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How do you support Preferred Font Size / Dynamic Type on macOS?
On macOS 26, how do you support the Preferred Text Size value as defined in the Accessibility Settings? Historically, "Dynamic Type" has not been available on macOS. However, the user has some control over text size through the Accessibility Settings. On macOS 26, a small subset of applications are honouring changes to that value include Finder, Mail, and sidebars in many applications. Dynamic sizing in table views has been available on macOS for awhile. But Mail.app, in particular, is also adjusting the font sizes used in the message's body pane while the Finder is adjusting font sizes used for Desktop icons. I can't find an NSNotification that is fired when the user adjusts the Accessibility Text Size slider, nor can I find an API to read the current value. NSFont.preferredFont(forTextStyle:options:) looks promising but the fonts returned do not appear to take the user's Accessibility setting into account. (Nor do they update dynamically.) SwiftUI's Text("Apple").font(.body) performs similarly to NSFont in that it does respect the style, but it does not honour dynamic sizing. NSFontDescriptor has a bunch of interesting methods, but none that seem to apply to Accessibility Text Size. Given an AppKit label: let label = NSTextField(labelWithString: "AppKit") label.font = NSFont.preferredFont(forTextStyle: .body) Or a SwiftUI label: Text("SwiftUI").font(.body) How do I make either of them responsive to the user's Text Size setting under Accessibility? Note this is on macOS 26 / Xcode 26. I realize there have been some previous forum posts related to this issue but hoping that things might have improved since then.
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421
3d
How to hide the tab bar in SwiftUI's TabView for macOS?
In SwiftUI for macOS, how can I hide the tab bar when using TabView? I would like to provide my own tab bar implementation. In AppKit's NSTabViewController, we can do the following: let tabViewController = NSTabViewController() tabViewController.tabStyle = .unspecified I've come across various posts that suggest using the .toolbar modifier, but none appear to work on macOS (or at least I haven't found the right implementation). struct ContentView: View { var body: some View { TabView { // ... content } <- which view modifier hides the tab bar? } } Latest macOS, Latest Xcode
3
0
246
May ’25
A VZMacGraphicsDisplayConfiguration with a large resolution causes macOS Ventura to incorrectly draw its menu bar items.
Filed as rdar://FB11975037 When macOS Ventura is run as a guest OS within the virtualization framework, the main menu bar items will not be displayed correctly if VZMacGraphicsDisplayConfiguration defines a large resolution. The menu bar titles appear to be using the same color as the menu bar itself. When the Appearance is set to Light, the menu bar items are effectively invisible. When the Appearance is set to Dark, the menu bar items are drawn in what looks like a disabled state. This only affects the menu bar item titles on the left-hand side. The date-time and menu bar icons on the right side are always displayed in the correct color. This appears to be a regression in macOS Ventura as this issue is not present in macOS 12 running as a guest. This bug can be easily reproduced using Apple's own Virtualization sample code titled: "Running macOS in a Virtual Machine on Apple Silicon Macs" Steps to reproduce: Follow the sample code instructions for building and installing a VM.bundle. Before running 'macOSVirtualMachineSampleApp', change the VZMacGraphicsDisplayConfiguration to use: width = 5120, height = 2880, ppi = 144. Run 'macOSVirtualMachineSampleApp' and notice that the menu bar titles on the left side of the screen are not correctly drawn in the guest instance. This has been tested on: Host: macOS 13.1 Guest: macOS 13.x (All versions) Hardware: MBP 14" M1 Pro 32GB/2TB Is there anything that can be done to resolve this issue?
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2
1.9k
Mar ’24
On macOS, what is the appropriate way to disable the sidebar material in a NavigationSplitView?
