[HN Gopher] f.lux
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       f.lux
        
       Author : graderjs
       Score  : 414 points
       Date   : 2022-03-10 13:46 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (justgetflux.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (justgetflux.com)
        
       | daneel_w wrote:
       | I've used f.lux for more than 12 years now. My preference is
       | 3700K after sunset, and 2600K during the last few hours before
       | bedtime - rather warm color temperatures - and it has definitely
       | improved my ability to wind down before bedtime.
        
       | thrdbndndn wrote:
       | Just curious, do anyone _not_ use this or similar functionality
       | nowadays (in tech)?
       | 
       | I use them on my phone (which is the default and I didn't bother
       | to change), but never get used to them on computer screens. I'm
       | pretty sure if I give it more time I can quickly get used to, but
       | just didn't see the appeal enough. I do have a yellow light in my
       | room.
       | 
       | But then again I don't use dark mode either, so maybe I'm just a
       | weirdo.
        
         | bitshiffed wrote:
         | I don't use them on any devices. I don't ever want to look at
         | my screen through a filter, or have colors distorted, any more
         | than is unavoidable. If my eyes need a break, I'll take an
         | actual break from the screen, rather than look at something
         | distorted.
         | 
         | I also only use daylight bulbs in my house. "Soft white"/yellow
         | bulbs give things a creepy feeling for me.
        
         | Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
         | I don't use it at all. I sit in front of my computer monitor a
         | minimum of 12 hours/day and don't have any problems with eye
         | strain or sleeping.
         | 
         | I wonder if the people that like f.lux are also the same people
         | that claim that light themes are blinding, because I'm of the
         | opinion that if you find a completely white screen is blinding,
         | then either your brightness is too high or you don't have
         | enough ambient light in the room.
        
         | layer8 wrote:
         | Same here. I used f.lux for a while, but the screen always got
         | too dark/too reddish (on all but the lowest settings),
         | straining my eyes and hurting my concentration.
         | 
         | In my experience it's sufficient to adjust the display
         | brightness to roughly match the ambient lighting; no need for
         | blue-light filtering.
        
       | hexo wrote:
       | I always found ridiculous what it does to colors, to the point I
       | always ask folks to turn it off when they try to show me their
       | screen. My monitor has "paper" mode, which removes a lot of blue
       | and makes the picture greenish - something I found way more
       | pleasing than f.lux redness.
        
       | corndoge wrote:
       | See also redshift, gammastep
       | 
       | https://github.com/jonls/redshift
       | https://gitlab.com/chinstrap/gammastep
        
       | reportgunner wrote:
       | I use this feature on my phone to let me know that it's too late
       | to browse and I should go to sleep. Seeing this post on HN i
       | realized i don't notice it turning on anymore for months, I doubt
       | it's doing anything if all your apps support dark mode.
        
       | Markoff wrote:
       | never used, tried to make it working on Android, but had some
       | issues, was satisfied for years with Darker (Screen Filter) from
       | mlhgdevelopment before I swtiched to Screen Dimmer (dims
       | notifications too) from etsang which I use to these days
        
       | samatman wrote:
       | Flux and the various other approaches are a fine way to re-grade
       | the colors of a monitor to be more comfortable. By which I mean,
       | if someone likes to use f.lux in the evening, they find the
       | result more subjectively comfortable or pleasing, it's a great
       | app.
       | 
       | I encourage people who are looking to solve sleep problems to not
       | use any backlit screens in the several hours before sleeping.
       | Such evidence as there is on the subject doesn't suggest that
       | redshifting the screen is sufficient.
       | 
       | If you've seen someone using a laptop or phone in a dark room,
       | it's quite clear that they're blasting themselves with a
       | flashlight. Filtering some of the blue out isn't going to repair
       | this basic dynamic.
        
         | TameAntelope wrote:
         | Yeah, I've always found the assumption that f.lux actually
         | redshifted the screen the same way their cited experiments did
         | to be on shaky ground.
         | 
         | I don't recall seeing any studies that _directly_ used f.lux,
         | just studies with blue lightboxes, and that stuck out to me as
         | odd.
         | 
         | Monitors, even modern ones, don't 100% convert their backlights
         | (which are white) to the displayed color, so you always have an
         | amount of washout, and I was always curious if that spoiled the
         | effect, among other unique quirks of computer monitors.
        
