Forcing brightness down on new iMacs (too bright)

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Level 2

265 points

Forcing brightness down on new iMacs (too bright)

I just bought a 24" iMac, the new iPhone styled version, and even though I have set brightness to its lowest possible setting, it's still too bright for me. I feel like I'm staring directly at a light bulb 3 feet away, and after a few hours my eyeballs are fried.

Is there some way to set the overall system brightness lower?
Otherwise I'll have to wear sunglasses while using my new iMac.

PS I have a Monaco Optix XR colorimeter, perhaps I can set up a color profile that forces brightness down? (But I don't know how)

iMac Glass-and-Aluminum, 2.4GHz, 24", Mac OS X (10.4.10), 4GB RAM

Posted on Aug 8, 2007 8:44 PM

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Answer 1

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den.thed

Level 9

77,158 points

Aug 8, 2007 8:54 PM in response to Eridium

Try using > Shades 1.1.5r1 <

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Answer 2

Aug 8, 2007 9:02 PM in response to Eridium

Yes, a hardware calibrator should be able to bring the luminance down to the proper level.

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Answer 3

Eridium Author

Level 2

265 points

Aug 8, 2007 10:43 PM in response to Eridium

Thanks Den and Barbara.

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Answer 4

Eridium Author

Level 2

265 points

Aug 8, 2007 10:43 PM in response to Eridium

Thanks Den and Barbara.

Shades seems like the easy solution, I had no idea it existed!
Will try it out tonight.

I should learn to better manipulate my colorimeter. Guess I'll have another thread to start soon ... great responses from both of you!

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Answer 5

Aug 9, 2007 6:45 AM in response to Eridium

If you are using a program like PS, Shades and the many other similar programs will make you very unhappy, because they do not affect the actual monitor profile, only what you are seeing, so by definition you are working blind for color. If you only do stuff like excel and watching movies, it should be okay.

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Answer 6

den.thed

Level 9

77,158 points

Aug 9, 2007 4:42 PM in response to Eridium

Shades works great even in a very dimmly lit room!

To keep your desktop clean go to: "Shades Preferences / Slider" and for "Interface" uncheck the "Slider Control" and check "Menu Item" this removes the control slider from the desktop and places it up on the right side of the menu bar.

Something to watch out for is app's like Grab, Screenshots and some photo software (one of Barbara's points) will capture and may even print images darker using Shades.

I set my Display Preferences to Adobe RGB (1998) seems to be better than and thing I can set by eye, then set the iMac's brightness control to max brightness and then adjust using only Shades.

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Answer 7

Aug 9, 2007 4:51 PM in response to den.thed

Choosing a color space like Adobe RGB cripples the number of colors your monitor can display. Adobe RGB, sRGB, etc. are document profiles, not hardware profiles.

If you don't ever work with anything where accurate print color is important, this isn't maybe such an issue, but you are for sure not seeing all the color range your computer can display.

I agree that trying to do more than set gamma with the system prefs calibrator is pretty useless, but the OP has said he has a colorimeter, which is by far the best solution. Calibrate using your imac profile as a starting point.

EDIT I have a Gretag-Macbeth rather than a Monaco, but there will surely be a choice of luminance somewhere in the options as you calibrate.

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Answer 8

den.thed

Level 9

77,158 points

Aug 9, 2007 5:57 PM in response to Barbara Brundage

Thank you for your insite and color profile wisdom!

I download a lots of digital photos and 35mm from CD's to the Mac's. I've always have great results from my previous G-3 and Core Duo iMac using HP and Epson printers.

Do you have any suggestions for a better display profile for those of us average users without a meter or high end professional equipment?

Message was edited by: den.thed

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Answer 9

Aug 9, 2007 6:00 PM in response to den.thed

Well, the thing is that the only way to get really accurate is for whatever is calibrating to see your computer in your room's ambient lighting. There are a few other software programs you could try, but they can't see your screen from the outside, as it were.

So a generic profile from someplace else isn't going to be any more accurate than what you have. A colorimeter isn't the huge expense it used to be. A Huey or Spyder2Express is $70 or less these days if you shop around.

You might ask around amongst your friends--possibly some one has one they could use to create a new profile for you. I don't know about the monaco licensing, but my Eye-One Display 2 allows me to calibrate as many monitors as I want.

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Answer 10

den.thed

Level 9

77,158 points

Aug 9, 2007 6:13 PM in response to Barbara Brundage

Thanks again for your time and informative reply!

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Answer 11

iSmile

Level 4

1,119 points

Aug 9, 2007 9:56 PM in response to Eridium

I have used a neat little app called Brightness Control which I have found to work well.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/10429/brightness-control

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Answer 12

Aug 10, 2007 5:26 AM in response to iSmile

All of these programs: Gamma Control. iShades, Brightness control, merely cause what you see to be inaccurate, as explained above. If you don't ever edit or create anything where the color matters they can be useful, but don't expect to be able to create or print a file that will look like what you are seeing on your monitor.

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Answer 13

Eridium Author

Level 2

265 points

Aug 11, 2007 12:15 AM in response to Barbara Brundage

"If you don't ever edit or create anything where the color matters they can be useful, but don't expect to be able to create or print a file that will look like what you are seeing on your monitor."

Thanks Barbara -- color matters to me when I'm working in Lightroom and (less and less) Photoshop ... and when I run these applications I wouldn't use anything that messes with brightness or color fidelity. Yet when I'm just using Safari, Firefox, reading e-mail, etc. the windows are all-white and the brightness can be searing on my eyes. I'm pretty happy with Shades right now. Before launching my Adobe apps I can easily quit Shades (restoring the system's native brightness), and the rest of the time it has the merciful benefit of lessening Safari's brightness. Without Shades, looking at the new iMac's screen is like staring at the sun. Evidently I wasn't the first one with this problem, and before finding Shades I really was considering wearing sunglasses while using Safari. The new iMac's lowest brightness setting is still too bright. It's kind of like the first few generations of iPods: the lowest digital volume setting was too loud if you were listening to music in bed. Later generations halved the minimum 1-notch volume.

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Answer 14

Aug 11, 2007 7:26 AM in response to Eridium

Yes, but if your monitor is not profiled properly you can't ever edit photos accurately, because you may think the photo needs to more magenta when it actually needs more green, etc.

Also, don't you find your prints too dark?

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Answer 15

Aug 15, 2007 12:15 AM in response to Barbara Brundage

Actually, Barbara I just tested that and you may be wrong.
The 24 (now older version) would not get its brightnes down below 170. Using Spyder 2 Pro and their software because I was having trouble with Color eyes for some reason, the Color Vision recommended I set my screen to 120 for the light situation in my studio. So during the process a point comes up where it tells you to adjust your brightness and then you click and it measures. With just the monitor it wouldn't get below 170 as I said. So I tried shade, and sure enough the calibrater took the screen value for the Linear Lut and calibrated the monitor at the 120 value. I will test with prints, but I think that value is in the profile because the calibration method included it within the profile. Does that make sense?? I've done this before and my prints are pretty darn close on my Epson 2200, colors good. brightness very close.

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