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The Aqua Interface

Aqua is the overall appearance and behavior of Mac OS X. Aqua defines the standard appearance of specific user interface components such as windows, menus, and controls and is also characterized by the anti-aliased appearance of text and graphics, shadowing, transparency, and careful use of color. Aqua delivers standardized consistent behaviors and promotes clear communication of status through animated notifications, visual effects, and more. Designing for Aqua compliance will ensure you provide the best possible user experience for your customers.

Aqua is available to Cocoa, Carbon, and Java software. For Cocoa and Carbon application development, Interface Builder is the best way to begin building an Aqua-compliant graphical user interface. If you are porting an existing Mac OS 9 application to Mac OS X, see the Carbon Porting Guide in Carbon Porting Documentation. Java developers can use the Swing toolkit, which includes an Aqua look and feel in Mac OS X.

Read this part to learn about what Aqua provides and how best to take full advantage of it to ensure your application feels completely “at home” in Mac OS X.

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