         | beaconstudios wrote:
         | I think the idea is that with a blue light filter on (and your
         | brightness turned down) it's more like candlelight, which
         | doesn't really disrupt sleep.
        
       | ajolly wrote:
       | Now if I could just get flux on my TV! I've seen some devices
       | that will do it but they don't seem 4K compatible
        
       | Taylor_OD wrote:
       | I've used flux for years. It is great. As someone with mild to
       | bad sleep issues this really helps.
       | 
       | It's also a visual cue for me. Oh shit my screen is yellowish.
       | Time to get off the computer and wind down.
        
       | rcMgD2BwE72F wrote:
       | I've used f.lux for years until I enabled dark mode at the OS
       | level and in the apps settings for those that require it.
       | 
       | More importantly installed the Dark Reader extension
       | (https://darkreader.org). This one is incredible: it's much nicer
       | to browser the Web in dark mode than to make page reddish. I now
       | enable Dark Reader at all time (day and night) and can't stand
       | the screen of my coworkers (so dazzling).
       | 
       | Idem for my Android device.
       | 
       | The only app/webpage I don' apply dark mode/reader to is Google
       | Maps. For now...
        
         | falsenapkin wrote:
         | To me dark mode makes eye strain worse. I much prefer a deep
         | red tint on light mode than dark mode with no red. Also dark
         | with red tint is quite difficult.
         | 
         | I feel like during the day most things are bright/cool with
         | darkness as the contrast. Text on paper. Also as much as dark
         | mode has become an option, it's impossible to go an entire day
         | without experiencing a light theme and the switching of light
         | to dark or dark to light for me is worse than whatever problems
         | each theme has. Point being it's easier to only use light than
         | only use dark.
         | 
         | Anyway dark mode without red tint isn't really helping with the
         | blue light problem? Especially if the media you're looking at
         | is mixed with e.g. images of daylight.
        
         | Maxburn wrote:
         | upvote for dark reader
        
         | mohamez wrote:
         | Does Dark Reader work good on HN for you? Because it's not for
         | me.
         | 
         | Edit: I just remembered I've been using an extension called
         | "Hacker News Enhancement Suite" to enhance the layout of HN,
         | and after disabling it, Dark Reader worked so I think that
         | extension was somehow interfering with Dark Reader.
        
           | jdmichal wrote:
           | That extension looks to be a complete restyle of HN, which is
           | probably why it was not interacting well with Dark Reader. I
           | don't know what features you're looking for in the extension,
           | but there's another called Refine Hacker News which adds
           | features but doesn't change the styling. It does work well
           | with Dark Reader.
        
           | EMM_386 wrote:
           | I love Dark Reader but have it disabled on HN.
           | 
           | I use "Hacker News Readable Dark" under Stylus and this site
           | looks fantastic.
           | 
           | https://i.imgur.com/gPyX0TW.jpg
        
         | mandmandam wrote:
         | I don't install extensions that require all my browsing data,
         | but I was tempted by Dark Reader for a moment.
         | 
         | If anyone knows a similar solution that doesn't require such an
         | extreme, I'd like to hear about it..
        
           | z2h-a6n wrote:
           | I use the built-in darkmode settings in qutebrowser [1],
           | which work surprisingly well for most websites, but certainly
           | not perfect. My impression is that the implementation is
           | mainly in Qt, or Qt Webengine, so the same functionality may
           | be available in other browsers with the same engine. The
           | documentation also mentions Chromium, so perhaps equivalent
           | settings are available there. (That said, qutebrowser is
           | great.)
           | 
           | Anyway, my vague understanding of what is does is that it
           | inverts all colors on the wrong side of a user-configurable
           | brightness threshold (e.g. backgrounds that are too bright
           | are inverted, and text that is too dark is inverted). This
           | can make website colorschemes quite different, but most of
           | the websites I visit regularly are still still readable, and
           | often still reasonably nice-looking, despite having inverted
           | colors.
           | 
           | The relevant part of my config file looks like this:
           | # This requests the dark version of the website if it is
           | available. Generally when this       # works, I guess
           | brightness-based the color inversion doesn't happen.
           | c.colors.webpage.preferred_color_scheme = 'dark'
           | c.colors.webpage.darkmode.algorithm = 'lightness-cielab'
           | c.colors.webpage.darkmode.contrast = 0.0
           | c.colors.webpage.darkmode.enabled = True
           | c.colors.webpage.darkmode.grayscale.all = False
           | c.colors.webpage.darkmode.grayscale.images = 0.0
           | c.colors.webpage.darkmode.policy.images = 'smart'
           | c.colors.webpage.darkmode.policy.page = 'smart'
           | c.colors.webpage.darkmode.threshold.background = 128
           | c.colors.webpage.darkmode.threshold.text = 128
           | 
           | I haven't spent any time tweaking the threshold values, but
           | maybe some tweaking would make it even better.
           | 
           | [1] https://qutebrowser.org/
        
             | mandmandam wrote:
             | Interesting, thank you!
        
