Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Best Tools For Dealing With Glare Sensitivity?
First time accepted submitter der_pinchy writes "For many years I have used a high-contrast desktop color scheme (with green text on black background) and notice more and more software uses a forced color scheme that can make it difficult to use. For web browsing I have always used Opera and its white-on-black user style sheet, but have to constantly tweak it so that certain elements and transparent images are visible. Is there anything to be done with some of the major offenders, like Office or recent versions of Visual Studio? Even recent browsers that support user style sheets still use a forced color scheme on a lot of there dialog controls."
Would polarized sunglasses help here? They're generally pretty good at cutting down glare.
But, maybe your doctor or optometrist would be better to ask?
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Black on white on LED screens gives me major migraines. When will they understand computer screens are not like ink on paper.
I'm used to interpreting "glare sensitivity" to meaning the screen is generally too bright for your eyes, but the subsequent comments about needing to use high contrast color palettes has me thinking maybe you mean something else.
Anyway: I stare at a monitor all day, and for quite a while I had some serious dry eye problems because of it. Then about a year ago I bought some Gunnar glasses ( http://www.gunnars.com/ ) and my eyes got happier within 24 hours. Wear them all the time now.
Full disclosure: I'm not even kind of affiliated with Gunnar. I just wear their glasses and I like them.
You didn't say what version of Windows you were running, so it's tough to tell what might be available to you from an accessibility standpoint. On the Mac you can invert colours, use greyscale, and alter the contrast of the screen as well as cursor size (in addition to the typical colour schemes, display brightness, etc). It sounds to me like you may be facing an uphill battle if you are trying to do this outside of what the OS supports directly.
I am not interested in articles about life extension advancements.
I've got a similar problem. I've taken to filing bugs with every vendor when I encounter a forced color scheme that dishonors system settings. Fat client apps are very likely to get fixed.
Visual Studio fixes itself if you turn on high-contrast and then load your color scheme on top of it. In Windows 7, saving your color scheme with high contrast enabled saved high contrast enabled to the color scheme. In Windows 8, high contrast is always on when the color scheme is not the default.
Unfortunately, websites tend to not fix their bugs. I get too many "it's a browser bug", and one that was equivalent to "use a screen reader" even after I offered to fix their bug for them.
I suppose you could hack up a 1 bit display driver that only sends green to the monitor, or perhaps with a remote desktop client that does (incoming) -> (gresyscale) -> (green) -> (inverted green).
Invert the colors in X11 itself: xcalib -i -a
If black on white text is too bright then you probably need more light in the room. Your eyes adjust to the overall scene brightness, so if you have a bright screen in the middle of a dark field, because the lights are out in the room, then the screen will appear too bright and fatiguing. Try installing some LEDs on the back of your monitor to illuminate the wall behind the screen. That will increase the overall scene brightness and make the screen seem less harsh without creating reflections on the screen.
If it's MacOS X, go into the 'Universal Access' control panel, and there's a 'contrast' slider, and you can force greyscale, black on white, or white on black.
Most X windows managers have ways to do similar things, although in some you have to mess with configuration files.
No idea how to do it in Amiga or Haiku, though.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Sometimes being different is difficult. You are an edge case, and a very insignificant one at that.
If you want your own color schemes in everything then you're gonna have a bad time. Software and webpages aren't created for your edge case, these things are created for people who don't have a color scheme preference.
Learning to "go with the flow" will get you better mileage than trying to make everything bend to your edge case.
You can change your Visual Studio color settings by going to Tools->Options->Enviroment->Fonts and Colors.
If you want something high contrast without the hassle, I use Ragnarok Blue. Download the file, go back to VS, Tools->Import and Export Settings and then follow the instructions to find the file.
For those who seek perfection there can be no rest on this side of the grave.
Invert the colors in X11 itself: xcalib -i -a
What would that do to a Wine session, or to a VM running Windows on a Linux host?
If it does what I think (Linux-only here, no VM or Wine), there could be confusing issues in figuring out palettes afterwards in the VM or in a Wine session. The OP mentioned using Office and Visual Studio, so it's likely to be a Windows user.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Not sure if this addresses your particular issues, but I use f.lux and it has totally saved my eyes. I periodically lower the settings on it, which continues to help with my eye strain and I'm so used to it I forget it is running most of the time.
did the glare from your monitor blind you to how much of a failure you are?
