In the DateCell for this sample, your drawInteriorWithFrame:(NSRect)bounds inView:(NSView *)controlView override sets a private instance variable (_cFlags.needsHighlightedText) in order to get white highlighted text. Is this kosher in the real world, since it’s undocumented? I’ve actually been trying to coerce an NSTextFieldCell into NOT drawing white highlighted text and I’ve come to the conclusion that it just can’t be done without using one or more private methods (I would love to be corrected on that point), so I guess I’ll just replace the cell class wholesale – no matter how many times (or in how many places) I set the text color, the attributed string that the cell eventually uses to draw has white text.