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Save your eyes - Adjust brightness

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LRoy polycounter lvl 10
It's been mentioned a few times but it makes such a difference for my eyes figured it's worth it's own thread for anyone not already aware.

F.lux is a free little program that makes the color of your computer's display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day.

Once catch is to not use it for anything color related, but other than that it's great.

http://stereopsis.com/flux/

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  • Sean VanGorder
    Yup, I installed this a few weeks ago. It makes a huge difference.

    Just make sure you don't forget to use the disable option if you're doing color sensitive work.
  • skylebones
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    skylebones polycounter lvl 10
    Wow, I just installed it an instantly felt my eyes relax. Been having a lot of eye strain lately.
  • Joshflighter
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    Joshflighter polycounter lvl 9
    Oh my. Much better on my eyes! :)
  • Alberto Rdrgz
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    Alberto Rdrgz polycounter lvl 9
    awesome! downloading this, thanks!
  • Del
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    Del polycounter lvl 9
    OMFG
    My eyes stopped straining instantly. Feels like eye sex.

    Thanks for this LRoy. Best thread of the moment ^ _ ^
  • Docm30
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    Docm30 polycounter lvl 10
    Maybe it's because I'm not used to it, but this program caused my eyes to hurt even more. They felt much better after I turned it off.

    Maybe it's just me, though.
  • GarageBay9
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    GarageBay9 polycounter lvl 13
    Docm30 wrote: »
    Maybe it's because I'm not used to it, but this program caused my eyes to hurt even more. They felt much better after I turned it off.

    Maybe it's just me, though.

    It's probably very dependent on your monitor, color settings, and the lighting conditions in your room. I just installed it and I like the idea but I'm not completely sold on it yet. I've never had major problems with eye strain, and the altered colors are bugging me. I wish there was an option to have it simply affect screen brightness rather than color mapping, and an option to toggle it on/off completely, not just for an hour.
  • leilei
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    leilei polycounter lvl 14
    I don't like how it doesn't affect my cursor, leaving it to be blindingly white.

    It also doesn't get along with lcd overdrive, which causes page scrolling to give a eye bugging effect
  • Futzy
    I've used this for years. It's just great, especially when working well past midnight (on non-art stuff).

    I keep the icon as always visible on the sys tray and just right right click + disable for an hour if I'm doing some art-work past 6 or so, and just close out of it if I'm working for longer.

    Also good for watching TV/movies from my comp on my TV late at night.

    e: make sure to turn on gradual changes from the settings
  • Kot_Leopold
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    Kot_Leopold polycounter lvl 10
    Oh wow! I can already feel the difference. Thanks for sharing!! :)
  • Joshua Stubbles
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    Joshua Stubbles polycounter lvl 19
    Nice find, thanks! Obviously not great for doing artwork late into the night, but this just made a huuuuge difference in my eye strain while browsing and playing games.
  • Kbrom12
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    Kbrom12 polycounter lvl 8
    Installed it and played with the settings a bunch, it makes my monitor a nasty orange/yellow color that I can't stand. Whites turns to yellow and blacks turned to browns...its just not for me.
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    Yeah, still not sure about that one. On one hand it does have an instantly noticeable "relaxing" effect, with the facial muscles relaxing all of a sudden ; on the other hand, once this effect fades away I find the colors very agressive, eventually causing stress.

    I'd rather play with the videocard brightness settings in the NVidia control panel, or mess around with my screen built-in settings. However the lack of presets to easily cycle through sure is a pain ...

    Can't wait for e-Ink monitors really - they will solve pretty much all computer eyestrain problems in no time!
  • EtotheRic
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    EtotheRic polycounter lvl 18
    I experience a lot of headaches and eye fatigue so I'm going to give this a try. I can see why it is undesirable for color stuff but for sculpting the color change doesn't bother me.
  • Steve Schulze
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    Steve Schulze polycounter lvl 18
    Yeah, I'm not really digging working with everything tinted bright peach-pink.
  • Del
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    Del polycounter lvl 9
    Jackablade wrote: »
    Yeah, I'm not really digging working with everything tinted bright peach-pink.

    No no, its relative. So after about 15mins the peach-white just looks like regular 'white' to you. You can't even tell its peachy anymore.
  • Andreas
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    Andreas polycounter lvl 11
    Plus I think you are better off using it for surfing/typing/modelling, UVing, animating and not texturing or colour work, as previously mentioned.