If you create a NavigationSplitView, then the sidebar is automatically adorned with a sidebar material effect. This affects the views background as well as any controls that are in the view. What is the correct way to disable this behaviour so that I can use a NavigationSplitView without the material effects being applied? The best I've come up with so far is to explicitly set the background on the sidebar but I'm curious if that's the correct way or I'm just getting lucky. struct ContentView: View { var body: some View { NavigationSplitView { // This works, but is it correct? SidebarView() .background(.windowBackground) } detail: { DetailView() } } }
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: SwiftUI Tags:
4
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189
Aug ’25
Clarification on SwiftUI Environment Write Performance
I'm looking for clarification on a SwiftUI performance point mentioned in the recent Optimize your app's speed and efficiency | Meet with Apple video. (YouTube link not allowed, but the video is available on the Apple Developer channel.) At the 1:48:50 mark, the presenter says: Writing a value to the Environment doesn't only affect the views that read the key you're updating. It updates any view that reads from any Environment key. [abbreviated quote] That statement seems like a big deal if your app relies heavily on Environment values. Context I'm building a macOS application with a traditional three-panel layout. At any given time, there are many views on screen, plus others that exist in the hierarchy but are currently hidden (for example, views inside tab views or collapsed splitters). Nearly every major view reads something from the environment—often an @Observable object that acts as a service or provider. However, there are a few relatively small values that are written to the environment frequently, such as: The selected tab index The currently selected object on a canvas The Question Based on the presenter's statement, I’m wondering: Does writing any value to the environment really cause all views in the entire SwiftUI view hierarchy that read any environment key to have their body re-evaluated? Do environment writes only affect child views, or do they propagate through the entire SwiftUI hierarchy? Example: View A └─ View B ├─ View C └─ View D If View B updates an environment value, does that affect only C and D, or does it also trigger updates in A and B (assuming each view has at least one @Environment property)? Possible Alternative If all views are indeed invalidated by environment writes, would it be more efficient to “wrap” frequently-changing values inside an @Observable object instead of updating the environment directly? // Pseudocode @Observable final class SelectedTab { var index: Int } ContentView() .environment(\.selectedTab, selectedTab) struct TabView: View { @Environment(\.selectedTab) private var selectedTab var body: some View { Button("Action") { // Would this avoid invalidating all views using the environment? selectedTab.index = 1 } } } Summary From what I understand, it sounds like the environment should primarily be used for stable, long-lived objects—not for rapidly changing values—since writes might cause far more view invalidations than most developers realize. Is that an accurate interpretation? Follow-Up In Xcode 26 / Instruments, is there a way to monitor writes to @Environment?
4
0
1.3k
Nov ’25
On macOS, how do you place a toolbar item on the trailing edge of the window's toolbar when an Inspector view is open?
Using SwiftUI on macOS, how can I add a toolbar item on the right-most (trailing) edge of the window's toolbar when an Inspector is used? At the moment, the toolbar items are all left-of (leading) the split view tracking separator. I want the inspector toolbar item to be placed similar to where Xcode's Inspector toolbar item is placed: always as far right (trailing) as possible. NavigationSplitView { // ... snip } detail: { // ... snip } .inspector(isPresented: $isInspectorPresented) { InspectorContentView() } .toolbar { // What is the correct placement value here? ToolbarItem(placement: .primaryAction) { Button { isInspectorPresented.toggle() } label: { Label("Toggle Inspector", systemImage: "sidebar.trailing") } } } See the attached screenshot. When the InspectorView is toggled open, the toolbar item tracks leading the split view tracking separator, which is not consistent with how Xcode works.
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: SwiftUI Tags:
5
0
244
Dec ’25
Will the Virtualization Framework support iCloud accounts?
The new Virtualization framework (and sample code!) are great. It's a lot of fun to run the sample code and quickly fire up multiple VMs of macOS running as a guest. However, the inability to authenticate with any iCloud services is a significant roadblock. Xcode, for example, is not allowing me to authenticate my developer account. Are there any plans to resolve this issue so that iCloud accounts can be authenticated from within a VM?
9
4
4.5k
Oct ’23
How do you support Preferred Font Size / Dynamic Type on macOS?
