Context & Issue
I am developing an iOS application.
My app icon uses colors that are relatively close to each other.
When the user enables Accessibility → Display & Text Size → Color Filters → Grayscale (or similar modes), the icon becomes harder to distinguish because it loses color and contrast is reduced.
Goal
When iOS switches to grayscale mode, I want the app icon to maintain good contrast between its elements so it remains clearly recognizable.
What I’ve tried
Redesigned the icon with more contrasting colors.
Added strokes/outlines, but it still doesn’t look much better in grayscale.
Researched how iOS renders app icons when grayscale is enabled, but couldn’t find a way to override or provide an alternative icon.
Specific questions
Is there any API or mechanism in iOS that allows providing a different version of the app icon when the user has grayscale mode enabled?
If there’s no direct API, are there any best practices for designing iOS app icons to ensure good contrast when converted to grayscale?
Do we have to design grayscale version for app icon?
Thank you!
General
RSS for tagExplore the art and science of app design. Discuss user interface (UI) design principles, user experience (UX) best practices, and share design resources and inspiration.
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Hi,
I have a couple of questions in regards to testing in-app purchases. I tested the subscription on a device but I'm not sure how to reset so I can test again. I didn't see the subscription in device settings or in Debug -> StoreKit -> Manage Subscriptions window. Additionally, I was wondering if there was a way to detect the subscription being made. I implemented this, but I'm not sure if that will work:
.onChange(of: Product.SubscriptionInfo.RenewalState.subscribed) {
if Product.SubscriptionInfo.RenewalState.subscribed == .subscribed {
}
}
I noticed a discrepancy between the Material specifications for tvOS on the Developer page and the naming in the Design Resources (Sketch files). Which one should we consider authoritative?
https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/materials
i am struggling to get my tab view to work, when i call views in the action part of my tab view, my background creates issue? does anyone know how to fix this?
struct ContentView: View {
@Environment(.colorScheme) var colorMode
let Color1: Color = .cyan
var Color2: Color {
colorMode == .dark ? .black : .white
}
var TextColor: Color{
colorMode == .dark ? .black : .black
}
let tax: Double = 0.0875
var OptionTypes: [String] = ["Breakfeast", "Lunch", "Dinner", "Dessert", "Drinks"]
var BreakfeastFoods: [Food] = [
Food(Name: "Eggs Benedict", Price: 9.50),
Food(Name: "Avocado Toast", Price: 5.75),
Food(Name: "French Toast", Price: 12.50),
Food(Name: "Waffles", Price: 7.25),
Food(Name: "Pancakes", Price: 8.60)
]
var LunchFoods: [Food] = [
Food(Name: "Tuna Salad", Price: 11.25),
Food(Name: "Pizza", Price: 22.50),
Food(Name: "Chicken Sandwitch", Price: 8.95),
Food(Name: "French Fries", Price: 5.15),
Food(Name: "Macaroni and Cheese", Price: 7.50)
]
var DinnerFoods: [Food] = [
Food(Name: "Ribeye Steak", Price: 18.99),
Food(Name: "Pork Ribs", Price: 21.75),
Food(Name: "Salmon", Price: 15.00),
Food(Name: "Burrito Bowl", Price: 13.99),
Food(Name: "Chicken Fajitas", Price: 20.50)
]
var DessertFoods: [Food] = [
Food(Name: "Ice Cream Sundae", Price: 10.00),
Food(Name: "Fudge Brownie", Price: 4.85),
Food(Name: "Chocolate Cake Slice", Price: 6.10),
Food(Name: "Pumpkin Pie", Price: 6.10),
Food(Name: "Ice Cream Float", Price: 3.50)
]
var Drinks: [Food] = [
Food(Name: "Water", Price: 0.00),
Food(Name: "Sparkling Water", Price: 2.15),
Food(Name: "Soda", Price: 3.00),
Food(Name: "Coffee", Price: 2.50),
