I have used Dark Mode for so long that switching my Mac back to Light Mode felt like a bigger change than it should have. The apps looked fine, but the desktop kept bothering me.
The wallpaper does more for the feel of macOS than I usually notice. I wanted one image for Light Mode and another for Dark Mode, with the desktop following the system automatically. I did not need the image to change with the sun or on a schedule. I only wanted a pair.
The pair I wanted
Raycast has a lovely
wallpaper collection (opens in a new tab) (відкриється в новій вкладці).
I kept coming back to two images from it:
mono_light_distortion_1 (opens in a new tab) (відкриється в новій вкладці)
and
mono_dark_distortion_1 (opens in a new tab) (відкриється в новій вкладці).
They belong together, and each has the right contrast for its appearance. The
light one does not look washed out. The dark one does not turn the desktop into
a bright rectangle behind every window.
The options that almost worked
Equinox (opens in a new tab) (відкриється в новій вкладці) can make an appearance-based macOS wallpaper from two images. It is free, open source, and also handles solar and time-based wallpapers. That makes sense if I want to create and export a proper dynamic wallpaper. For this job, it felt like too much machinery.
I was already using the
Raycast Wallpaper extension (opens in a new tab) (відкриється в новій вкладці).
It has exactly two commands: Set Raycast Wallpaper and
Auto Switch Raycast Wallpaper. Both expose a Respect System Appearance
setting, so saying that the extension ignores Light and Dark Mode would be
wrong.
The difference is what that setting does. The extension classifies Raycast's catalogue as light or dark. It can show only wallpapers for the current appearance, or narrow the pool before choosing one at random. The current manifest (opens in a new tab) (відкриється в новій вкладці) and auto-switch implementation (opens in a new tab) (відкриється в новій вкладці) do not provide a persistent slot for one chosen Light wallpaper and another for Dark Mode.
I could probably build a workaround around those commands. Then I would be maintaining a workaround for a preference that should take two clicks.
Umbra is just right
Umbra (opens in a new tab) (відкриється в новій вкладці) matches the way I was already thinking about the problem: one place for the Light wallpaper and one for the Dark wallpaper. I drop in the two images, and Umbra keeps them in sync with the macOS appearance. It can also toggle Dark Mode from the menu bar.
That direct setup is why I kept it. Umbra has more options, including per-display wallpapers and better handling for HEIC files, but I do not have to turn my simple preference into a wallpaper project. Replay offers it as "pay what you like," which also makes it easy to try.
A small Replay aside
Umbra was not my first app from Replay. I also use Echo (opens in a new tab) (відкриється в новій вкладці), its SSH and Mosh client for iPhone and iPad. I reach for it less now that I can follow Codex work from the ChatGPT mobile app (opens in a new tab) (відкриється в новій вкладці) and Claude has Dispatch (opens in a new tab) (відкриється в новій вкладці), but Echo is still a neat project. It takes a job that is easy to get wrong on a phone and makes it feel native.
Umbra feels similarly focused. It does not ask me to change how I manage appearance in macOS. It handles the missing wallpaper pair and stays out of the way.
Why this small thing matters to me
I spend hours looking at macOS, so this minor tweak is always in view. The desktop sits behind every window. It affects the contrast around the edges and is often the first thing I see when I switch tasks.
That is why I like small utilities that let me make the OS mine without adding a new ritual. My Mac now has those two Raycast images in Umbra. Light Mode finally feels like a complete theme instead of a temporary setting I will switch off in ten minutes.
Sources
- Replay: Umbra (opens in a new tab) (відкриється в новій вкладці)
- Replay: Echo (opens in a new tab) (відкриється в новій вкладці)
- Equinox (opens in a new tab) (відкриється в новій вкладці)
- Raycast Wallpapers (opens in a new tab) (відкриється в новій вкладці)
- Raycast Wallpaper extension source (opens in a new tab) (відкриється в новій вкладці)
- OpenAI: Work with Codex from anywhere (opens in a new tab) (відкриється в новій вкладці)
- Anthropic: Dispatch in Claude Cowork (opens in a new tab) (відкриється в новій вкладці)