           | aasasd wrote:
           | Any extension that injects JS on the page on arbitrary sites,
           | is marked as having access to all data--because it does. But
           | it's the only way that interface-modifying extensions can
           | work, if you want them kick in automatically.
        
             | hoosieree wrote:
             | It'd be nice if there was a browser permission along the
             | lines of "this extension adds a static asset to every page"
             | or "this extension can _write_ but can not _read_ the
             | page".
        
               | aasasd wrote:
               | To add static CSS styles, you need to know the structure
               | of the HTML in advance, which the extension doesn't. And
               | to modify the DOM--even to add styles on it--you need to
               | traverse it, i.e. read. Plus, the whole job of the
               | extension is probably to figure out what styles are on
               | the page already and how they can be fiddled into the
               | darkness.
        
             | mandmandam wrote:
             | I kinda get your point, but I feel like there needs to be a
             | middle ground between tweaking some colors and granting
             | full access to my passwords.
             | 
             | Like, there is simply no way that is not a solvable issue.
        
               | aasasd wrote:
               | To redefine styling in CSS, you need to know the
               | structure of the HTML for a specific site or page. If you
               | don't know it, you need JS to poke in HTML, fiddle with
               | the styles and hope that it works out alright.
        
           | hoosieree wrote:
           | Dark Reader inspired me to write a similar one for myself: ht
           | tps://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/obscura/nhlkgnilpm...
           | 
           | Where Dark Reader is full-featured, mine is minimal. It adds
           | a translucent tinted div overlay on every page, with mix-
           | blend-mode:multiply to make the text come out a little
           | sharper. No themes or querying page elements.
           | 
           | You can audit the code yourself if you want, it's only 58
           | lines of JS across 2 files:                   // content.js
           | (this runs on every page):         'use strict';
           | const C=chrome, d=document.createElement('div'),
           | update=(o={})=>{                 if('tog' in
           | o){d.style.height = (o.tog.newValue | o.tog)+'00%';}
           | if('color' in o){d.style.backgroundColor = o.color.newValue
           | || o.color;}             };              d.style='mix-blend-
           | mode:multiply; z-index:2147483647; position:fixed;
           | width:100%; top:0; right:0; pointer-events:none;';
           | document.documentElement.insertBefore(d,
           | document.documentElement.firstChild);
           | C.storage.local.get(null, update);
           | C.runtime.onMessage.addListener(update);
           | C.storage.onChanged.addListener(update);                   //
           | popup.js:         'use strict';         let XY=[150,40];
           | const C=chrome, S=C.storage.local,
           | send=x=>C.tabs.query({active:true,currentWindow:true},
           | t=>C.tabs.sendMessage(t[0].id, x)),
           | torgba=x=>`rgba(${x[0]}, ${x[1]}, ${x[2]}, ${x[3]/255})`,
           | dropper=(x,y)=>torgba(c.getImageData(x,y,1,1).data),
           | target=(x,y)=>{c.fillStyle = 'black'; c.beginPath();
           | c.arc(x,y,30,0,Math.PI*2,true); c.stroke();},
           | touch_xy=t=>{const r=c.canvas.getBoundingClientRect(),
           | f=(x,ox,r)=>Math.floor(Math.min(Math.max(x,ox+1),r-1)-ox);
           | return[f(t.pageX, r.left, r.right), f(t.pageY, r.top,
           | r.bottom)];},             init_c=()=>{
           | c.clearRect(0,0,c.canvas.width,c.canvas.height);
           | c.canvas.style.backgroundColor='white';                 const
           | g1=c.createLinearGradient(0, 0, c.canvas.width, 0), // horiz,
           | hue                         g2=c.createLinearGradient(0, 0,
           | 0, c.canvas.height);  // vert, lightness
           | g1.addColorStop(0.2,'rgba(255,120,120,0)');
           | g1.addColorStop(1,'rgba(255,130,70,0.99)');
           | g2.addColorStop(0,'rgba(0,0,0,0)');
           | g2.addColorStop(1,'rgba(0,0,0,0.8)');
           | c.fillStyle = g1;
           | c.fillRect(0,0,c.canvas.width,c.canvas.height);
           | c.fillStyle = g2;
           | c.fillRect(0,0,c.canvas.width,c.canvas.height);},
           | xy_send=(xy)=>{init_c(); target(...xy); send({xy,
           | color:dropper(...xy)});},
           | xy_save=(xy)=>{init_c(); target(...xy); S.set({xy,
           | color:dropper(...xy)});},
           | c=document.getElementById('c').getContext('2d'),
           | tog=document.getElementById('tog');
           | window.addEventListener('load',()=>{             S.get(null,
           | o=>{                 if('tog' in o){tog.checked = o.tog;}
           | else {S.set({tog:tog.checked});}                 if('xy' in
           | o){init_c(); target(...o.xy); XY=o.xy;} else
           | {S.set({xy:XY});} // color's xy coords in canvas
           | if(!('color' in o)){S.set({color:dropper(...XY)});} //
           | hardcoded default xy location             });
           | tog.addEventListener('change',
           | x=>{S.set({tog:tog.checked});});
           | c.canvas.addEventListener('mousemove',
           | x=>{if(x.buttons!==1){return;} xy_send([x.offsetX,
           | x.offsetY]);});
           | c.canvas.addEventListener('mouseup', x=>xy_save([x.offsetX,
           | x.offsetY]));
           | c.canvas.addEventListener('touchmove',
           | x=>xy_send(touch_xy(x.targetTouches[0])));
           | c.canvas.addEventListener('touchend',
           | x=>xy_save(touch_xy(x.changedTouches[0])));         });
           | window.addEventListener('keydown', e=>{
           | if(e.key==='x'){tog.checked = !tog.checked;
           | S.set({tog:tog.checked});}         });
           | 
           | Full source: https://gitlab.com/hoosieree/chrome-extension-
           | obscura
        
