Why is liquid glass not legible
Asked on 2025-06-11
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Liquid Glass, as discussed in the Meet Liquid Glass session, can have legibility issues due to its transparency and adaptive behaviors. The "Clear" variant of Liquid Glass is more transparent and does not have adaptive behaviors, which can make it less legible without a dimming layer. This dimming layer is necessary to darken the underlying content and improve legibility for symbols or labels. Without it, the legibility of content placed on Liquid Glass can be noticeably worse. Additionally, the session highlights that small elements like nav bars and tab bars adapt their appearance based on the background to ensure they remain discernible, but larger elements do not flip from light to dark, as such transitions would be distracting. This adaptive behavior is crucial for maintaining legibility across different contexts and content backgrounds.

Meet Liquid Glass
Liquid Glass unifies Apple platform design language while providing a more dynamic and expressive user experience. Get to know the design principles of Liquid Glass, explore its core optical and physical properties, and learn where to use it and why.

Build an AppKit app with the new design
Update your AppKit app to take full advantage of the new design system. We’ll dive into key changes to tab views, split views, bars, presentations, search, and controls, and show you how to use Liquid Glass in your custom UI. To get the most out of this video, we recommend first watching “Get to know the new design system” for general design guidance.

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