On macOS 26, how do you support the Preferred Text Size value as defined in the Accessibility Settings? Historically, "Dynamic Type" has not been available on macOS. However, the user has some control over text size through the Accessibility Settings. On macOS 26, a small subset of applications are honouring changes to that value include Finder, Mail, and sidebars in many applications. Dynamic sizing in table views has been available on macOS for awhile. But Mail.app, in particular, is also adjusting the font sizes used in the message's body pane while the Finder is adjusting font sizes used for Desktop icons. I can't find an NSNotification that is fired when the user adjusts the Accessibility Text Size slider, nor can I find an API to read the current value. NSFont.preferredFont(forTextStyle:options:) looks promising but the fonts returned do not appear to take the user's Accessibility setting into account. (Nor do they update dynamically.) SwiftUI's Text("Apple").font(.body) performs similarly to NSFont in that it does respect the style, but it does not honour dynamic sizing. NSFontDescriptor has a bunch of interesting methods, but none that seem to apply to Accessibility Text Size. Given an AppKit label: let label = NSTextField(labelWithString: "AppKit") label.font = NSFont.preferredFont(forTextStyle: .body) Or a SwiftUI label: Text("SwiftUI").font(.body) How do I make either of them responsive to the user's Text Size setting under Accessibility? Note this is on macOS 26 / Xcode 26. I realize there have been some previous forum posts related to this issue but hoping that things might have improved since then.
Replies
2
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0
Views
421
Activity
3d
How to hide the tab bar in SwiftUI's TabView for macOS?
In SwiftUI for macOS, how can I hide the tab bar when using TabView? I would like to provide my own tab bar implementation. In AppKit's NSTabViewController, we can do the following: let tabViewController = NSTabViewController() tabViewController.tabStyle = .unspecified I've come across various posts that suggest using the .toolbar modifier, but none appear to work on macOS (or at least I haven't found the right implementation). struct ContentView: View { var body: some View { TabView { // ... content } <- which view modifier hides the tab bar? } } Latest macOS, Latest Xcode
Replies
3
Boosts
0
Views
246
Activity
May ’25
A VZMacGraphicsDisplayConfiguration with a large resolution causes macOS Ventura to incorrectly draw its menu bar items.
Filed as rdar://FB11975037 When macOS Ventura is run as a guest OS within the virtualization framework, the main menu bar items will not be displayed correctly if VZMacGraphicsDisplayConfiguration defines a large resolution. The menu bar titles appear to be using the same color as the menu bar itself. When the Appearance is set to Light, the menu bar items are effectively invisible. When the Appearance is set to Dark, the menu bar items are drawn in what looks like a disabled state. This only affects the menu bar item titles on the left-hand side. The date-time and menu bar icons on the right side are always displayed in the correct color. This appears to be a regression in macOS Ventura as this issue is not present in macOS 12 running as a guest. This bug can be easily reproduced using Apple's own Virtualization sample code titled: "Running macOS in a Virtual Machine on Apple Silicon Macs" Steps to reproduce: Follow the sample code instructions for building and installing a VM.bundle. Before running 'macOSVirtualMachineSampleApp', change the VZMacGraphicsDisplayConfiguration to use: width = 5120, height = 2880, ppi = 144. Run 'macOSVirtualMachineSampleApp' and notice that the menu bar titles on the left side of the screen are not correctly drawn in the guest instance. This has been tested on: Host: macOS 13.1 Guest: macOS 13.x (All versions) Hardware: MBP 14" M1 Pro 32GB/2TB Is there anything that can be done to resolve this issue?
Replies
4
Boosts
2
Views
1.9k
Activity
Mar ’24
On macOS, what is the appropriate way to disable the sidebar material in a NavigationSplitView?