    I'd say its also acceptable to watch porn with. I'm sure there's a 'masturbation leads to blindness' joke in there but I can't be bother.

    Cheers LRoy for the link!
  • mLichy
    Hm... Yeah, that is neat, eyes feel better right away. :D
  • thomasp
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    thomasp hero character
    sadly not working too reliably here on the external display/designated main monitor of an MBP running OSX lion.
  • Y_M
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    Y_M polycounter lvl 10
    I tried this and found it pretty neat, but now I use a daylight bulb in my room tinting everything peach doesn't work.

    My eyes don't seem to get that tired now I've swapped to a daylight bulb, I'd definitely recommend one!
  • aajohnny
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    aajohnny polycounter lvl 13
    Turn it on and off at night it does make a difference, ha that is too relaxing :D Thanks for the link!
  • [HP]
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    [HP] polycounter lvl 13
    It's like my monitors have been smeared with a salmon color.
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    Interesting, and the transitions between settings are smooth enough so that your senses aren't completely messed when you need to switch back to default.

    Awesome for long modelling/sculpting sessions :)
  • almighty_gir
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    almighty_gir ngon master
    it's very strange... i don't know, it made my eyes feel like they're working even harder, probably just not used to it.

    it also doesn't seem to affect games. :(
  • ericdigital
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    ericdigital polycounter lvl 13
    Been using this for about a year now, It's awesome :D. Just have to turn it off when doing color work but normal browsing and any work not color related its seriously amazing.

    It takes a little while to get use to (day or two) but eventually when you come home from work at night and power on your computer or whatever you wont even notice that f.lux is running!
  • cptSwing
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    cptSwing polycounter lvl 11
    wow, while i was a little taken aback at what it did to my screen colors, i could instantly feel my eyes relax, though. will test it a little bit longer, cheers for the tip!
  • Noodle!
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    Noodle! polycounter lvl 8
    Been trying it for the day, and you really don't notice the gradual tinting that much. Allthough I did reduce it quite a lot. The downside is that the colors are so dull that they seem to affect my mood. It feels like looking at a dusty early 80's photo of a couch.
  • Wesley
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    Wesley polycounter lvl 13
    Been using this for around 6 months now, it's really great.
  • ericdigital
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    ericdigital polycounter lvl 13
    Noodle! wrote: »
    Been trying it for the day, and you really don't notice the gradual tinting that much. Allthough I did reduce it quite a lot. The downside is that the colors are so dull that they seem to affect my mood. It feels like looking at a dusty early 80's photo of a couch.

    I think its probally better to use it on the natural day/night cycle and help reduce the strain you get at night.
  • Noodle!
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    Noodle! polycounter lvl 8
    I am, it's night time right now since I'm in Sweden.
  • EMC3D
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    EMC3D polycounter lvl 7
    It took me a few hours to get use to it but now I love it at night / late evenings!
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    BTW - if you are into that sort of things, OsX has a nice feature letting you switch to greyscale very quickly (universal access > Display : use greyscale). It makes the internet ... less distracting, so to speak :)
  • poopipe
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    poopipe grand marshal polycounter
    Andreas wrote: »
    I'd say its also acceptable to watch porn with. I'm sure there's a 'masturbation leads to blindness' joke in there but I can't be bother.

    I'm fairly confident that rumour arose around teenage boys squinting at magazines by torchlight under their blankets (pre interweb naturally)

    I'll give this a crack - can't say I really suffer from eyestrain since I stopped using CRTs but that story of that poor woman who's retinas fell off from using a cintiq has been preying on my mind ever since I read it.
  • Vrav
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    Vrav polycounter lvl 11
    I use this when I'm not working on colour art: http://jonls.dk/redshift/
    f.lux is the one with a GUI for windows. Seems nice.
  • breakneck
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    breakneck polycounter lvl 13
    I think this is fighting with my Spyder monitor calibration setup. I'm experiencing some color flashing here and there.
  • Muzzoid
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    Muzzoid polycounter lvl 10
    My god this is awesome... I sit under three banks of florescent lights at work and it is the worst thing ever...
  • glynnsmith
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    glynnsmith polycounter lvl 17
    Tried it, and it sent my displays a yellowy orange that seemed to make my eyes work harder, and it made me feel a bit ill.

