If you’re tired of the default yellow colors of links in the Notes app that I find hard to see in light mode, there’s a way to change them to a different color on your iPhone, iPad and/or Mac.
This isn’t a perfect solution as you can’t just change Notes-specific link colors anywhere in Preferences or Preferences, but you can tamper with system-wide settings to achieve the effect. To make changes specific to Notes, you can automate the color change.
Keep reading to find out what you can do to make your notes more personal visually and customize them the way you want.
Method 1: Change Your Note’s Link Colors in macOS
All linked text is yellow by default, but you can change it to several other colors on your MacBook, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro, or Mac Studio. However, link colors are a macOS-only setting, not a Notes setting, so changes you apply won’t sync across your devices. This means links in notes on your iPhone or iPad will still be yellow, even if they are a different color on macOS.
To change link colors, go to System Preferences -> General, then select a new color for the Accent Color option. This setting, which existed before Notes became an application, changes the color of buttons, menus, and window interface elements, and you will immediately notice it in System Preferences.
The default accent color is multicolor, and it makes links in Notes yellow, system interface elements blue, and system-wide text highlighting yellow. Setting a specific color changes all of those things to the selected color, but you can change the selection color in the dropdown.
Method 2: Change Your Note Link Colors on iOS/iPadOS
Even if your Notes app on macOS has green links (left screenshot below), links on your iPhone or iPad will still be yellow (right screenshot below).
However, you can still do something with your Notes app link colors on iOS and iPadOS, but it’s not as easy as it is on macOS. You will need to select a color option in the accessibility settings that will apply system-wide unless you automate the change just for the Notes app (see Method 3 below for automation).
Go to Settings -> Accessibility -> Text Display & Size, then select Classic Invert, Smart Invert, and Color Filters.
Option 1: classic and smart inversion
Classic Invert inverts most of the colors on your display so that each color becomes the opposite, causing the colors in the Notes app to change. Smart Invert does the same with some exceptions like images, media, and some interface elements like buttons, but the effect is the same in the Notes app. Links appear blue in light mode and yellow in dark mode.
Classical inversion (left), Smart inversion (center) and result in light mode (right).
Option 2: Color filters
Color filters are also applied throughout the system. They were originally designed for visually impaired people, but anyone can use them to adjust the color of the screen. There are five colors to choose from, with sliders to adjust the intensity for all colors except grayscale.
Setting color filters will change the link color in the Notes app, but it will also change the look of everything else on your device. Play around with the options to find one that’s comfortable on the eyes, as it’s different for everyone. Below you’ll see each option at maximum intensity, as well as comparisons of light and dark modes.
- Grayscale without adjustable intensity
- Red-green filter (protanopia) with adjustable intensity
- Green-red filter (Deuteranopia) with adjustable intensity
- Blue-yellow filter (tritanopia) with adjustable intensity
- Color tint with adjustable intensity and tint
Option 3: combine invert and filters
You can also use any invert option with any color filter. Below you will see a red tint filter with Smart Invert enabled, comparing light and dark modes.
Method 3: Automate Your Note’s Link Colors
While you can turn Classic or Smart Invert on and off when you open and close the Notes app on your Mac, respectively, it doesn’t make much sense since you have more control over link colors through System Preferences. macOS has color filter options, but you can’t automate them yet.
On your iPhone or iPad running iOS 14 or iPadOS 14 or later, the Shortcuts app lets you automate link color changes with classic and smart invert in the Notes app. This way Notes will change color when you open it and then everything will return to normal for the rest of the system when you exit Notes. In iOS 16 and iPadOS 16.1 or later, you can also automate color filters.
- Open the Automation tab in Shortcuts.
- Click “Create Personal Automation”. If you already have automations, tap the plus (+) in the corner first.
- Click “Application”in the list of triggers.
- Click “Select”next to the application.
- Select Notes from the application list.
- Click Done.
- Make sure “Open”and “Closed”are ticked.
- Click next.
- Click Add Action.
- Tap the Apps tab.
- Find and select the Settings app.
- Select the desired action: Set Classic Invert, Set Color Filters, or Set Smart Invert.
- Click “Enable”and change it to “Toggle”.
- Add another action and set it if you want to combine accessibility settings. (Optional)
- Add another action for “Set Appearance”and select “Toggle”for “Dark”or “Light”mode if you want to combine one of them with the rest of the automation. (Optional)
- Click “Next”when you’re done.
- Disable “Ask before launch”.
- Click “Don’t ask”to confirm.
- Finally, click “Finish”to confirm everything.
When you open the Notes app now, your iPhone or iPad will automatically switch to the display setting you chose and automatically return to normal when you close the app. However, if you already had the invert mode or color filter active before opening Notes, it might turn it off instead.
If you think this might be a problem for you, you can create two separate automations – one for Open and Close – and then use the Rotate options instead of Toggle. This way the invert and color options only apply to Notes and that’s it – you don’t have to worry about whether you’re already using those options or not.