If you create a NavigationSplitView, then the sidebar is automatically adorned with a sidebar material effect. This affects the views background as well as any controls that are in the view. What is the correct way to disable this behaviour so that I can use a NavigationSplitView without the material effects being applied? The best I've come up with so far is to explicitly set the background on the sidebar but I'm curious if that's the correct way or I'm just getting lucky. struct ContentView: View { var body: some View { NavigationSplitView { // This works, but is it correct? SidebarView() .background(.windowBackground) } detail: { DetailView() } } }
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: SwiftUI Tags:
Replies
4
Boosts
0
Views
189
Activity
Aug ’25
Clarification on SwiftUI Environment Write Performance
I'm looking for clarification on a SwiftUI performance point mentioned in the recent Optimize your app's speed and efficiency | Meet with Apple video. (YouTube link not allowed, but the video is available on the Apple Developer channel.) At the 1:48:50 mark, the presenter says: Writing a value to the Environment doesn't only affect the views that read the key you're updating. It updates any view that reads from any Environment key. [abbreviated quote] That statement seems like a big deal if your app relies heavily on Environment values. Context I'm building a macOS application with a traditional three-panel layout. At any given time, there are many views on screen, plus others that exist in the hierarchy but are currently hidden (for example, views inside tab views or collapsed splitters). Nearly every major view reads something from the environment—often an @Observable object that acts as a service or provider. However, there are a few relatively small values that are written to the environment frequently, such as: The selected tab index The currently selected object on a canvas The Question Based on the presenter's statement, I’m wondering: Does writing any value to the environment really cause all views in the entire SwiftUI view hierarchy that read any environment key to have their body re-evaluated? Do environment writes only affect child views, or do they propagate through the entire SwiftUI hierarchy? Example: View A └─ View B ├─ View C └─ View D If View B updates an environment value, does that affect only C and D, or does it also trigger updates in A and B (assuming each view has at least one @Environment property)? Possible Alternative If all views are indeed invalidated by environment writes, would it be more efficient to “wrap” frequently-changing values inside an @Observable object instead of updating the environment directly? // Pseudocode @Observable final class SelectedTab { var index: Int } ContentView() .environment(\.selectedTab, selectedTab) struct TabView: View { @Environment(\.selectedTab) private var selectedTab var body: some View { Button("Action") { // Would this avoid invalidating all views using the environment? selectedTab.index = 1 } } } Summary From what I understand, it sounds like the environment should primarily be used for stable, long-lived objects—not for rapidly changing values—since writes might cause far more view invalidations than most developers realize. Is that an accurate interpretation? Follow-Up In Xcode 26 / Instruments, is there a way to monitor writes to @Environment?
Replies
4
Boosts
0
Views
1.3k
Activity
Nov ’25
On macOS, how do you place a toolbar item on the trailing edge of the window's toolbar when an Inspector view is open?
Using SwiftUI on macOS, how can I add a toolbar item on the right-most (trailing) edge of the window's toolbar when an Inspector is used? At the moment, the toolbar items are all left-of (leading) the split view tracking separator. I want the inspector toolbar item to be placed similar to where Xcode's Inspector toolbar item is placed: always as far right (trailing) as possible. NavigationSplitView { // ... snip } detail: { // ... snip } .inspector(isPresented: $isInspectorPresented) { InspectorContentView() } .toolbar { // What is the correct placement value here? ToolbarItem(placement: .primaryAction) { Button { isInspectorPresented.toggle() } label: { Label("Toggle Inspector", systemImage: "sidebar.trailing") } } } See the attached screenshot. When the InspectorView is toggled open, the toolbar item tracks leading the split view tracking separator, which is not consistent with how Xcode works.
Topic: UI Frameworks SubTopic: SwiftUI Tags:
Replies
5
Boosts
0
Views
244
Activity
Dec ’25
Will the Virtualization Framework support iCloud accounts?
The new Virtualization framework (and sample code!) are great. It's a lot of fun to run the sample code and quickly fire up multiple VMs of macOS running as a guest. However, the inability to authenticate with any iCloud services is a significant roadblock. Xcode, for example, is not allowing me to authenticate my developer account. Are there any plans to resolve this issue so that iCloud accounts can be authenticated from within a VM?
Replies
9
Boosts
4
Views
4.5k
Activity
Oct ’23