# Panels

Source: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/panels
Skill: hig-components-layout
Snapshot: 2025-02-02

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<!-- hig-doctor:attribution -->
> **Source**: Apple Inc. Canonical content at https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/panels.
> This file is a structured index of that content, snapshot 2025-02-02.
> Apple HIG text and imagery are © Apple Inc.; this repository provides organization and cross-referencing for AI agent consumption only.

# Panels

## Best practices

**Use a panel to give people quick access to important controls or information related to the content they’re working with.**

**Consider using a panel to present inspector functionality.**

**Prefer simple adjustment controls in a panel.**

**Write a brief title that describes the panel’s purpose.**

**Show and hide panels appropriately.**

**Avoid including panels in the Window menu’s documents list.**

**In general, avoid making a panel’s minimize button available.**

**Refer to panels by title in your interface and in help documentation.**

## HUD-style panels

**Prefer standard panels.**

  * In a media-oriented app that presents movies, photos, or slides

  * When a standard panel would obscure essential content

  * When you don’t need to include controls — with the exception of the disclosure triangle, most system-provided controls don’t match a HUD’s appearance.

**Maintain one panel style when your app switches modes.**

**Use color sparingly in HUDs.**

**Keep HUDs small.**

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For the complete guidance, including worked examples and illustrations, see the canonical page: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/panels