DT4 displays PDFs incorrectly in dark mode on Golden Gate

DEVONthink Feedback
1

Since updating from Sequoia to Golden Gate, when using dark mode, PDFs in DT4 (version 4.4.1) are now displaying as white on black rather than in black on white. They still display correctly in Preview.

When a PDF has been constructed without explicitly setting colours, this means they do not render correctly — this text in the yellow box should be black, as it is when viewed in Preview, but it is now much more difficult to read:

Screenshot 2026-10-13 at 11.50.25 in DT4, but

Screenshot 2026-10-13 at 12.02.04 in Preview.

Similarly, this date should be black, but is now completely illegible:

Screenshot 2026-10-13 at 11.51.26
Screenshot 2026-10-13 at 11.51.26179×100 2.19 KB
in DT4, but

Screenshot 2026-10-13 at 12.01.22 in Preview

I tried rolling back to a previous version of DT4 that definitely worked using Time Machine, but the result is the same, so this looks like a macOS change that is unfortunately making DT4 unusable for me.

I tried forcing light mode for DT4 only with defaults write com.devon-technologies.think NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool YES but it’s just too bright, as is setting the entire system to light mode — I would have constant headaches.

Please could DT4 display PDFs correctly in dark mode (as Preview does) on Golden Gate?

2

Is Settings > General > Appearance > Use dark background for documents currently enabled? Alternatively enable the hidden preference DisablePDFDarkMode, see hidden preferences in the appendix of the help.

3

Ah, that setting’s fixed it — thanks! (Slightly embarrassed that I looked at that settings page and never even noticed it…)

Odd that it should occur when I upgraded the OS, though, since I never touched it in between :confused:

4

Older macOS releases do not support PDF dark mode.

1 Like
5

In my DEVONthink installation (4.4.1) the Help->Hidden Preferences does not have an arrow to the right. Searching in Scripts->More for “Open Hidden Preferences” does not contain the script.

Where can I find it?

6

This menu item simply opens the page in the help viewer, no script required.

7

OK, understand

Thank You