Add shadow (recessed text effect) to Cocoa label without degrading text rendering quality

Question

I'd like to create statusbar with text effect like in Safari or iTunes, i.e. recessed text.

However, if I simply add shadow in Interface Builder using Core Animation panel, OS X's worst text rendering kicks in:

What's the trick to get recessed text on a label and keep proper subpixel rendering?

Answer 1

It's a cheap old trick: You draw the text in white at an offset and then draw the black text on top of it.

There is a hook for shadows in the text-drawing system, NSAttributedString's NSShadowAttributeName. But testing this out, it appears to kill the subpixel antialiasing as well.

Answer 2

There is a built-in way to do this:

[[yourTextField cell] setBackgroundStyle:NSBackgroundStyleRaised];