I have thinking about how to solve the issue programmatically. That is, once and for all. There are a few rules which could be forced upon the window server. Compiz for example has some potential in this direction, so it could be refined.
- When luminance per area exceed a user-set property, invert luminance but keep chroma. Perhaps something ImageMagick or similar could do with ease.
- Be aware of common image formats and be reasonably sure that everything else is typeface. With emerging VR we might have to invent lots of new definitions.
- When it is a typeface, treat it like the user wants text to be treated, perhaps relying on CSS templates and window/tab titles or domain names. AFAIK there is no URL for viewports, so there will be a issue of persistence.
Who the hell decided the web wanted to be white anyway? A white web is bad for mobile.
All rites reversed 2010
for visual studio 2012, there is a color editor extension http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/366ad100-0003-4c9a-81a8-337d4e7ace05
Perhaps you need someone trained to alternative explanations?
After all, several of the available color schemes were adapted using people trained in adapting color schemes. Maybe someone trained may help you.
For the major offender of VS 2012, type 'color theme ' into Quick Launch and select Environment - General. Then change the Color theme to Dark.
For Office 2013 go to the General options and change the Office Theme to Dark Gray.
They can be applied to any window w/ a key combo, and are fairly customisable.
Here's a custom one applied to Firefox, is one that preserves colours while inverting lightness.
http://m8y.org/tmp/biased-inverted-lightness.txt
http://m8y.org/tmp/inverted-lightness.txt
http://m8y.org/tmp/lightness1.jpeg http://m8y.org/tmp/lightness2.jpeg http://m8y.org/tmp/lightness3.jpeg
Arbitrary tweaks of the values. Apologies for the relative unreadableness of the script (variable reuse, bad names) was just a quick implementation of:
http://dbaron.org/log/20110430-invert-colors
To be actually usable for routine web browsing.
-- perl -e'print pack"H*","6e656d6f406d38792e6f7267"'
Ever since my apple ][ days, when I had a color monitor, I knew I liked dark backgrounds and light text. At the time, red on black. Now I am happy with a light gray on black
Setting this on terminals is cake. Even putty can be made reasonable quickly.
However... they are the exception. Nearly everything I use regularly really works. Few support changing color schemes at all, and the ones that do, are so limited as to be useless. Pidgin and eclipse both come to mind as having mechanisms (with pidgin I believe its via plugins) to change color schemes, but only in very limited ways. You can't, change the look of many of the utility window parts, like the resources view....so the darker you make the rest, the more jarring those stand outs become.... often making it less appealing than reverting to defaults.
Of course, I have a north facing window that overlooks an old barn that the neighbors put white siding on, so the glare from that can be prodigeous during the day. Room darkening shades, preferably with wooden slats take care of that nicely.
I also highly recomend a light behind the monitor. I stuck an old lamp back there, but have some LEDs that I used to put an RGB LED version in with.... I just need to mess with the controller a bit more.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
BUY A DIFFERENT MONITOR
No seriously. There are MANY monitor technologies, and some deal better with glare than others. Matte displays, IPS, high DPI, different backlighting technologies, etc
OR BUY A SHADE (or adjust your external lights):
Adjust your lighting sources or block them out with a shade. You can buy these box-like things that go around monitors to shade the display by blocking lights. That will cut down on glare entirely since there is no external light to cause it.
IF THESE DON"T WORK:
Then you're not talking about glare.
So you don't like Black on White but want the background be black?
In KDE I can make all windows or only one selected window inverse the colors.
White will become black and black will become white (and green is red and vice versa)
I tried it for the night when the laptop screen will get too bright.
http://www.mueller-public.de - My site http://www.anr-institute.com/ - Advanced Natural Research Institute
I took a look at their website and it was all white on black, which to me is barely legible. I am 71 and normally read black on white with no trouble, but have a lot of issues with the new fad for white on varied backgrounds, such as photographs.
" Greasemonkey scripts to darken commonly used web sites. "
I second that.
Also it's the easiest script to try as first.
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/94963
or
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/153122
should get you started.
If this is higher contrast for accessibility issues, while there are OS contrast settings, they will generally not correct for bad accessibility design in web sites themselves. This is a web site design issue.
If a government site, or a site for a government contractor, has accessibility issues, you can force them to fix them via the ADA (American's with Disabilities Act). If it's some other site, and your OS accessibility settings won't handle it, then you need to contact the site maintainers and explain the problem.
