You’ll see controls depending on which app you’re in. Just press the “ fn” key (it’s the key at the bottom-left corner of the keyboard) and right where your cursor is, the Touch Bar will show up. Step 5: Once the app is open, it will show up as a menu bar utility.
If your Mac doesn’t let you install the app, you need to head to “Security & Privacy” section in System Preferences, and allow app installs from anywhere. As this is an app from a third party developer, you’ll need to dodge Apple’s security warning. Step 3: Once, downloaded, it will show up as an app file. Head over to this GitHub link and download the latest version of “ TouchBarServer.zip” Step 2: Next, we need to download Touch Bar Demo app.
Once the update file is downloaded, install it. Right now, you can’t get this build simply by updating from the App Store. Head over to this link to download the update file (1.3 GB). Step 1: First, you’ll need a differently, updated build of macOS Sierra 10.12.1 (build 16B2657). Installing and trying a floating, on screen Touch Bar on the Mac is relatively easier than doing so on the iPad.
How to Install and Try Software Touch Bar on Any Mac Thanks to a developer project on GitHub and some clever side loading on the iPad, that’s actually possible. And if you want to actually “touch” the Touch Bar, try doing that on the iPad. Well, if you just want to see what the fuss is all about, the next best thing is to emulate the Touch Bar on your Mac. It’s a shame you can’t try it without spending $1799. Now, Apple’s added a thin striped OLED display on the top of the keyboard on the new MacBook Pros, called the Touch Bar. The last big one was of course the multi touch iPhone screen. It’s not every day that Apple invents a whole new interaction model. The result of this is a faster and more stable app.
I discovered a way to communicate with the Touch Bar simulator directly. I managed to get it working by including all those frameworks, but the app ended up being 700 MB. Xcode 10 moved the required private symbols needed to trigger the Touch Bar simulator into the main IDEKit framework, which has a lot of dependencies on its own. I've bundled the required private frameworks to make it work without Xcode. I then launch that window and add a screenshot button to it.
I class-dumped a private Xcode framework and used that to expose a private class to get a reference to the Touch Bar window controller. In short, it exposes the Touch Bar simulator from inside Xcode as a standalone app with added features. Pressing ⌃⇧⌘6 which saves it to the clipboard.Īpple would never allow it as it uses private APIs.Pressing ⇧⌘6 which saves it to ~/Desktop.Clicking the screenshot button in the Touch Bar window or options menu which saves it to ~/Desktop.You can capture a screenshot of the Touch Bar by either: Or install it with Homebrew-Cask: $ brew cask install touch-bar-simulator Getting started Download the latest release If it's already checked, try unchecking and checking it again. Important: If clicking in the simulator or the screenshot button is not working, you need to go to "System Preferences" → "Security & Privacy" → "Accessibility", and ensure "Touch Bar Simulator.app" is checked. You can add a toggle shortcut in System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts → Services → Toggle Touch Bar. Right-clicking or option-clicking the menu bar icon displays a menu with options to dock the window to the top or bottom of the screen, make it show on all desktops at once, access toolbar features in docked mode, or quit the app. It also comes with a handy transparency slider, a screenshot button, and a menu bar icon and system service to toggle the Touch Bar with a click or keyboard shortcut.Ĭlicking the menu bar icon toggles the Touch Bar window. Launch the Touch Bar simulator from anywhere without needing to have Xcode installed, whereas Apple requires you to launch it from inside Xcode.