Tahoe OS colours, borders and usability

AndrewTP wrote:

Help on setting colours and contrast with Tahoe on MacBook Air 13" M1

(Tahoe 26.3 update)

-I'm struggling with Tahoe. The Liquid Glass is not my friend, but worse is the translucent colours and minimal borders and lack of text descriptions, etc.

-I have no idea what app I am on most times, no titles. Using Safari has become so frustrating since I can't easily tell which tab is current.

-Borders between windows or context menus are almost non-existent.

All in all I find my productivity has decreased dramatically with Tahoe. I have tried to reduce the Liquid Glass appearance, gone into Accessibility and played with contrast, etc. Still everything looks so washed out and so subtle as to be hard on the eyes.

-I even started using Chrome on my MacBook as it is easier to see tabs, etc.

-Then there is the loss of the useful Launchpad with the new Apps and Spotlight, which try as I have it is not scaling to my workflow. It is like Apple looked at MS and said - hey that windows all apps menu which no one likes looks like a good idea to **** off our base.

-Lately I am using my Mac less and using Widows desktop more as I am just too frustrated.

So after a good long rant - has anyone come up with any solutions how to get some decent colour and borders to our screens???? I just can't believe that with the advanced video cards and mega colour capabilities we are reduced to blandness with no options.

Turn off Liquid Glass >System Settings>Appearance

these setting get back as close to familiar as you might be accustomed. make changes and compare your results

You can Turn off Tiling, Stage Manager, Widgets until go get things sorted

Tiling—

Stage Manager—

Widgets—

Remove widgets from the desktop

On your Mac, click the wallpaper, then choose Edit Widgets.

Click the Remove button for the widget you want to remove.

Add and customize widgets on Mac - Apple Support

Control Click the Desktop to remove widgets stuck on the Desktop

Same here—these setting get back as close to familiar as you might be accustomed. make changes and compare your results

LaunchPad ― has been replaced by the new Apps.app going forward. There are some known issues here yes.

you can submit your Apple Feedback here: Product Feedback - Apple

there are several alternative replacements for the old LaunchPad:

• Launchie.app https://apps.apple.com/us/app/launchie/id6752657468?mt=12

• AppHub https://bringbacklaunchpad.com/apphub.html

• AppGrid Launcher https://apps.apple.com/us/app/appgrid-launcher/id6748853585?mt=12 ( Terminal command to bring back your exact LaunchPad configuration)

• LaunchPad on GitHub https://kristof12345.github.io/Launchpad/

• LaunchMe https://apps.apple.com/us/app/launchme-app-launcher/id6751939046?mt=12

• LaunchOS https://launchosapp.

• M-Launcher-App https://apps.apple.com/us/app/m-launcher/id6754261327?mt=12

As a small addition to the many good suggestions by leroydouglas:

You may want to try Dark Mode. It makes most of the inconsistencies in the Liquid Glass implementation less of a problem, or none at all; plus it easier on the eyes for anyone who is in front of their macs long hours every day. I turned it on a long time ago and only ever use Light Mode for testing when addressing questions in this forum.

To clarify— "Turn off Liquid Glass >System Settings>Appearance"

You can't actually turn it off, just lessen the appearance using the "Clear"

You can let Apple know how you feel about it

submit your Apple Feedback here: Feedback - macOS - Apple

I don't use the Dark mode but per Luis Sequeira1 suggestion using dark mode have given some relief !