The system-provided materials define the amounts of translucency, blurring, and vibrancy applied to your interface. The system provides many standard materials for you to use, each one with a designated purpose.
- Choose materials based on their semantic meaning.
- Use system colors with system materials.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

macOS apps use translucency and blurring to evoke a sense of depth, by enabling views and controls to hint at content residing in the background. They also use vibrancy, a subtle effect that dynamically blends the foreground and background colors using a careful balance of lightening and darkening techniques. This combination helps make foreground content stand out against any background.

macOS: Translucency

Apple Human Interface Guidelines

- Be prepared for vibrancy. 
- Enable and disable vibrancy in your app when appropriate.
- Prefer system-provided elements and colors.
- Use template images.

macOS: Translucency and Vibrancy

The system offers two ways to blend background content:
- Behind-window blending.
- In-window blending.

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