Tk Source Code

There doesn't appear to be documentation of the limitations (whether or not they are intentional) of using the -foreground, -background, -activeforeground, and -activebackground options on macOS aqua.

The behavior I currently observe:

If only one of -foreground or -background is specified, the color is used as the foreground of the entry (e.g. text color). If both -foreground and -background are specified, -foreground is used as the foreground color, and -background is ignored. Neither option affects the background color. On recent macOS, the background of entries may be light or dark depending on whether dark mode or dark menu bar are set in System Preferences > General.

-activeforeground and -activebackground have no effect; the foreground color is always used as the activeforeground color, and the activebackground color is determined by the color set in System Preferences > General.

Tk app developers targeting aqua should be aware that setting any custom colors in menu entries may make entries difficult to read, sometimes (but not always) depending on the user's choice of light/dark mode and highlight color.

This is likely a duplicate of [3588636]