CODEWITHSUNDEEP
swiftmacoscocoa
sagism
sagism

Reputation: 921

How can I create a window with transparent background with swift on osx?

I want to create an osx/cocoa application on my mac, which does something very simple: Display a text string on my mac, with no background. Ultimately this will be a timer which displays as an overlay on top of other windows, without being too intrusive.

I tried setting window.backgroundColor = NSColor(red: 1.0, green:0.5, blue:0.5, alpha: 0.5) (see the alpha is 0.5), in applicationDidFinishLaunching but this doesn't turn it into something remotely transparent.

Any good soul wants to suggest a way to do this?

Upvotes: 24

Views: 20989

Answers (5)

Igor Leonovich
Igor Leonovich

Reputation: 517

Here is my updated version of this answer for Swift 5:

import Cocoa

final class CustomWindow: NSWindow {
    
    override init(contentRect: NSRect, styleMask style: NSWindow.StyleMask, backing bufferingType: NSWindow.BackingStoreType, defer flag: Bool) {
        super.init(contentRect: contentRect, styleMask: style, backing: bufferingType, defer: flag)
        isOpaque = false
        hasShadow = false
        titlebarAppearsTransparent = true
        backgroundColor = .clear
        title = "Title"
    }
}

Upvotes: 0

melMass
melMass

Reputation: 5229

A little update for Swift 3

A window subclass example with comment:

class customWindow: NSWindow {
    
    override init(contentRect: NSRect, styleMask style: NSWindowStyleMask, backing bufferingType: NSBackingStoreType, defer flag: Bool) {
        super.init(contentRect: contentRect, styleMask: style, backing: bufferingType, defer: flag)
        
        // Set the opaque value off,remove shadows and fill the window with clear (transparent)
        self.isOpaque = false
        self.hasShadow = false
        self.backgroundColor = NSColor.clear
        
        // Change the title bar appereance
        self.title = "My Custom Title"
        //self.titleVisibility = .hidden
        self.titlebarAppearsTransparent = true


        
        
    }

Upvotes: 7

Leo Dabus
Leo Dabus

Reputation: 236558

NSWindow has a property 'opaque' which it is true by default.

The value of this property is true when the window is opaque; otherwise, false.

Just change it to false:

override func viewWillAppear() {
    super.viewWillAppear()
    view.window?.opaque = false
    view.window?.backgroundColor = NSColor(red: 1, green: 0.5, blue: 0.5, alpha: 0.5)
}

Swift 4 update: opaque has been renamed isOpaque

override func viewWillAppear() {
    super.viewWillAppear()
    view.window?.isOpaque = false
    view.window?.backgroundColor = NSColor(red: 1, green: 0.5, blue: 0.5, alpha: 0.5) 
}

Upvotes: 22

Jay Mehta
Jay Mehta

Reputation: 1811

Swift 3/4

self.window?.isOpaque = false
self.window?.hasShadow = false
self.window?.backgroundColor = NSColor.clear
self.window?.titlebarAppearsTransparent = true

Upvotes: 4

Paul Patterson
Paul Patterson

Reputation: 6928

Make the window non-opaque, and give it a clear background:

func applicationDidFinishLaunching(aNotification: NSNotification) {
    window.opaque = false
    window.backgroundColor = NSColor.clearColor()
}

Upvotes: 18

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