Menu Bar Apple Logo file location?

[allan.nyholm]

Nice to meet you here, Allan.
What are your thoughts about this?

If the following is not useful then please have me excused

After experimenting with porting a newly released Windows 10 theme I wanted to see if adding a gradient to a dark theme would have any effect.. While it's not a "real and easy solution" it might just work. Further inspections will reveal where the colors also applies.. I'm thinking that once I relaunch SystemUIServer or login again that the menubar items on the right side of the menubar will change too.

And so my thought is that you can have a gradient fill or any color you wish for the menubar logo with some limitations. I would think that the classic Apple-logo as seen in older MacOS versions is possible with some trickery that I might have an idea for. You can add multiple Gradients for instance. But there is no real stop/start for these gradients. Perhaps if the Apple Logo asset (in Assets.car) is changed accordingly (don't know how yet) that the color and or gradient will produce any Apple logo you'd like.

 

[NordicBoots]

Wow! That sounds absolutely great, Allan.
I can't wait!
By the way: Can I help you with this?

 

[allan.nyholm]

Wow! That sounds absolutely great, Allan.
I can't wait!
By the way: Can I help you with this?

Yeah, it did sound great.. sadly I can't get more than one gradient to stick at a time. Or one color.

It does look like some kind of actual patchint is needed if one would like more than just a 2-step gradient.

You can add shadows, inner shadows and glow to the logo but not much like the days of past.

The Apple logo in Assets.car is really tricky to have comply with anything beyond size and the added glare. Even if splitting this logo asset up into bits like for a classic MacOS logo, then there still will be a 2-step gradient to have to deal with. That's atleast what I've come up with for now.

About the help... thank you. I've had a look at the source code for the linked app above in this thread and appears that I have some learning to do. Getting ThemeEngine to open files without crashing on 10.15.3 was a step in the right direction for me I'll reach out for sure if I need testers if and when I learn something new about coding and injection/hooking onto macOS.

 

[allan.nyholm]

@bhtwo mentions(in the March screenshot thread) that he uses PhotoStickies at DevonTechnologies - also makes EasyFind as a cheat for having a colored logo over the original Apple menubar-logo on macOS Catalina. GeekTool and Übersicht could also be used but PhotoStickies is great. Start by dragging your image onto the Dock icon to get started

Thanks, Bob!

 

[NordicBoots]

It's a pity. At my configuration, the Apple logo disappears as soon as I drag it to the dedicated position.
Thanks for this hint anyway!

 

[allan.nyholm]

It's a pity. At my configuration, the Apple logo disappears as soon as I drag it to the dedicated position.
Thanks for this hint anyway!

Right Click the PhotoStickies Dock Icon to have all on top Worked for me, because I noticed the same.

 

[NordicBoots]

Thanks again, Allan. That did the trick.

 

[asdfnose123]

I can't. It says:
The document “Assets.car” could not be saved. You don’t have permission.
What can I do?

 

[organicCPU]

What can I do?

First make a copy of Assets.car for backup purpose. Make a second copy and work on that copy of Assets.car somewhere, where you've got all privileges, save it and then copy it back to replace the original Assets.car. You'll get asked for your admin credentials.
If that doesn't work, depending on your macOS version, it could be necessary to disable SIP while replacing the Assets.car file.

 

[asdfnose123]

First make a copy of Assets.car for backup purpose. Make a second copy and work on that copy of Assets.car somewhere, where you've got all privileges, save it and then copy it back to replace the original Assets.car. You'll get asked for your admin credentials.
If that doesn't work, depending on your macOS version, it could be necessary to disable SIP while replacing the Assets.car file.

But in the menu bar... the apple logo is still black. but in ThemeEngine, it has a B&W or Greyscale.

 

[NordicBoots]

But in the menu bar... the apple logo is still black. but in ThemeEngine, it has a B&W or Greyscale.
View attachment 942163 View attachment 942162

Unfortunately, you can't just create a picture and paste it at this position of the Assets.car file.
You'd better first try to modify the existing logo.
Or take a look at the entries in this thread.

 

[organicCPU]

But in the menu bar... the apple logo is still black.

Did you do a reboot? Could macOS have reverted your file automatically? Are you sure, that you've been disabling System Integrity Protection (SIP), before copying back you modified Assets.car to its original place?

 

[NordicBoots]

Because of those restrictions for the Apple logo in the Asset.car file, I am currently using GeekTool with a colourful Apple logo instead. This makes me smile again.

 

[wuifuruhg]

I Used A Custom Image I Made And It Worked!

 

[3309872]

Okay, well never seen that. I'm cautious as that can violate the rules of Apple. Just taking precautions for me, not affecting you.

 

[NordicBoots]

I Used A Custom Image I Made And It Worked!
View attachment 1961181

Unfortunately, no color will be accepted...

 

[wuifuruhg]

Unfortunately, no color will be accepted...

But It Worked!

 

[wuifuruhg]

I Used A Custom Image I Made And It Worked!
View attachment 1961181

Okay, well never seen that. I'm cautious as that can violate the rules of Apple. Just taking precautions for me, not affecting you.

UPDATE: I Modified The Dock Too, So...

 

[NordicBoots]

But It Worked!

How did you do that?

 

[wuifuruhg]

How did you do that?

ThemeEngine

 

[NordicBoots]

ThemeEngine

In color?

 

[NordicBoots]

Because of those restrictions for the Apple logo in the Asset.car file, I am currently using GeekTool with a colourful Apple logo instead. This makes me smile again.

View attachment 956696

Unfortunately, they stopped developing GeekTool, so it isn't available for Ventura / M1. Any suggestions? (Übersicht can't reach the menu bar by the way.)

 

[organicCPU]

Any suggestions? (Übersicht can't reach the menu bar by the way.)

iStat Menus should work on macOS Ventura, if you need similar function. I don't think that theming the Apple logo is one of its capabilities.

 

[NordicBoots]

Unfortunately, they stopped developing GeekTool, so it isn't available for Ventura / M1. Any suggestions? (Übersicht can't reach the menu bar by the way.)

Good news! GeekTool runs on Ventura again.