Food(Name: "Hot Chocolate", Price: 3.50)
]
@State var MyCart: [Food] = []
var body: some View {
NavigationStack{
ZStack{
LinearGradient(colors: [Color1, Color2], startPoint: .top, endPoint: .bottom).ignoresSafeArea()
VStack(spacing: 40){
ForEach(OptionTypes, id: \.self){
OptionType in
NavigationLink(value: OptionType){
Text(OptionType)
}.frame(width: 250, height: 70).background(LinearGradient(colors: [.cyan, .white,.cyan], startPoint: .topLeading, endPoint: .bottom)).foregroundStyle(TextColor).cornerRadius(100).font(.system(size: 25, weight: .medium)).padding(.top, 16)
}
}.navigationDestination(for: String.self) {
OptionType in
switch OptionType{
case "Breakfeast":
BreakFeastView(BreakfeastList: BreakfeastFoods, Color1: Color1, Color2: Color2)
case "Lunch":
LunchView(LunchList: LunchFoods, Color1: Color1, Color2: Color2)
case "Dinner":
DinnerView(DinnerList: DinnerFoods, Color1: Color1, Color2: Color2)
case "Dessert":
DessertView(DessertList: DessertFoods, Color1: Color1, Color2: Color2)
case "Drinks":
DrinksView(DrinksList: Drinks, Color1: Color1, Color2: Color2)
// case "My Cart":
// MyCartView(MyCartList: MyCart, Color1: Color1, Color2: Color2)
default:
Text("Error")
}
}
} .navigationTitle("Choose Menu")
TabView{
Tab("Menu", systemImage: "fork.knife"){
}
Tab("My-Cart", systemImage: "cart.fill"){
}
Tab("Store Location", systemImage: "mappin"){
}
}
}
}
}
I'm trying to create custom SF symbols and am getting this error message when I validate the template. It doesn't matter if I Export Template or Symbol. Also, it doesn't even matter if I make any changes or not, as long as it is opened in Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape and then I save it, I will get this error message when validating.
I'm programming my constraints in my video game, which is working good so far until I ran into my most important interactive storyboard. I have three buttons that move back and forth on the Y position each time they are hit. The buttons Y positions only change to view.safeAreaLayoutGuide.centerYAnchor, constant: 100 or view.safeAreaLayoutGuide.centerYAnchor, constant: 200 or view.safeAreaLayoutGuide.centerYAnchor, constant: 300
The strange part is the button that is in the Y 100 stays visible and I can hit the button that is in the Y 100. The buttons in the Y 200 and Y 300 positions are visible until after one or two hits, then the button that is in Y 300 position disappears, then after another hit or two the button that is in the Y 200 position disappears but the button that is in the Y 100 is still visible.
I cleared all my constraints to narrow it down to clear view of the constraints that is causing the problem. I do not think this Log Noise. Below is the error log:
load_eligibility_plist: Failed to open //private/var/db/os_eligibility/eligibility.plist: Operation not permitted(1)
1
Unable to simultaneously satisfy constraints.
Probably at least one of the constraints in the following list is one you don't want.
Try this:
(1) look at each constraint and try to figure out which you don't expect;
(2) find the code that added the unwanted constraint or constraints and fix it.
(
"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x302aa7610 UIButton:0x10c257600.centerY == UILayoutGuide:0x3030f0c40'UIViewSafeAreaLayoutGuide'.centerY + 100 (active)>",
"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x302acb480 UIButton:0x10c257600.centerY == UILayoutGuide:0x3030f0c40'UIViewSafeAreaLayoutGuide'.centerY + 300 (active)>"
)
Will attempt to recover by breaking constraint
<NSLayoutConstraint:0x302acb480 UIButton:0x10c257600.centerY == UILayoutGuide:0x3030f0c40'UIViewSafeAreaLayoutGuide'.centerY + 300 (active)>
Make a symbolic breakpoint at UIViewAlertForUnsatisfiableConstraints to catch this in the debugger.
