NSColor to use for selected table view text

Question

Which NSColor should I use for the text of a selected item in a NSTableView? I have my text field inside a stack view, so the color doesn't get set automatically for selected rows. I tried using NSColor.selectedTextColor, but that's still black in 10.13/light mode. For the moment I'm using NSColor.windowBackgroundColor but that's not going to work in dark mode, where selected rows change the background color but not the text color.

Taylor Taylor · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-06T22:27:22

NSColor.h in the 10.14 SDK shows this as alternateSelectedControlTextColor:

@property (class, strong, readonly) NSColor *alternateSelectedControlTextColor;

/* Foreground color inside emphasized and selected content: table views rows, 
collection views, etc. Equivalent to +labelColor in a NSBackgroundStyleEmphasized 
context.*/

The latter note was also mentioned in the Advanced Dark Mode wwdc talk: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2018/218/?time=2161

Where on 10.14 the main label colors will just automatically switch to have the right look inside that selection.

NSColor to use for selected table view text

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