A Better Display Brightness Control

· by · Tips

Changing the brightness of your Macis display is a pretty easy thing to do, but what if you want more control - or you donit want to jack up your ColorSync profile? You use Shades, thatis what.

Shades is a little application that gives you super-fine control over how bright or dim your Macis display is. The twist is that it performs this magic without actually changing the real brightness of your display. Instead, it applies an opacity filter to your Desktop. The end result: you can dim your display without affecting any of your Macis settings.


The Shades slider stays out of the way when you arenit using it...

Since Shades lets you use your display at a dimmer setting than the Brightness control in the Displays Preference Pane, you can use your Mac in lower light conditions without straining your eyes. Also, since it isnit physically changing your display settings, you donit have to worry about accidentally altering settings that will impact any ColorSync profiles you are using.


...and appears when you are ready to change your brightness settings.

Shades is available for download at the Charcoal Design Web site. It is free, but you are welcome to make a donation.

<!--#include virtual="/includes/newsite/series/quicktip.shtml"-->
Jeff Gamet

Jeff Gamet

Jeff is the Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and co-host of the Apple Context Machine podcast. He is the author of "The Designer's Guide to Mac OS X" from Peachpit Press, and writes for several design-related publications. Jeff has presented at events such as Macworld Expo, the RSA Conference, and the Mac Computer Expo. In all his spare time, he also co-hosts the We Have Communicators podcast, and makes guest appearances on several other podcasts, too. Jeff dreams in HD.

Sign Up for the Newsletter

Enter a valid email address

Join the TMO Express Daily Newsletter to get the latest Mac headlines in your e-mail every weekday.

Adding to list…

No Comments

Add your comment

Commenting is not available in this channel entry.