The methods in the UIConstraintBasedLayoutDebugging category on UIView listed in <UIKitCore/UIView.h> may also be helpful.
Unable to simultaneously satisfy constraints.
Probably at least one of the constraints in the following list is one you don't want.
Try this:
(1) look at each constraint and try to figure out which you don't expect;
(2) find the code that added the unwanted constraint or constraints and fix it.
(
"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x302aa7750 UIButton:0x10c257900.centerY == UILayoutGuide:0x3030f0c40'UIViewSafeAreaLayoutGuide'.centerY + 200 (active)>",
"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x302acb5c0 UIButton:0x10c257900.centerY == UILayoutGuide:0x3030f0c40'UIViewSafeAreaLayoutGuide'.centerY + 100 (active)>"
)
Will attempt to recover by breaking constraint
<NSLayoutConstraint:0x302aa7750 UIButton:0x10c257900.centerY == UILayoutGuide:0x3030f0c40'UIViewSafeAreaLayoutGuide'.centerY + 200 (active)>
Make a symbolic breakpoint at UIViewAlertForUnsatisfiableConstraints to catch this in the debugger.
The methods in the UIConstraintBasedLayoutDebugging category on UIView listed in <UIKitCore/UIView.h> may also be helpful.
Unable to simultaneously satisfy constraints.
Probably at least one of the constraints in the following list is one you don't want.
Try this:
(1) look at each constraint and try to figure out which you don't expect;
(2) find the code that added the unwanted constraint or constraints and fix it.
(
"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x302aa7890 UIButton:0x10c257c00.centerY == UILayoutGuide:0x3030f0c40'UIViewSafeAreaLayoutGuide'.centerY + 300 (active)>",
"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x302acb700 UIButton:0x10c257c00.centerY == UILayoutGuide:0x3030f0c40'UIViewSafeAreaLayoutGuide'.centerY + 200 (active)>"
)
Will attempt to recover by breaking constraint
<NSLayoutConstraint:0x302aa7890 UIButton:0x10c257c00.centerY == UILayoutGuide:0x3030f0c40'UIViewSafeAreaLayoutGuide'.centerY + 300 (active)>
Make a symbolic breakpoint at UIViewAlertForUnsatisfiableConstraints to catch this in the debugger.
The methods in the UIConstraintBasedLayoutDebugging category on UIView listed in <UIKitCore/UIView.h> may also be helpful.
3
Unable to simultaneously satisfy constraints.
Probably at least one of the constraints in the following list is one you don't want.
Try this:
(1) look at each constraint and try to figure out which you don't expect;
(2) find the code that added the unwanted constraint or constraints and fix it.
(
"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x302aa7610 UIButton:0x10c257600.centerY == UILayoutGuide:0x3030f0c40'UIViewSafeAreaLayoutGuide'.centerY + 100 (active)>",
"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x302acb480 UIButton:0x10c257600.centerY == UILayoutGuide:0x3030f0c40'UIViewSafeAreaLayoutGuide'.centerY + 300 (active)>"
)
Will attempt to recover by breaking constraint
<NSLayoutConstraint:0x302acb480 UIButton:0x10c257600.centerY == UILayoutGuide:0x3030f0c40'UIViewSafeAreaLayoutGuide'.centerY + 300 (active)>
Make a symbolic breakpoint at UIViewAlertForUnsatisfiableConstraints to catch this in the debugger.
The methods in the UIConstraintBasedLayoutDebugging category on UIView listed in <UIKitCore/UIView.h> may also be helpful.
Unable to simultaneously satisfy constraints.
Probably at least one of the constraints in the following list is one you don't want.
Try this:
(1) look at each constraint and try to figure out which you don't expect;
(2) find the code that added the unwanted constraint or constraints and fix it.
