GarageBand: No change in window drop shadow when in background

Posted by Pierre Igot in: GarageBand
January 16th, 2005 • 7:12 am

For all standard Mac OS X windows, including regular “Aqua” windows and so-called brushed-metal windows, the behaviour is the same: When the window is not in the foreground, the drop shadow around it becomes much less pronounced, with less depth and a much more subtle look. It’s intended to give a sense of perspective, with the foreground window standing out against all other windows.

As GarageBand users know, the main GarageBand application window is neither an Aqua window nor a brushed-metal window. It’s some kind of strange beast intended to look like a real-world studio mixing console.

I don’t see why, however, this exempts this particular window from complying with the standard behaviour described above. Yet it is true: Even when you switch to some other program and GarageBand becomes a background application, the GarageBand window’s drop shadow stays exactly the same. The only things that change and indicate that the window is in the background are the three buttons in the top-left corner, and various smaller Aqua controls here and there in the window, as well as the main console buttons, which become greyed out.

The drop shadow stays the same, as if the window was still in the foreground. Unfortunately, this is “consistent” with other interface inconsistencies that affect GarageBand as a Mac OS X application — none of which are justified in any way.


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