             | lukka5 wrote:
             | seems nice, would love live reloading
        
         | seanw444 wrote:
         | Same here. I can't use the web without Dark Reader anymore.
         | It's not like other dark mode extensions that just apply a
         | generic "make everything this much darker" filter. It seems to
         | take a lot more into account when it's rendering the page. It
         | _usually_ looks pretty nice. Almost like a native dark mode.
         | 
         | Sometimes it leaves black-on-dark for icons and such, but
         | that's negligible, and definitely a good trade-off to my eyes
         | being drained.
         | 
         | Side note: Maps is surprisingly good with Dark Reader!
        
         | boringg wrote:
         | Just installed this on your recommendation. I felt my eyes
         | relax as the screen changed colors. I'm hoping this is a long
         | term add. Thanks!
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | brocket wrote:
         | I really liked Dark Reader at first but over time I ran into
         | too many edge cases and bad themes across the web where I felt
         | like the time tweaking sites wasn't worth the effort any more.
         | I had to turn it off for so many sites I eventually uninstalled
         | it. Now I'll only use dark mode if the site natively supports
         | it (more and more are lately), otherwise I'm not crazy about
         | playing cat mouse game hacking dark mode into sites that don't
         | support it.
        
           | rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote:
           | Dark Reader has 4 different themes. The default one does the
           | job maybe 80% of the time, but whenever I encounter a site
           | that looks a little wonky, I just click through the other 3
           | themes and one of them usually works much better. Then, I
           | save that as the default theme for the site.
        
         | diarrhea wrote:
         | That, and for Safari on iOS I bought Noir. Works like a charm
         | and cannot miss it. Noir and automatic reader mode is actually
         | a pleasant way to browse the web (although I often disable
         | reader mode because it gobbles up images etc.).
        
           | artificial wrote:
           | Have you kicked Hyperweb's tires? Not sure how much
           | functionality you need, happy customer.
        
             | diarrhea wrote:
             | Haven't heard of it (new to iOS). Looks fine, although at
             | home I have DNS ad blocking, and I'm not sure how the auto-
             | clicking feature works. I wouldn't want to automatically
             | _accept_ all cookies; I always manually reject everything,
             | and until now I thought that wasn 't possible automatically
             | (it's very heterogeneous).
        