(
"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x302aa7750 UIButton:0x10c257900.centerY == UILayoutGuide:0x3030f0c40'UIViewSafeAreaLayoutGuide'.centerY + 200 (active)>",
"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x302acb5c0 UIButton:0x10c257900.centerY == UILayoutGuide:0x3030f0c40'UIViewSafeAreaLayoutGuide'.centerY + 100 (active)>"
)
Will attempt to recover by breaking constraint
<NSLayoutConstraint:0x302aa7750 UIButton:0x10c257900.centerY == UILayoutGuide:0x3030f0c40'UIViewSafeAreaLayoutGuide'.centerY + 200 (active)>
I have really examined the swipe left Camera function mode and sincerely believe it is no more important especially when there no option in the settings to turn it on or off.
I will highly recommend a total scrap in the iOS 26 or if possible a function to activate and deactivate it.
Feedback for iPhone and iPad – Display Technology
Dear Apple Team,
Currently, the mainstream display technology used in iPhone and iPad is OLED. However, OLED panels produce significant PWM flickering, which strongly irritates the human eye. Many users, especially in China, experience eye strain, tearing, and discomfort after using OLED devices for a period of time.
There is a large group of users here who are highly sensitive to screen flicker and therefore cannot use OLED-based devices at all. What they truly need is an eye-friendly device with either LCD or flicker-free Mini-LED display technology.
I sincerely recommend that Apple consider offering iPhone and iPad models with LCD or Mini-LED panels. Such displays could provide better eye comfort, no flicker, and a healthier experience. Currently, almost no smartphone manufacturers in China provide such options, and even if they do, their devices often come with outdated chipsets and cannot be used as a reliable daily driver.
This presents a valuable opportunity for Apple: by addressing this demand, Apple could attract a unique customer base, increase sales, and even justify a slightly higher price, as many customers would be willing to pay more for the sake of their eye health. In the Chinese market, a truly flicker-free iPhone or iPad would be incredibly rare and highly desired.
Thank you for considering this suggestion. I truly hope Apple will take this into account.
Post:
In macOS 26 Betas 1–3, the system applied an automatic dark-mode fallback for app icons. This ensured consistency across the Dock and Finder even when developers hadn’t provided dark assets.
Since Beta 4, this fallback was removed. As of Beta 7, icons now rely entirely on developer-updated assets. The result is mixed light and dark icons in the Dock, breaking visual consistency and making app recognition slower in dark mode.
Observed behavior:
• Icons without dark assets are displayed in their original light version.
• Some apps (e.g. Final Cut Pro) show a gray border treatment that feels inconsistent with the rest of the UI.
• The fallback applied in Betas 1–3 is completely absent.
Expected behavior:
System should provide a fallback rendering until developers supply proper dark assets, or offer a toggle in System Settings → Appearance (e.g. “Force Dark Icons”).
This is still present in Beta 7. Is there any plan to restore the fallback mechanism or provide a user option?
I have been battling the new Icon Composer app for 2 days trying to build an app icon. However, I cannot get it to import any files. I have used the Apple provided App Icon Template. I have exported my layers to .svg and when I open the finder, everything is disabled. I can't find help for this anywhere. I am on Sequoia on my Mac and not sure how to design this app icon without access to the composer.
I use swiftui to build apps on iPhone and iPad.
There is no problem with the iPhone app.
The game display is fully shown on iPhone.
However, for the iPad, the game display is not shown and the screen goes black.
I had to tap the button on the upper left side.(looks like a side view button)
After that, the game display is only shown in the left side in a very small size.
How can I make the game display fully shown in the iPad?
Hello! I am developing an ebook reader iOS app that uses c/c++ codec as a page renderer.
The codec uses TrueType as a font rendering engine that requires access to .ttf (or .ttc) files.
Currently, I supply TrueType with fonts embedded in the app package, so they lay within the app sandbox.
The codec supports the whole unicode plane and many languages that ebooks may use, but the fonts I supply don't have some of the important glyphs (i.e. katakana or hangul).
I see that iOS has its own font storage, located in /System/Library/Fonts/ directory. The codec is able to parse this directory and read .ttf files located inside, using these fonts as a fallback in the case when the supplied fonts can't draw certain glyphs.
