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I recently downloaded imovie and can't see things clearly cos of the black background to the app. Can I change it to white?
MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 12.1
There is no feature that lets one change the basic black/charcoal color of the iMovie 10 app. project screen. Most people prefer the dark background because it makes the clips stand out more.
You can drag a white background to the timeline and overlay a clip onto it with the Picture in Picture feature, and then make the overlay slightly smaller than the dimensions of the preview screen. That would give you a white boarder around the clip. Not much advantage to doing that unless you like the effect.
EDIT: You can also go to Systems Preferences/Display and increase the brightness of the Mac screen, if that would make it clearer for you to see.
-- Rich
There is no feature that lets one change the basic black/charcoal color of the iMovie 10 app. project screen. Most people prefer the dark background because it makes the clips stand out more.
You can drag a white background to the timeline and overlay a clip onto it with the Picture in Picture feature, and then make the overlay slightly smaller than the dimensions of the preview screen. That would give you a white boarder around the clip. Not much advantage to doing that unless you like the effect.
EDIT: You can also go to Systems Preferences/Display and increase the brightness of the Mac screen, if that would make it clearer for you to see.
-- Rich
Looks totally normal, exactly like my iMovie display.
What is it that you can't see clearly? The timeline clip looks clear (to me, anyway) and the white text on black background is the most contrast that you can get. In any event, the display color is what the app offers and cannot be changed as far as I can tell.
-- Rich
I see, thanks for the fast response. I tested it on iPad and the background is dark grey so I can see things much more clearly, but on the MacBook it is completely black. Could there be some other issue on the MacBook that causes this?
Oh, and I already tried increasing the brightness to the maximum but that doesn't dull down the blackness, just makes the screen too bright! Is there some other adjustment I could try in the display preferences? Refresh rate or colour profile?
Post a screen shot of your imovie project screen and let’s take a look. The time line should be dark gray and the rest of the app’s background should be black. However, I likely am running an older version of iMovie than you, so not aware if there may have been changes.
I also am not aware of any issue on the Mac that would cause any issue with the iMovie background display.
— Rich
I can't see the distinction between the sections. When I view your screenshot I can't see the dark grey section. I can see the sections on the iPad but not on my MacBook. Everything looks black so it's difficult to use the app. I don't understand why it looks ok on the iPad but not on the MacBook.
I can see the dark grey section, versus the black section, very clearly on my screen shot and yours. I guess it’s in the eye of the beholder.
iPad iMovie is a completely different app than Mac iMovie.
At this point, I have no more thoughts on the subject, as I think that the app is what it is
— Rich
Here's a screen shot from the app store of the screen for the latest iMovie. As you can see, the timeline is dark gray and the rest of the screen is black, as it always has been.
--- Rich
Here's a screenshot. As you can see, it's very dark.
Ok. Well, thank you for all your responses.
You are welcome.
-- Rich
I recently downloaded imovie and can't see things clearly cos of the black background to the app. Can I change it to white?