I use dark themes in Visual Studio and it was pretty easy to set up. Take a look here or here. This is what I use.
Google is your friend, too.
Rather offtopic, but does anyone else have glare sensitivity issues with these new led tail-lights? Most of them are OK, but some of them are almost blinding at night. I'm almost to the point of going full on Corey Hart after half an hour of stop-and-go behind the things.
"I wear my sunglasses at night, so I can, so I can stand to watch these led tail-lights on certain awful cars.
And yes, I'm a big fan of green on black, fortunately most editors can still be configured that way.
I looked at the Gunnar Web site and saw no scientific backing of any of their claims. In my opinion, any improvement you'll get from these is 100% due to a placebo effect.
specifically tuned focusing power - It's your eyes that do the focussing. Air does not distort focussing unless it's extremely hot.
DIAMIX lens material is optically pure. - So is air. Actually, air is probably more optically pure than DIAMIX.
IONIK lens tints improve overall contrast and comfort by filtering out harsh artificial light, eliminating UV rays and reducing high-intensity visible light. - So does your eye. You have an iris, lens and your brain automatically corrects for white balance. If your work place behind a computer screen puts you in dangerous UV light, you really need to look at your TFT, since those don't emit UV at all.
iFi lens coatings include an anti-reflective layers to reduce glare - If there was no lens in the glasses, they wouldn't have to put anti-reflective layers on it. The only reflection those layers partially prevent is the reflection on the glasses themselves.
TL;DR Snake oil glasses, you've been conned.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
For me, the best solution has been to just make sure I'm operating in a well-lit room. Doesn't have to be full on halogen lights or anything, but a simple stand lamp somewhere behind you is great. Just turn the brightness down a bit on your monitor, if needed, and that should do it.
What I can't do anymore is use darker color schemes like green text on black, especially in a dark room. It's fine sometimes, but the moment you open google or something, the contrast is too much.
Try installing some LEDs on the back of your monitor to illuminate the wall behind the screen.
Or, if you prefer more moderate or darker ambient lighting, you can simply turn down the brightness of your monitor. I normally keep mine between 10% and 25% of full brightness, and usually adjust the contrast a bit as well.
For what it's worth, I found this solution by mistake many years ago. I had set my laptop to always use its dimmest setting. It was a power saving feature, meant for use when powered by battery only. Having the screen always dim, I got very used to it that way. I wondered why other laptops started giving me headaches, until I eventually placed mine next to another, and realized it was the intensity of the default (full brightness) settings that was the problem.
(1) wear a basball cap down over your eyebrows.
(2) stand on the desk and take out all but one fluorescent light tube,.
(3) see the eye doctor, and get tested fully for cataracts. operate if necessary.
I have had to follow those steps in that order. if you can't see the road with oncoming traffic at night, make that eye appointment today.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Be a clod, they're well known for their insensitivity.
Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
I have issues with super bright screens but I also find bright text on a dark background difficult to read. Have you tried simply using a slightly off white background. By just using a slightly cream or grey (so little off white that you barely notice) it significantly reduces the "glare" you're trying to avoid. When I do like to get old school with light text on dark background, I do the same in reverse, I use a dark grey background, not black, and it then doesn't require the text to be so bright/high contrast to stand out easily. There's something about #000000 and #FFFFFF that make everything worse.
Seriously easy thing to try. Get one of the architect like lamps and can bend and move anywhere, put it behind your monitor with the light facing up. This removes the contrast of bright monitor from the dark background. I've had zero eyestrain for years after doing that. You won't use that lamp to read by, it's only to remove the contrast. It's easy and really has helped.
I realised a few years ago I didn't like the bright, white glare of a screen in the evening (or at night).
I installed Redshift (check the repository before installing it manually), and now my screen fades to a warmer palette gradually, as the day progresses. The colour temperature changes to match the outside light. The first time I enabled it at night and the screen changed I could feel my eyes relaxing.
Another option is to leave everything as black-on-white, then invert the screen. KDE has a graphics effect that does this -- either for the whole screen or a single window -- and I'm told there are add-ons for Windows that can do the same thing.
Speaking of Office & Visual Studio, sounds like you're in Windows...just need to enable High Contrast mode, a Windows settings - this will give office & visual studio black backgrounds...
after a couple of months your irises will function properly.