I use opendir and fopen(in "rb" mode) as a way to read the data, and it works well.
Does this type of access to the system directory violate the sandbox rule for an app distribution, and, if yes, is there a way to get access to stored .ttf files not violating the mentioned rule?
This is a follow-up to my previous question: How to attribute/credit Apple Fonts added to app?
In that previous post, I misremembered what I did and said I found fonts via macOS' FontBooks, when instead I came acrossUIFont.familyNames. Since these are included via UIKit, the legal implications should be different.
I looked at various license agreements that govern iOS app development but haven't found anything mentioning fonts. Since these are included as part of UIKit, its reasonable to assume that developers are allowed to include these fonts--but in what ways?
Am I allowed to let users create, say, documents with these fonts?
Am I only allowed to display these fonts?
There are 84 fonts, and judging by their FontBook entries, there is a wide range of licenses and restrictions. It seems unnecessarily harsh to have every iOS developer verify each one and figure out which they can legally keep if they want to offer their users access to all (for, say, a text-editing app). There must be some overarching rule that supersedes/encapsulates them, but this rule isn't clear to me after hours of research. I'm not a lawyer, and I don't think Apple expects every app developer to consult their lawyers on whether they can use system fonts.
I'm about to send an email to Apple's legal team (I will post their response here if allowed), but in the meantime I want to hear what other devs think about this.
In Xcode, entering UIFont.familyNames returns the following:
["Academy Engraved LET", "Al Nile", "American Typewriter", "Apple Color Emoji", "Apple SD Gothic Neo", "Apple Symbols", "Arial", "Arial Hebrew", "Arial Rounded MT Bold", "Avenir", "Avenir Next", "Avenir Next Condensed", "Baskerville", "Bodoni 72", "Bodoni 72 Oldstyle", "Bodoni 72 Smallcaps", "Bodoni Ornaments", "Bradley Hand", "Chalkboard SE", "Chalkduster", "Charter", "Cochin", "Copperplate", "Courier New", "Damascus", "Devanagari Sangam MN", "Didot", "DIN Alternate", "DIN Condensed", "Euphemia UCAS", "Farah", "Futura", "Galvji", "Geeza Pro", "Georgia", "Gill Sans", "Grantha Sangam MN", "Helvetica", "Helvetica Neue", "Hiragino Maru Gothic ProN", "Hiragino Mincho ProN", "Hiragino Sans", "Hoefler Text", "Impact", "Kailasa", "Kefa", "Khmer Sangam MN", "Kohinoor Bangla", "Kohinoor Devanagari", "Kohinoor Gujarati", "Kohinoor Telugu", "Lao Sangam MN", "Malayalam Sangam MN", "Marker Felt", "Menlo", "Mishafi", "Mukta Mahee", "Myanmar Sangam MN", "Noteworthy", "Noto Nastaliq Urdu", "Noto Sans Kannada", "Noto Sans Myanmar", "Noto Sans Oriya", "Optima", "Palatino", "Papyrus", "Party LET", "PingFang HK", "PingFang SC", "PingFang TC", "Rockwell", "Savoye LET", "Sinhala Sangam MN", "Snell Roundhand", "STIX Two Math", "STIX Two Text", "Symbol", "Tamil Sangam MN", "Thonburi", "Times New Roman", "Trebuchet MS", "Verdana", "Zapf Dingbats", "Zapfino"]
I've been beating my head against the wall over a scrollview issue where the top and bottom are cut off in landscape mode. Portrait mode - everything runs swimmingly. The moment I flip the iPad on its side, though, I lose about a quarter of the view on the top and bottom. I thought this was something to do with framing or such; I ran through a myriad of frame, padding, spacer, geometry...I set it static, I set it to dynamically grow, I even created algorithms to try to figure out how to set things to the individual device.
Eventually, I separated the tablet and phone views as was suggested here and on the Apple dev forums. That's when I started playing around with the background image. Right now I have....
