#40 Menu text and icons rendered incorrectly in dark mode

[Martin Fleischer]

When "dark mode" is active, enabled menu items are drawn in black (rather than white), just as they would if dark mode is off. Disabled menu items are drawn correctly, though. Also, the icons in the menu bar are rendered as outlines only (see screenshots of Alpha 9.0a3 and Firefox (for comparison) in the attached image). "Line drawing" style menu bar icons may circumvernt the problem and conform better to the latest Apple UI guidelines.

[Bernard Desgraupes]

Thanks for reporting. Indeed AlphaCocoa has its own engine to draw menus and, as of yet, it does not take dark mode into account. I'll make the necessary adjustments.
Concerning icons, can you explain what "line drawing style menu bar icons" means ?

[Martin Fleischer]

Menu bar icons drawn (mostly) with lines only, avoiding color, color gradients etc. whereever possible, as in the example attached (this is from Apple).

[Bernard Desgraupes]

Drawing of menu items is fixed now: text of enabled items is white when dark mode is on.

Concerning the icons in the menu bar, you are probably right that colors should be avoided if possible. Apple apparently does not offer much guidance on this matter but the keyboard menu, which used to display national flags, is an instructive example. The US flag retains its colors (and renders poorly in dark mode) while the greek and hebrew keyboards are now illustrated by a square containing a typical letter (lambda and aleph respectively) instead of a flag (and automatically invert their levels of gray in dark mode). Clearly a mixed solution.
Suggestions are welcome...