Sometimes the new design concepts are annoying instead of improving the user experience. One such thing on macOS is the transparency effect of Menu Bar, Dock, notifications and application windows. Though this may be visually appealing you may not like this on certain occasions. For example, we need to take plenty of screenshots for articles and this transparency effect will highly impact the quality of the images. So, here is how you can remove transparency on your Mac.
Liquid Glass and Transparency
Apple also introduced its new Liquid Glass design in macOS 26 Tahoe, adding transparent effects throughout the operating system. Unlike the existing transparency setting, which affects only certain interface elements, Liquid Glass is part of the overall macOS design. If you find the Liquid Glass design is distracting or difficult to read, learn more on how to reduce that effect. In this article, we explain how to reduce the transparency effect available as part of accessibility or display settings.
Below are the screenshots to show you the effect of transparency on Mac. Due to transparency, the background app’s color is affecting the screen of the app on the front. You can see the content is easily readable after removing the transparency effects.
Remove Transparency on Mac Ventura or Later
Follow the below instructions to remove transparency if you are using macOS 13 (Ventura) or later.
- Click the Apple logo on top left corner and select “System Settings…” menu.
- Navigate to “Accessibility” section from the left sidebar.
- Click “Display” option on the right pane under “Vision” section.
- Find and turn off “Reduce Transparency” option.
Remove Transparency on Mac Monterey or Earlier
If you are still using macOS older than version 12 (Monterey), follow the below steps.
- Go to Apple logo menu and click on “System Preferences…”.
- Navigate to “Accessibility” settings.
- Click “Display” option from the sidebar.
- Enable “Reduce transparency” checkbox.
Now the transparency effect will be removed and you can clearly see the apps without any background color impact.
Using Accessibility Keyboard Shortcuts
Good thing is that you can use the keyboard shortcuts to toggle the transparency effects on Mac regardless of the macOS version you use.
- Press Option + Command + F5 or quickly press the Touch ID three times if your keyboard has that key.
- This will show a pop-up with the list of Accessibility Shortcuts.
- Check under “Vision” section and turn off the “Reduce Transparency” option.
- Click “Done” button to close the pop-up.
