We at MacThemes love to shapeshift our computers with innovative designs and beautiful themes, but sometimes we just need to return to our interface roots. Mac OS X Leopard, released on the 26th to eager Mac users everywhere, looks to be the greatest version of Mac OS X released yet, with a brand new Aqua sitting on top of 300+ innovations. For a five year-old theme, Aqua has been given a significant facelift, and the myriad of revisions will leave the majority of Aqua aficionados very satisfied.

History of Aqua

Aqua was introduced in January of 2000, at the Macworld San Francisco Conference. Based around the idea of water, it was one of the core selling points of the then-upcoming Mac OS X, and introduced usability innovations such as window sheets, Quartz font rendering, and the Dock.

But of course, aesthetics played a huge role in this new interface as well. For those who remember the days of the classic Mac OS (specifically, Mac OS 8 and 9), the Platinum appearance ruled the Mac’s windows, buttons, and application styles; up until Aqua was introduced, the Mac UI looked like a sterile copy of Windows 95. Aqua’s pinstripe windows, marvelously photorealistic icons, and pulsating controls and widgets helped modernize an aging user interface, and wowed the audience with its transluency, special effects, and candy-like appearance.

Aqua slowly evolved throughout each revision of OS X, starting with 10.0 and stopping (for now) at 10.5. “Cheetah”, 10.0’s internal codename, was an Aqua wildchild, with strong drop shadows under text, heavy blue saturation on controls, and glowing buttons, checkboxes, and scrollbars galore. It was bright, graphically-intense, and, for the time being, it was Aqua. 10.1 (”Puma”) came along and helped settle down the menu bar shadows, and 10.2 “Jaguar”, released just a year and a half after 10.0, finally subdued Aqua’s lickable push buttons, checkboxes, and other system controls, as well as dampening the distinct pinstripes. During this time, Apple also quietly introduced the brushed metal appearance, which would remain unchanged for the next five years.

The following year, version 10.3 “Panther” provided the groundwork for Tiger’s aesthetics, subduing the already-faint pinstripes, establishing the inset titlebar buttons, and cleaning up whatever resources were left unchanged from the initial release of OS X, such as segment tabs. Brushed metal began to see a more frequent use in applications (and often broke the Human Interface Guidelines), and by the time we arrived at Tiger, we had our familiar Aqua paired with four different window styles (Aqua, Unified Light, Unified Dark, and Brushed Metal).

Aqua Now: Aesthetics

So here we are, at version 10.5. While Tiger left most of the core Aqua resources alone, it was a period Apple used to experiment with various application styles; finally Apple put to rest the notorious brushed metal, using the unified metal as the standard across all applications. If you’ve updated your iLife or iTunes in the past two years, you’ll know exactly what it looks like, and it generally makes apps feel cleaner and sleeker. Best yet, Aqua windows, now pinstripe-less, also adopt this metal color, meaning a consistent window style has come to Aqua for the first time since 10.1.

But we can’t forget the core Aqua resources. Across the entire interface you’ll find a new tint of Aqua making its way into controls, as well as improving the texture and stroke of many of the widgets. Push buttons and tabs seem more “fluid” and not nearly as glassy; Aqua inset tabs have been done away with altogether in favor of iTunes-style ones; though scroll bars retain their familiar appearance. These changes aren’t all for the better; for instance, the titlebar buttons are too saturated, and the progress bars, unchanged since 10.0, are heavy and dated, leaving plenty of room for improvement for Aqua tweakers and themers.

Arguably the most widely-discussed part of Leopard has been the updated glassy Dock, whose updated aesthetics have been written off as superfluous and has been criticized for its perspective problems. The design itself is fine – I don’t mind the auto-generated reflections, but I have a major problem with the top drop shadows. They’re just plain silly, and the two light sources idea doesn’t make any sense anyway (but the side dock is beautiful in contrast, making use of a bezel-like base and getting rid of the extra drop shadows and reflections.)

Now for the controversial menu bar. Early screenshots of Leopard a few months back sparked long debates over the bar’s aesthetics and usability; however, it’s actually quite pleasing, incorporating a subtle gradient that helps hide the wallpaper behind it. It seems to work well on high-contrast backgrounds too, leaving the menu bar text quite readable (see below for screenshot).

And there you have it, folks: with a consistent window appearance and brand-new controls lying on top, Apple has very much delivered to make Aqua sweet again. Indeed, it may not succeed very unique Aqua themes- Vitae comes to mind- but for those who were waiting to see Aqua cleaned and spruced, Apple has delivered nicely.

Usability

Few words need to be said about Aqua’s usability, because Apple has always excelled at balancing beauty and function in wonderful strides. Has anything changed in that category? Not a bit. Little detail changes may affect aesthetics at worst – but have actually made Aqua more usable at best. The unified window appearance keeps windows interesting and provides a nice amount of contrast against Aqua’s plain-gray windows, and controls have become more subdued and subtle, which help ease Aqua’s brightness and usability over long periods of time.

Extras

For the first time in years, Apple has completely redone Aqua’s folder design, ditching the original perspective, pinstripes and symbols for a front-facing perspective and solid-color glyphs. While I was concerned about the readability of the symbols at small sizes, that’s not a problem at all, and though I would have rather seen full-color versions of the glyphs like Tiger, this won’t pose a problem for most users. However, I’m not a fan of the texture used on the design: it makes the folders seem cheap and dated, opposed to the comparably-futuristic, semi-transparent originals.

From an application perspective, Apple has updated everything to fit cozily with the new, tinted Aqua, and most applications that haven’t even been updated for Leopard won’t feel too dated. The standard OS X app icons have been given 512×512 versions and scale well, and though some are fairly basic (I’m not a fan of the Spaces icon), upcoming versions of CandyBar and Pixadex should be able to solve that problem nicely.

Desktops and screensavers-wise? We’re all familiar with the space time travel desktop, but I still prefer the original Aqua patterns; and new screensavers like Arabesque, Falling Photos, and Security are decent additions to a fun lineup.

But what amazes me the most about these extras is to see just how many changes have gone into the tiniest details: for example, take the System Preferences icons. Certainly something to represent Spaces was needed for 10.5, but even old standbys like Keyboard & Mouse, Displays, and Dock- and some not updated since, dare I say, Jaguar- feel fresh and up-to-date now. It’s little details like this themers might pick out in an instant, and will make any user feel like they’re using something truly modern aesthetically- even if they can’t see it at first.

Conclusion

Aqua has been an integral component of our Macs ever since its introduction in 2000. Through many years of development and refinement, Aqua has become even more pleasant and usable with each passing year, and Apple has done a good job of making minor changes to keep the design from stagnating.

This latest revision is nothing but minor: it’s a facelift, and a solid one at that. Not only does it sport brand-new controls and a consistent window style, but Apple managed to retain its world-class usability and throw in some fun new extras at the same time. Sure, it’s not going to leave the crowds of Aqua themers out of a job (Aqua refinement themes such as Vitae will live on), but until we see our favorite themes leap into 10.5, you’ll be just fine with Apple’s latest treatment.