How To Tame Liquid Glass On Your Mac

Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. If you're not a fan of the new liquid glass look of macOS Tahoe let me show you some ways you can tone it down a bit. 

Now a lot or people like the new look of macOS in macOS Tahoe. It's called Liquid Glass. It's the same across all the other platforms too, like iOS and iPad OS. That in itself is a big deal because previously Apple kind of played leapfrog with designs introducing something in one of those operating systems and then the next year bringing it to the others. I also like that Apple is still innovative and likes to try new things when it comes to design. But I understand that not every design choice is for everyone. So there are some ways to tone down the look, a little bit, if you'd rather things not be, say, so transparent. 

For instance, the first thing you may notice when you go to macOS Tahoe is the Menu Bar is no longer a bar. You have the menus here at the top but there is no bar there that they sit on. However, you can bring that bar back. Go into System Settings and then go to Menu Bar. One of the first options here at the top is Show Menu Bar Background. Simply turn that On and now you're going to see an actual bar appear. The bar will take on the color of the wallpaper. So, if you don't like blue you can just change the wallpaper, or create your own. If I go into Wallpapers here, for instance, if I switch back to the Sequoia wallpaper you can see how it changes color there. If I select my own photo you can see how it picks up tones from that photo there. I can even go all the way down to the bottom here and choose a specific color, like this purple, and you can see how it is basically just a darker color for the Menu Bar. So the Menu Bar, itself, doesn't have a particular color. It's picking up the color from the wallpaper. 

Now a big part of Liquid Glass is the glass part. You can see it very clearly here in the Dock where the Dock appears to be pretty transparent. Also if you go to Control Center here you can see the Controls also are pretty transparent. They are like little panes of glass over the wallpaper behind it. You can tone that down almost completely with one setting. Go into System Settings and then go to Accessibility. Then under Vision go to Display. There's a setting here for Reduced Transparency. This is actually not a new setting. A lot of user interface elements have been somewhat transparent for years. It is just now in Liquid Glass they are very transparent. So if you turn this switch On it will change things quite a bit. Notice how the Menu Bar here is definitely not as transparent as it was before. Neither is the Dock and neither is Control Center. As a matter of fact it has a whole background now behind all the elements. This is by far the most dramatic change you can make simply by reducing transparency. 

While we're here you can also turn on Increased Contrast which, by the way, requires Reduced Transparency. It will go on automatically if you select Increased Contrast. We turn that On you even get more of an effect. You get an outline around all the different elements. You can see it like that. Things are even less transparent than they were. Things standout with way more contrast because of all of that. While all of this is under Accessibility I find that this is a really neat dramatic look that kind of makes your Mac look different than everybody else's. 

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Now there is another setting that seems like it would also have a big effect. But it doesn't except for one thing. You go to System Settings and Appearance. There's a setting here for Tint Window Background with Wallpaper Color. This seems like it would really change things a lot if you turned it Off. But if I turn this Off you don't notice any change at all. However, that's because it has to do with more with darker windows. For instance, take a look at this Pixelmator Pro window. The developer here has chosen to use dark window colors. You obviously can see its dark grays here instead of the typical white. Now notice what happens to this window if I turn off Tint Window Background with Wallpaper Color. You can see it definitely affects it. So as you might be able to guess if you change to dark mode, which happens to be right here in Appearance, but you can also go to Control Center and then Display and then turn on Dark Mode there. Now we're in Dark Mode her and I know a lot of you like using Dark Mode. Then if you go and turn off Tint Window Background with Wallpaper Color it does make a difference. With it On there's definitely the slightest blue tinge from the wallpaper that is shown in this window. If I turn it Off I loose that little bit of blue. It's going to be different in different windows depending upon the shade of the color used in the window. But there is a minor change. My point really is that this setting here isn't the dramatic change you might think it is. It's really in Accessibility, Display, Reduced Transparency that you get the biggest change. 

So let's take a look at some other settings that don't necessarily change how Liquid Glass looks but it does change how your Mac looks in general. It may help you like things a little bit better. For instance, we already took a look at Light versus Dark Mode. So maybe if previously used Light Mode but now you don't like how things look because of Liquid Glass maybe it is time to try Dark Mode and see if you like that better. Or vice versa. 

Also, right here in System Settings, Appearance you've got the Icon & Widgets Styles. Now if you don't like Liquid Glass you're definitely not going to like setting the icons here in the Dock and elsewhere to Clear. Right, that's just more glass. Tinted also is kind of more glass, just with a color. But, in addition to the default look for Icons and items here in the sidebar there's also the Dark look for them. Give that a try. Maybe this Dark look makes things just a little bit better for you. 

Likewise, let's talk about Widgets. I'm going to Control click, right click, or two-finger click here on the Desktop and let's say you've got some widgets here on your Desktop. I'll just add here a quick clock, maybe a battery widget here, maybe Calendar. You get the idea. Notice how these have kind of a glass look to them. Well, if you go into System Settings and then you go to Desktop & Dock you can change from Glass for the widgets to having the widgets never dimmed. Always going to be color like this. Then if you go back into Accessibility and then Display and turn On that Reduced Transparency they'll be even less transparency. Here's a good example of how Increased Contrast will add even more opaqueness to them. 

But Liquid Glass or no Liquid Glass the biggest design element on your Mac is usually the Wallpaper. So you've got this new Wallpaper here that's part of macOS Tahoe. Maybe the problem really is that this wallpaper isn't for you. Which is fine because you have so many wallpaper options. Go into System Settings and then go down to Wallpaper. So, for instance, you can simply change back to the Sequoia Wallpaper. Or you can even go further back with say the Sonoma Wallpaper or one of the earlier versions here. You can choose your own photo as a wallpaper. Choose from a variety of different photos if you want. There are a lot of different choices here for Dynamic Wallpapers that you can choose. Apple also has a bunch of pictures if you don't want to bring your own picture to it. Ones that are new and ones that have been available in the past. There's a lot of different ones. I actually really like the ones that are at the top here under Dynamic Wallpapers that are these illustrations like this one here. These were introduced a few years ago. Also at the bottom you can just go with a color. Just use a solid color. You can even use the Plus Button and choose your own color. Anything that you want to be your background. If you like the idea of a photo but don't have your own, Apple's got a whole bunch of different ones here at the bottom. But you're not only stuck with just photos. You can, if you want, add your own and make it a graphic. So you can click at Photo and you can choose File. Choose any file you really want. So, for instance, I created a custom wallpaper here. I just made this in Keynote. It's just basically a couple of shapes. You see the sun here in the corner, bonsai tree, and the bird here just over a gradient. Just some basic stuff. Again I'm going for a pretty flat look here to kind of tone down Liquid Glass a bit. 

So even if you don't like the changes that constitute Liquid Glass it doesn't prevent you from customizing the look of your Mac in other ways that can make it feel more like you want. Hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.