    Has anyone else experienced this, that got past it and found the software to be useable?
  • SaferDan
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    SaferDan polycounter lvl 14
    I have been using it today and to begin with it made me feel sick. So I turned it off for an hour, let it come back on automatically and now I love it! It is 5:42am here and normally my eyes would be stinging but they really aren't at all! Epic program!
  • System
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    System admin
    glynnsmith wrote: »
    Tried it, and it sent my displays a yellowy orange that seemed to make my eyes work harder, and it made me feel a bit ill.

    Has anyone else experienced this, that got past it and found the software to be useable?

    Exactly the same for me.

    I tried it on my MacBook Pro (under OS X) last night and everything went super orange and made my eyes feel shocked. I tried it for 10 minutes or so but had to revert, and when I did, I got the relaxing feeling everyone is talking about!

    Am I doing it wrong or are my eyes just weird?
  • Kwramm
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    Kwramm interpolator
    change the settings. the super orange is the default, but you can turn that down to only a slight yellowish tint.

    Actually all f.lux does is play with your monitor calibration. You can get the same effect from switching to a custom monitor profile (both on win and os x), although f.lux makes the process much more user friendly
  • shotgun
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    shotgun polycounter lvl 19
    breakneck wrote: »
    I think this is fighting with my Spyder monitor calibration setup. I'm experiencing some color flashing here and there.

    Yes, I get this too. Keeps going back and forth it seems.
    Solution anyone?
  • System
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    System admin
    I'm not sure if it's a Mac thing and the defaults are a lot more prominent, but I just tried it on Windows (on the same MacBook) and it's beautiful. Very subtle and definitely noticeably relaxing on the eyes.

    I'll have to play with the settings in the Mac version.
  • Andreas
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    Andreas polycounter lvl 11
    poopipe wrote: »
    but that story of that poor woman who's retinas fell off from using a cintiq has been preying on my mind ever since I read it.

    Um... what?
  • [HP]
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    [HP] polycounter lvl 13
    To everyone using Spider monitor calibration devices, just scrap them. (I hate them with a passion)

    You guys are artists for crying out loud, trust your eyes and calibrate your own monitors!
    And if you need to tweak contrast, sharpness, etc, defo use this site: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/
  • Skillmister
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    Skillmister polycounter lvl 11
    Been using it for a while now and love it.
  • Joseph Silverman
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    Joseph Silverman polycounter lvl 17
    Was skeptical at first. Tried it out and love it!
  • KarlWrang
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    KarlWrang polycounter lvl 6
    Must try this later when I get back from work!
    I've been noticing that my eyes have been getting more strained than usual.
  • breakneck
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    breakneck polycounter lvl 13
    sorry buddy, but when you have 3 different displays that are 3 different brands and 3 very different levels of quality - The only way to get them to look somewhat similar is with calibrating software/hardware.
    [HP] wrote: »
    To everyone using Spider monitor calibration devices, just scrap them. (I hate them with a passion)

    You guys are artists for crying out loud, trust your eyes and calibrate your own monitors!
    And if you need to tweak contrast, sharpness, etc, defo use this site: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/
  • AlecMoody
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    AlecMoody ngon master
    [HP] wrote: »
    To everyone using Spider monitor calibration devices, just scrap them. (I hate them with a passion)

    You guys are artists for crying out loud, trust your eyes and calibrate your own monitors!
    And if you need to tweak contrast, sharpness, etc, defo use this site: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

    I think my head just exploded. :(

    Your eyes are not a good device to calibrate a monitor. Our brains are set up to adjust to a wide variety of lighting conditions - the result of that is we aren't nearly as accurate about color as we might think. Also, color inaccuracies on monitors can be much more complicated than a simple global color cast or gamma problem. Tools that rely on your eyes will often do more harm than good.

    Additionally, a tool like this website can only even attempt to do really broad scale calibration. A monitor probe will accurately calibrate the monitor but more importantly it generates a color profile for your display. The profiling step is the much more important and color specific part of the process. What makes this even worse is that adjusting many displays on the OSD is a lossy operation. By changing the monitors contrast and brightness settings you are often times throwing away precision and creating banding/black crush problems.

    I made this image up a while ago to illustrate why content should be produced on accurate displays even if the consumers aren't viewing it that way:
    accurate_display.gif
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    Having a large art-team with a large selection of different monitors will make it even out in the end anyway.

    And on top of that most will have TN monitors, it sort of becomes pointless to fight for perfection when you can learn to work with imperfection.
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