How do I implement night mode in Mac (Cocoa) application?

Question

I am new to creating apps on Mac (Cocoa).

Can someone give me pointers on how can I create a night mode feature in a Mac App?

I really appreciate your help in this regards.

Thanks!

Answer 1

To achieve a night-mode filter, you need to reduce the exposure to the blue light (sunlight contains blue light and keep us awake and alert).

The most simple way to remove blue light on your entire app it's use a Content Filter on your Views, in my case I use sepia tone.

Select your View and go to the "View Effects inspector"

In Content Filters, click on the "+" icon and add and scroll to "Color Effect" / "Sepia Tone"

You can adjust the Sepia Tone or pick different color filters to try to achieve a desired effect, but remember the main goal is remove the blue light (Sepia Tone with intensity 1 is enough).

If you want to programaticly way to create a filter:

#import "ViewController.h"
#import <CoreImage/CIFilter.h>

@implementation ViewController

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];

    CIFilter * sepiaTone = [CIFilter filterWithName:@"CISepiaTone" keysAndValues:@"inputIntensity", @1.0, nil];
    self.view.contentFilters = [NSArray arrayWithObject:sepiaTone];

}

Apple Reference: Core Image Filters Reference

Note: Some apps put a red hue layer upon all application Views but you can face some problems with user interactions.