color of menu? bar text

[chevyboy60013]

I am wondering how you can change the color of the menu? bar text, the bar on top of the screen that has the clock, battery, notification, etc from white to black letters? Black would be easier to see than white on the desktop. If it cannot be it is what it is, and not a deal breaker.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Not change the color to one of your choosing but there are some options referenced in this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255158474?sortBy=best

 

[BrianBaughn]

There are probably several third-party gizmos that you can try. One is TopNotch:

TopNotch for macOS

Makes the notch disappear like a ninja.

topnotch.app

 

[MacGizmo]

I am wondering how you can change the color of the menu? bar text, the bar on top of the screen that has the clock, battery, notification, etc from white to black letters?

You have little control over this. If you use a light colored wallpaper, the menubar and dock will appear lighter/screened-back with black text. If you use a darker colored wallpaper, the menubar and dock appear darkened with white text.

This is the only control you have over the color of the text in the menubar. Unfortunately, it's tied to the wallpaper you choose. Any other method you Google is just working around the problem by faking it.

You can "fake it" by adding a lighter colored strip of color across the top of all your wallpaper images, forcing the system to think you have a light background wallpaper and deciding to make the text black – but I suspect that isn't really a desired option for you.

The link @HobeSoundDarryl provided, unfortunately, is of no help because the people in the discussion appear to be completely clueless as to what they're talking about or even what the OP is asking for. The "look for the Color option" comment is particularly amusing because the person sharing that thinks that controls the colors of the menubar and dock, when all it does is make the desktop the solid color you choose - with the transparency of the menubar and the text of the menubar adjusting according to what I've said above (which is out of your control).

The app @BrianBaughn mentioned, TopNotch, actually does exactly the opposite of what you appear to be asking for because it makes the menubar as solid black as possible with white text. The intention of TopNotch is to hide the notch on MacBook computers (which is always black – which means your text will always be white).

 

[chevyboy60013]

I can get used to it, I mean I guess it does look better than black letters on the beautiful Sonoma initial wallpaper, just was kinda used to it being much darker. Since it is a mid 2010 MacBook Pro and with OCLP have it running the latest 14.3.1 Sonoma.... It is amazing.

 

[BrianBaughn]

The app @BrianBaughn mentioned, TopNotch, actually does exactly the opposite of what you appear to be asking for because it makes the menubar as solid black as possible with white text. The intention of TopNotch is to hide the notch on MacBook computers (which is always black – which means your text will always be white).

Yeah! I read the OP wrong. There might be other apps to make the menubar whatever color you want.

Personally, my desktop is very dark gray and I'm using dark mode on everything possible. However, it has become a shock to my eyes when an app or website opens in bright white.

 

[Feek]

You can "fake it" by adding a lighter colored strip of color across the top of all your wallpaper images, forcing the system to think you have a light background wallpaper and deciding to make the text black – but I suspect that isn't really a desired option for you.

That's exactly how I do it, here's my wallpaper, it's a sort of woven background with a light header on top. Works great on my Air and my Studio.

I know it looks plain dark grey but it's not. It's quite subtle but I like it. Here's the full size image.




And here's how it looks in place.