On OSX Yosemite upgrade, it seems I am forced to have a non-transparant background on the dock in Yosemite. How do I remove the solid background of the dock, so that only icons appear on the dock, and nothing else? In short, looking for a transparency option for the docker background. Thanks.
iPhone 5, iOS 6.1.4
There's only one way to do that but you will need to download cDock (http://sourceforge.net/projects/cdock/) a 3rd party application, and it will also slow down your mac just a little bit upon booting up, shutting down or restarting. Eye candy or Speed? Make your choice.
Thanks! Unfortunately, this did not work in Yosemite, though it dd allow the solid docker background to become a bit more (or less) of a normalized color based on the desktop background behind it. I'm looking to have the docker bar background be non-existant, or completely transparent so that my docker icons, appear to be on top of my desktop background. I was able to do this prior Yosemite, and now it appears that a solid docker background is required???
Dock was changed and won't respond the way it used to. It's transparent now, and that's the way it is meant to be. They wanted you to see some of the color coming in from behind it, but not completely see the image it obscures. Very strange effect, I knew some people would like and other would hate. You can change it to Dark Mode by checking the box on the System Preferences/General tab (it's the second item from the top), but it sounds like you will like that option even less. It's much darker, greys out the entire bottom of the screen. Same thing happens ot the menu at the top. The image gets inverted to white text on almost black. Let's see if they add "Light Mode" for the people who want it.
Thanks @JohnnyP123456 !
First it confirms that I'm not going crazy and things did change here. Second I completely agree, weird effect, and while I'm certain it was a conscious decision, and as a software developer myself, we would never have taken functionality away with a release. That is why I have such a hard time believing that there isn't something that can be done. I won't say I hate, I will say it was the first thing I tried to change after upgrading and it was frustrating though.
Oops. I repeated an Apple mis-speak. I read about the new dock being "transparent" in both Apple literature and in MacWorld, and of course, seeing the word again in your message, repeated it back to you in mine without correcting myself. The dock is actually translucent -- allowing light and color, but no image to seep through. What you want is a dock that is transparent -- where not just light and color, but some or all of the actual image behind the dock is clearly visible. After a few weeks using the new dock in normal mode and more than a month in dark mode, I think your transparent idea would be much better. Neither really work for me, and I can't stand the look of the menu across the top in either mode. The new font makes the computer look like too much like a toy. I hope they do change it. As you explore Yosemite, you will find that some functionality of the upgraded apps has been lost, which really is outside of what we would expect. Pretty bold move on Apple's part, especially after hearing all the screaming about snatching Camera Roll in IOS8. But in most cases, the lost old ways are being replaced by methods that are either comparable or better. It's as if they went half way towards a completely new operating system, but then backpedaled it to get it out before it was ready. Perhaps this was in order to address the limitations of legacy equipment people aren't ready to get rid off yet, since there are a lot of machines out there that can't do much of what this latest line can do. It's OS-11 lite, I guess, and it feels like most of the effort was focused on the Continuity/Handoff features, and the cosmetic look/feel was an afterthought that just needed to look pretty on Retina. It does. But it looks silly on my CinemaDisplay.
I am also a bit unhappy with some of the customizations lost... especially with appearance.
I feel that people should have a bit more control over fonts and colours, and I don't necessarily appreciate some of the "dumbed down" applications,(like iPhoto, for instance).
I will certainly not be tossing Aperture... was saddened that it's no longer going to be an upgradable application for much longer. Just updates to support new OS's. iPhoto is sadly inadequate, and I prefer Aperture and it's many plug-ins to Lightroom, far and away!
I do understand that the GUI is really meant to make the experience of OS's as visually seamless across all devices as can be, partly in needing to cater to a device-rich-knowledge-poor population of users. But I also understand that the less sophisticated rendering of objects,(like icons, menu bars etc.), makes for a leaner, faster GUI/OS. I can state honestly that my iMac runs Yosemite faster than it ran Mavericks... and has done since installing Beta version 1. And there is a smaller footprint...= more room for my photography,(I'm an art photographer), and my audiophile grade lossless music files.
Apple has always limited customization options; we've never been able to choose menu bar colours, particularly, or do too much with item text font choices. Not everybody is a "weak" user, and settings could be a bit more creatively available. Nice thing about Apple always has been that, if you screwed up, it has always been easy to fix things. And there's always Time Machine, if things went REALLY awry! 😉
Being able to hide the top menu bar, as we can hide the dock, would be lovely. Now that there is a duplicate bar on my second monitor, I find it even more annoying to be ever present.
BTW.... I prefer the "dark" option to the light version, and use "graphite" instead of blue... the lollipop colours of the buttons in "blue" just grit my teeth for me.
I keep sending feedback to Apple, asking for more customization.
Here's hoping!
Cheers!
I know this is not possible within OS X Yosemite after reading these posts. I figured this out after I had "updated" (NOT "UPGRADED") to Yosemite. After I was finally able to Yosemite installed, which was a hassle in itself, and started the first thing I noticed was the atrocious and ugly solid, flat, square background. I came to this thread and found out there was no fix for the ugliness. I was thinking of restoring to Mavericks when Yosemite suddenly shut my computer down when I tried to play a paused video in Safari and had 2 other applications open. Confirming all the rumors I have heard about Yosemite.
I immediately upgraded to Mavericks by restoring from my Time Capsule. I personally refuse to upgrade until this is changed just because it bugs me too much, and I see it too often. I know it is not confirmed yet, but in the pictures of OS X Capitan it does not look like this has been addressed.
I liked the see through and do not like the changes they made as well. The fact that they took away the option, disabled the option. Why does apple want to limit use? Just like when blacking out Siri so you can't see anything behind it and the useful information you used to be able to see and use. Just like limiting the amount of apps you can view in a folder in ios. New big screen, limited to the 9 you can see on a tiny screen. In ios 6, i could see over 20 apps. Not apple has limited all size screens to 9. Imagine if they make an apple tv and limit everything. Why 9? Why limit it to 3 or 12... Why limit it at all? Why limit the size of the buttons by making them excruciatingly small? Why using navigation/maps, will route and start be at opposite ends of the phone screen? Why must I change my entire grip for one function? Put them in the same spot, especially now that you only make two handed phones instead of one handed phones.
There are designs that are nice and pleasing to look at, but not use. Their design guys are limiting usability.
Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.
Hi ..
Open System Preferences > Accessibility then select Display on the left.
Then select: Reduce transparency
You can try this:
How do I remove the solid background behind the docker?
