny blue components and red, yellow, and green window title bar buttons. The Graphite theme uses shiny gray components and gray title bar buttons. Both themes have the same Java SystemColor values.
| Name | Hex triplet | Red | Green | Blue | Hue | Satur. | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| activeCaption | #ffffff | 255 | 255 | 255 | 0 | 0 | 100 |
| activeCaptionBorder | #ffffff | 255 | 255 | 255 | 0 | 0 | 100 |
| activeCaptionText | #000000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| control | #ffffff | 255 | 255 | 255 | 0 | 0 | 100 |
| controlDkShadow | #000000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| controlHighlight | #0063cd | 0 | 99 | 205 | 211 | 100 | 80 |
| controlLtHighlight | #ffffff | 255 | 255 | 255 | 0 | 0 | 100 |
| controlShadow | #8e8e8e | 142 | 142 | 142 | 0 | 0 | 55 |
| controlText | #000000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| desktop | #00ff00 | 0 | 255 | 0 | 120 | 100 | 100 |
| inactiveCaption | #808080 | 128 | 128 | 128 | 0 | 0 | 50 |
| inactiveCaptionBorder | #808080 | 128 | 128 | 128 | 0 | 0 | 50 |
| inactiveCaptionText | #808080 | 128 | 128 | 128 | 0 | 0 | 50 |
| info | #ffffff | 255 | 255 | 255 | 0 | 0 | 100 |
| infoText | #000000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| menu | #ffffff | 255 | 255 | 255 | 0 | 0 | 100 |
| menuText | #000000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| scrollbar | #9a9a9a | 154 | 154 | 154 | 0 | 0 | 60 |
| text | #ffffff | 255 | 255 | 255 | 0 | 0 | 100 |
| textHighlight | #93cdff | 147 | 205 | 255 | 207 | 42 | 100 |
| textHighlightText | #000000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| textInactiveText | #6c6c6c | 108 | 108 | 108 | 0 | 0 | 42 |
| textText | #000000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| window | #ffffff | 255 | 255 | 255 | 0 | 0 | 100 |
| windowBorder | #9a9a9a | 154 | 154 | 154 | 0 | 0 | 60 |
| windowText | #000000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Highlight colors
The Mac's highlight color choices change SystemColor.controlHighlight and SystemColor.textHighlight while leaving the others unchanged:
| Name | Hex triplet | Red | Green | Blue | Hue | Satur. | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| controlHighlight | #0063cd | 0 | 99 | 205 | 211 | 100 | 80 |
| textHighlight | #93cdff | 147 | 205 | 255 | 207 | 42 | 100 |
| Name | Hex triplet | Red | Green | Blue | Hue | Satur. | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| controlHighlight | #ffaf18 | 255 | 175 | 24 | 28 | 86 | 68 |
| textHighlight | #ffe861 | 255 | 232 | 97 | 49 | 58 | 90 |
| Name | Hex triplet | Red | Green | Blue | Hue | Satur. | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| controlHighlight | #577287 | 87 | 114 | 135 | 206 | 35 | 52 |
| textHighlight | #b6c6d2 | 182 | 198 | 210 | 205 | 13 | 82 |
| Name | Hex triplet | Red | Green | Blue | Hue | Satur. | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| controlHighlight | #00bd3a | 0 | 189 | 58 | 138 | 100 | 74 |
| textHighlight | #9afb80 | 154 | 251 | 128 | 107 | 49 | 98 |
| Name | Hex triplet | Red | Green | Blue | Hue | Satur. | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| controlHighlight | #ff6c16 | 255 | 108 | 22 | 317 | 79 | 42 |
| textHighlight | #ffc56e | 255 | 197 | 110 | 20 | 44 | 77 |
| Name | Hex triplet | Red | Green | Blue | Hue | Satur. | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| controlHighlight | #8837a9 | 136 | 55 | 169 | 282 | 67 | 66 |
| textHighlight | #f5a5fe | 245 | 165 | 254 | 293 | 35 | 99 |
| Name | Hex triplet | Red | Green | Blue | Hue | Satur. | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| controlHighlight | #ff1935 | 255 | 25 | 53 | 372 | 52 | 20 |
| textHighlight | #ff9b78 | 255 | 155 | 120 | 248 | 22 | 60 |
| Name | Hex triplet | Red | Green | Blue | Hue | Satur. | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| controlHighlight | #6c6c6c | 108 | 108 | 108 | 0 | 0 | 42 |
| textHighlight | #bababa | 186 | 186 | 186 | 0 | 0 | 72 |
Downloads
The Blue and Graphite theme SystemColors with the default blue highlight color are available for download in the X11 rgb.txt file format:
Each of the highlight colors are available in additional color files:
- Apple-Mac-Theme-SystemColors-Highlight-Blue-RGB.txt
- Apple-Mac-Theme-SystemColors-Highlight-Gold-RGB.txt
- Apple-Mac-Theme-SystemColors-Highlight-Graphite-RGB.txt
- Apple-Mac-Theme-SystemColors-Highlight-Green-RGB.txt
- Apple-Mac-Theme-SystemColors-Highlight-Orange-RGB.txt
- Apple-Mac-Theme-SystemColors-Highlight-Purple-RGB.txt
- Apple-Mac-Theme-SystemColors-Highlight-Red-RGB.txt
- Apple-Mac-Theme-SystemColors-Highlight-Silver-RGB.txt
Further reading
Related articles at NadeauSoftware.com
- Java tip: How to use SystemColors to access OS user interface theme colors is the lead article for this series on
SystemColoruse for the major OSes.
Web articles
- Color-Name Dictionaries. Aubrey Jaffer's article goes into great depth on different standard color name lists and includes X11 rgb.txt format files for many of them.
- X11 color names. Wikipedia's article discusses the standard X11 window system "rgb.txt" colors that form the basis of the W3C's list of standard colors for HTML and CSS. The article lists the color names and RGB and HSV colors. The X11 rgb.txt file is available for download from XFree86's CVS archive.
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