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OS X Yosemite How-to: Enable Dark Mode

New in OS X Yosemite is Dark Mode. Dark Mode allows for further customization of the appearance of the Mac. When enabling Dark Mode, it turns the translucent dock and menu bar from light grey and switches it to black. In this how-to I will discuss how to enable Dark Mode, the limitations of Dark Mode and a way to overcome the limitations of Dark Mode.

To enable Dark Mode, open up System Preferences.

Then you are going to select General, all the way in the upper left hand corner. Then you are going to check off Use dark menu bar and Dock.

That is how you enable Dark Mode. Notice how the menu bar and dock change from the translucent light grey to black. The menu bar is still fully accessible, by having the background be black with white text.

Dark Mode puts less strain on the eyes and is easier on them, especially when using a computer in a room with low lighting conditions. However, by default, there is no method to have Dark Mode be turned on automatically based on the time of day.  F.lux is a free third party app that does just that. It automatically switches between the translucent grey menu bar and dock, to Dark Mode based on sunrise and sunset. It comes with a lot of different settings to adjust how your screen is being used throughout the course of the day. It changes the color on your screen and warms it up according to the type of light you’re using and time of day. F.lux is worth checking out if your eyes are sensitive to light.

 

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Comments

  1. Err – “F.lux is worth checking out if your eyes are sensitive to light.”…? If they are not, the nice features of F.lux are the least of your issues with regard to using computer displays… :)

  2. Joshua Hart - 9 years ago

    Not really discussing the ‘limitations’ PLURAL… sure there is no way to have the computer switch automatically, and that may be of issue to some… but I think the more glaring issue is that non apple based menu bar icons can stuff up, If you have Microsoft’s One Drive installed on your computer, when going to dark mode, instead of having the cloud in the menu bar turn white like everything else it becomes the same colour as the menu bar itself… this makes it ‘invisible’ unless you have an icon on both sides, in which case you can see the hit region based on where there is nothing…

    • cjt3007 - 9 years ago

      3rd party devs just have to push an update for it, it’s not like Apple didn’t include a hook for them to be able to detect Dark Mode.

      • Evan Huff - 9 years ago

        Evernote is one app that already has the hook in there that detects it and changes. CopyClip by FIPLAB is another app that doesn’t detect the change and goes invisible.

  3. Yaroslav Yuri Erohin - 9 years ago

    But it looks awful. The fonts go all bananas.

    • They look pretty damn nice to me …

      • g0bez - 9 years ago

        fwiw — I have to say it looks better on my Retina MBP than it does on my non-Retina Thunderbolt display. Huge difference for me. I’d go so far as to say that the fonts look horrible on my non-Retina display when in dark mode. Something about that makes them look worse than in regular mode.

  4. Really? An entire article about a single display option? Anyway, for me dark mode is a bigger distraction than light mode (?) just because of the contrast between color and black (light mode) is less than black and white (dark mode). Just my 2 cents.

  5. Dmitriy Kozyrev - 9 years ago

    Another bloated article about clicking on a couple of checkboxes. Brought to you by Sarah Guarino.

  6. JJ Pagac - 9 years ago

    Google drive icon changes to same color as dark mode, thus invisible. The menu works fine. Drop box looks ok, however, it’s menu is custom so it’s not dark mode.

  7. Vidas Vidas - 9 years ago

    nice, thanks

  8. jimhillhouse - 9 years ago

    Thanks, Sarah, for another good “How To” article on Yosemite.