NSButton - set text color in disabled mode

Question

For some reason, when my button is disabled, the text color turns white. I want it to stay black - how can i do that?

you probably already tried button.textcolor =[UIColor blackColor]; but just in case — Radu, Jun 16 '11 at 12:01

score 27 · Answer 1 · answered May 17 '12 at 08:37

You can subclass NSButtonCell and override a method:

- (NSRect)drawTitle:(NSAttributedString *)title withFrame:(NSRect)frame inView:(NSView *)controlView
{
    if (![self isEnabled]) {
        return [super drawTitle:[self attributedTitle] withFrame:frame inView:controlView];
    }

    return [super drawTitle:title withFrame:frame inView:controlView];
}

In this way, when button is disabled, the text will have the same color of text when button is enabled.

This seems like the best solution. – jrc Aug 30 '12 at 13:18 — jrc, Aug 30 '12 at 13:18

score 7 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 18 '16 at 15:32

7

Also check out this

[btnInfo.cell setImageDimsWhenDisabled:NO];

edited Mar 18 '16 at 15:32

Sangram Shivankar

3,535
3
26
38

answered May 24 '13 at 13:52

Catalin

1,821
4
26
32

Unfortunately, doesn't work anymore, macOS Catalina, 10.15.6 – Starwave Feb 09 '21 at 20:14

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 11 '14 at 12:58

2

You can override a private method in NSButtonCell:

- (BOOL)_textDimsWhenDisabled {
    return NO;
}

- (BOOL)_shouldDrawTextWithDisabledAppearance {
    return NO;
}

I filled a radar for a public method: rdar://19218619

answered Dec 11 '14 at 12:58

Stephan Michels

952
4
18

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 16 '18 at 06:02

1

Update for swift 4:

  override func drawTitle(_ title: NSAttributedString, withFrame frame: NSRect, in controlView: NSView) -> NSRect {

    if !self.isEnabled {
        return super.drawTitle(self.attributedTitle, withFrame: frame, in: controlView)
    }

    return super.drawTitle(title, withFrame: frame, in: controlView)
    }

This will make text attributes the same as when button is enabled.

answered Feb 16 '18 at 06:02

Joey Slomowitz

179
1
12

Ladies and gentleman - we have a winner! Only solution from all that works! – Starwave Feb 09 '21 at 20:30

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 11 '18 at 11:34

In Mojave, any override of draw methods makes it impossible to change the backgroundColor of the NSbutton when highlighted. So I would rather recommend to use

- (BOOL)_shouldDrawTextWithDisabledAppearance

for this purpose. If you are using Swift 4, I would do the following in the Bridging header:

#import <AppKit/AppKit.h>
@interface NSButtonCell (Private)
- (BOOL)_shouldDrawTextWithDisabledAppearance;
@end

And in the subclass of NSButtonCell:

override func _shouldDrawTextWithDisabledAppearance() -> Bool {
    return false
}

score -6 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 16 '11 at 12:24

-6

You can set text, image, colors, fonts, etc. for different status of a button: normal, highlighted, disabled, etc.

You can do that in Interface Builder by changing the state with the dropdown list.

answered Jun 16 '11 at 12:24

Christian Beer

2,027
15
13

I can't find this option in IB – Erik Sapir Jun 16 '11 at 12:27
5

That's not the case for nsbutton colors. – Oscar Del Ben Apr 20 '12 at 13:15
@ErikSapir - Since you accepted this answer, I assume you found where in IB this is. Can you share with the rest of us? – pepsi May 29 '12 at 20:21
1

You're right, sorry. I mixed up UIButton and NSButton... can Erik Sapir remove the checkmark? – Christian Beer Mar 11 '14 at 06:08

NSButton - set text color in disabled mode

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