ZStack {
Image("background")
.resizable()
.scaledToFill()
.ignoresSafeArea()
ScrollView {
VStack(spacing: 24) {....
The problem is the "scaledToFill". In essence, whenever THAT is in the code, the vertical scrollview goes wonky in landscape mode. It, in essence, thinks that it has much more room at the top and the bottom because the background image has been extended at top and bottom to fill the wider screen of the iPad in landscape orientation.
Is there any way to get around this issue? The desired behavior is pretty straightforward - the background image fills the entire background, no white bars or such, and the view scrolls against it.
Hi,
is it me or latest beta has pronlem with brightness?
i have iPhone 16 pro, and now i must keep disabled auto brightness , at keep slider more or less at maximum, in order to clearly see the screen.
fabrizio
I recently submitted a new app for review, but it has been rejected multiple times for vague reasons. The most recent rejection reason I received was unclear, leaving me unsure of what improvements are needed to get the app approved for the App Store.
Does anyone have any advice on how to address this?
Additionally, to Apple reviewers: Could you please provide more detailed feedback to help developers improve their apps? The repeated review process takes a significant amount of time, and guessing what needs to be fixed without clear guidance makes it even more challenging.
#################################
The latest rejection reason I got is:
Guideline 4.0 - Design
We noticed an issue in your app that contributes to a lower-quality user experience than App Store users expect:
Your app included hard to read type or typography.
Since App Store users expect apps to be simple, refined, and easy to use, we want to call your attention to this design issue so you can make the appropriate changes.
Next Steps
Please revise your app to address all instances of the issue identified above.
The brand new animation in Stage Manager greatly reduced dizziness. However, don’t know why it ONLY applies when no window was presented. What would be the problem elsewhere?
Stage Manager is one of pretty few motion pictures that annoyed me and forced me to turn on Reduce Motion, or stop using Stage Manager. Big pity…
macOS 26.0 (25A5346a)
wont use ipad to post…
🔍 Context
The built-in screenshot editor in iOS and iPadOS (Markup tool) only allows users to crop images using rectangular frames. While this is sufficient for basic editing, it lacks flexibility for those who wish to tailor the screenshot to the aesthetics of iOS itself — which relies heavily on rounded shapes and smooth UI elements.
⸻
🚫 Current Limitation
• After taking a screenshot and opening it in Markup, users can only crop in rectangular or square formats.
• No option is available to apply rounded corners to the crop.
• As a result, many users are forced to use third-party apps just to achieve a basic rounded-edge crop, which feels unnecessary for such a common need.
⸻
✅ Proposed Solution
Add a rounded corner cropping feature to the screenshot editor.
This could be implemented as:
• A toggle to activate “Rounded Crop”.
• A radius slider (or predefined corner radius presets).
• Optional: an export option to save the result with transparent background, useful for designers and mockups.
⸻
🎯 Why it matters
• Aligns better with the iOS design language (cards, notifications, widgets, etc.).
• Saves time for users who currently have to rely on external editing apps.
• Greatly improves the presentation of screenshots for social media, UI/UX mockups, blogs, and professional use cases.
• Useful across many professions: developers, designers, content creators, educators, marketers.
⸻
📷 Visual Example
Here’s a mockup to illustrate the proposed feature:
(Add your image here)
⸻
💡 Bonus Suggestion
Allow exporting with a transparent background when cropping screenshots — especially useful for rounded crops or mockups placed on colored backgrounds.
I am using Xcode 15.1, I used to be able to set the amount of columns for the stickers which is between 2 and 3, right now it is always showing 3 and it makes everything look small. Is there a way to set it to 2 columns? my stickers width and hight is 618x618px.
Thanks
Yenty
Dear Developer, Is there a way to create a function to search with inside a text without having to be outside all of the messages? In other words, could I go into one of my contact’s texts and then search specifically inside that message as can be done on Android? This would be such an amazing function And make life so much easier. Thank you.