Qt 5.12.1 and Dark mode on macOS Mojave (10.14)

agarny

Hi,

I am trying to get my application (built using Qt 5.12.1) to look right in Dark mode on macOS, but... I am really struggling. There are so many things that just don't work with Qt in that regards (https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-73788 and https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-73852 are just a couple of bugs that I have recently reported, but I could have reported many more... but then I would be working full time reporting bugs...!).

Yet, according to https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-68891, it looks like Qt 5.12 supports Dark mode on macOS...?!

For example, something that I had been assuming is that QEvent::PaletteChange would get triggered every time we were to switch from Light to Dark mode (and vice versa), but it’s not the case. In fact, when switching modes, most of my application's colours don't change.

In other words, I think I should be able to get my application to look kind of ok in Dark mode. However, to switch to Light mode while my application is running will result in the UI being completely messed up. (The same applies when starting in Light mode and then switching to Dark mode.)

So... has anyone managed to get their application to work fine in Dark mode? If so, what am I missing?...

Cheers, Alan.

agarny

@agarny said in Qt 5.12.1 and Dark mode on macOS Mojave (10.14):

For example, something that I had been assuming is that QEvent::PaletteChange would get triggered every time we were to switch from Light to Dark mode (and vice versa), but it’s not the case. In fact, when switching modes, most of my application's colours don't change.

This one is actually really weird and I am not able to reproduce it consistently. In other words, sometimes QEvent::PaletteChange gets triggered and sometimes it doesn't.

Anyway, for now, I have given up on adding support for Dark Mode in my application. I am just enforcing the use of Light Mode and that is that.

J.Hilk

hi @agarny
you could make it a toggle able option in your app settings and later add automatic detection. Once/if the issues have been fixed ?

agarny

@J.Hilk said in Qt 5.12.1 and Dark mode on macOS Mojave (10.14):

you could make it a toggle able option in your app settings and later add automatic detection. Once/if the issues have been fixed ?

Sorry, I am not sure I understand what you are suggesting. What would that option toggle? The light/dark mode? And, what automatic detection?

Anyway, I have now enforced the use of Light Mode and updated the "Known limitations" of my documentation. Not something that I am happy with, but I have spent (read: wasted) far too much time on this and now need to move on.

steveq

Hi @agarny
Would you mind posting a code snippet of how you enforced light mode under QT please?
Dark mode is giving me all sorts of grief, and I can't find a way of detecting which mode MacOS is running in.
I too think I will resort to forcing light mode until a better option presents itself.
Thanks!
Steve Q. :-)

agarny

@steveq, all you need is to add the following two lines to Info.plist file:

<key>NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance</key>
<string>true</string>

See here for the context.

steveq

Awesome @agarny . Thanks very much!

khrykin

You can't reliably detect macOS appearance change in Qt, but nevertheless full dark mode support is achievable, though may require a bit of extra work. Key point is to do all your styling, i.e. backgrounds, borders, etc. in paintEvent() and relate all relevant colors to QApplication::palette(). Hence you can't really use setStyleSheet() for anything color-related. One particular gotcha is QLabel, for which I ended up writing my own ColoredLabel alternative which would receive its current color via callback.