I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
Illuminated keyboard, darkened room, reduced monitor brightness, helps me and I wear fitovers in density 3 outside.
I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
xcalib -a -i
~.~
I'm a peripheral visionary.
Most fonts appear to have smoother edges and more consistent curves when rendered as black-text-on-white background, which is why that is the default ...
Er, what?
The web colour scheme was around since well before anti-aliasing was common. And has been annoying all that time. If it was easier to read, why would most sysadmins have green-on-black coloured xterms?
I did once compile xdark, and you can invoke "xdark 1 0" to reverse video the entire screen, but I never got into the habit of using it regularly. I just try to minimise my time on the web instead (haha, yeah nah).
You might want to put a keybinding into your window manager to toggle invocations of "xdark 1 0" and "xdark 0 1" for those moments when you need accurate colour representation.
Heck, some of my laptop screens have been too bright on their darkest setting. Then you run "xdark 0 0.4" to give you a bit of relief.
I spend way more time on the internet than I should, but find the matte WUXGA display on my T61 very comfortable to use.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Dude. They go dark whenever an auditor or third party software salesman walks in.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
I had a similar problem. And then I had my cataracts fixed.
Technology -- No Place For Wimps! Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Chatroom -- http://www.wemissjerry.org
Nifty, well thought out colorscheme (in both "dark" and "light" versions). Even has a VS theme (as well as Putty, Vim, etc.). Anything not directly supported that can have custom themes/color settings can be set to mimic it fairly closely. And it really is easy on the eyes. I personally prefer Solarized-Dark when staring at code.
http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized
The world seems to be fixated on computer screens looking like paper and some of us really do get on better with light text and dark backgrounds. It's a bit like being left-handed only with headaches.
I have in the past used a hacked VNC viewer that flips the bits in each pixel and it works wonderfully but requires a Linux box just to do that and it won't handle video.
ISTR an nVidia graphics card that would let you fiddle with the colour adjustment tables of the RGB outputs (3 of 256*8 bits) to get the same effect but modern ones don't let you.
I would love someone to build a cheap FPGA board that could handle DVI in and out then I could take it anywhere.
Some people who have glare problems have Fuchs' Dystrophy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuchs'_dystrophy
One of the key symptoms is that the problem is much worse after waking up and is not so noticeable after 6 or 8 hours.
For persons having this issue, putting lights behind the monitor is not a solution. Working in a nearly dark room is also not a solution because the glare from what light sources remain make it very difficult to see anything except the light sources. Setting the UIs to light on dark is definitely helpful.
.. Blub falls right in the middle of the abstractness continuum. -- Paul Graham
This can be a symptom of some eye conditions. Seriously get yourself to a good Ophthalmologist, someone that knows eye conditions, not just someone that sells eye glasses.
Personally I just had a cornea transplant and I can see much better.
Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro
As has already been said, most large desktop applications can be put into reverse video with some suitable combination of OS settings and application themes or color schemes.
Not the web. Unfortunately, most websites employ a complex layout made of text, CSS, and images, not to mention Javascript, that makes it very hard to enforce any kind of user CSS rules.
For this reason I've found the High Contrast Google Chrome extension a godsend. It allows you to invert the colors of the entire website, not just the text. It does so by applying a visual filter to the entire rendered page. You can choose among a few builtin settings (grayscale, full color invert, black and white inverted, and such) and set site-specific preferences, for example to leave alone sites that are already white on black.
With a bit of tweaking you can even create your own settings, by editing the extension's CSS file. On my Mac the file is found at ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Extensions/djcfdncoelnlbldjfhinnjlhdjlikmph/0.4_0/highcontrast.css. I've edited its default "Inverted Color" settings so that it only inverts the luminance: I want red things to stay red and green ones to stay green (think red flags and green checkmarks) but with the luminance inverted, so that light things become dark and the other way around.
Here is my patch, if you'd like to try it out. You'll have to remove the main a3 rule and the ones dealing with jpeg files, and put this in their place:
html[hc="a3"] { -webkit-filter: invert() hue-rotate(180deg) brightness(20%) contrast(130%); }
It's called NegativeScreen and it's at http://arcanesanctum.net/negativescreen
It uses the graphics card to transform the colour space and has a number of different effects. Simple inversion works well even with Cleartype text and it sits in the notification area. Video works with it and it works across hibernate/sleep.