       | sleightofmind wrote:
       | It has an interesting EULA.
        
       | lanius wrote:
       | My previous monitor, even at minimum brightness with flux
       | enabled, was still uncomfortable to view at night. I finally
       | invested in a monitor with low minimum brightness (~0.5 nits) and
       | couldn't be happier.
        
       | 40four wrote:
       | I've been using flux and the like for a few years now roughly.
       | Personally, I've never had a problem with eye strain/ fatigue, or
       | falling asleep. I just figured 'Why not? It can't hurt." I often
       | wonder though is it really having any effect? I can't tell any
       | perceivable difference. I know many others claim otherwise, but
       | that's just my experience.
       | 
       | The science is not really clear, it's definitely controversial.
       | Truthfully, I suspect the amount of blue light from our screens
       | is actually much more negligible that we tend to estimate.
       | Unpopular opinion alert, but I don't think filtering blue light
       | at the screen level, or those glasses they sell really does much
       | of anything. I think it's more likely the placebo effect is in
       | play here.
        
       | MikusR wrote:
       | I tried f.lux on multiple computers and every time it completely
       | messed brightness/colors. Only fix being a full reinstall.
        
       | janandonly wrote:
       | The toll on "sleep quality" has been debunked [1]. The original
       | research only found ANY connection between screen usage in the
       | evening and sleep in Teens. And no separate connection to Blue
       | light or any other colour...
       | 
       | [1]
       | https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/12/191216173654.h...
        
         | Karawebnetwork wrote:
         | "Contrary to common belief, blue light may not be as disruptive
         | to our sleep patterns as originally thought"
         | 
         | Emphasis on "may".
         | 
         | "Our findings suggest that using dim, cooler, lights in the
         | evening and bright warmer lights in the day may be more
         | beneficial."
         | 
         | Emphasis on "suggests".
         | 
         | Also, the study's title itself.
         | 
         | "Cones Support Alignment to an Inconsistent World by
         | Suppressing Mouse Circadian Responses to the Blue Colors
         | Associated with Twilight."
         | 
         | Emphasis on "mouse".
         | 
         | Science oozes back and forth. You should not strongly interpret
         | individual studies. Debunked is a strong word here.
        
           | mynameisvlad wrote:
           | I mean, the same can be said about your comment. You're
           | strongly interpreting the results the other way (ie by trying
           | to discredit them implicitly).
           | 
           | The current study has has not found links between cool light
           | at night and sleep patterns. That may change in the future,
           | sure, but current science suggests said theory is debunked
           | (and I'm not afraid to use that word).
        
             | janto wrote:
             | Wondering if you would you say that the proposition has
             | been falsified? Because debunked means falsified.
        
             | Karawebnetwork wrote:
             | I use the same tone as the authors of the study.
             | 
             | I have not added my own views on the subject, but merely
             | highlighted existing words that seem to have been
             | overlooked by some who have only read the news briefs and
             | not the full study itself.
             | 
             | From the conclusion: "An especially pertinent question,
             | however, is whether the effects of color described here
             | extend to other mammals, such as humans."
             | 
             | The word "debunk" does not appear on any of the 13 pages of
             | text.
        
               | mynameisvlad wrote:
               | > The word "debunk" does not appear on any of the 13
               | pages of text.
               | 
               | Who said the word appeared in the text? Who said the word
               | _has_ to appear in the text for it to be used in
               | discussions among people?
               | 
               | > I have not added my own views on the subject, but
               | merely highlighted existing words that seem to have been
               | overlooked by some who have only read the news briefs and
               | not the full study itself.
               | 
               | The words were not emphasized in the paper itself. You
               | chose to explicitly point out certain things in order to
               | discredit the comment you were replying to. You know
               | exactly how your comment comes off, and by doing it you,
               | indeed, add your own views to the subject.
        
             | belval wrote:
             | To be pedantic, I think the issue is more with the word
             | itself. "Debunk" implies "expose the falseness or
             | hollowness of (a myth, idea, or belief)" which is too
             | strong when it comes to a study, especially when it doesn't
             | itself claim to "debunk" anything.
             | 
             | Maybe we could say the theory is "weakened" by the new
             | evidence or that it is now more "controversial" than it was
             | before. "Debunk" sounds like blue light having an impact or
             | circadian rhythm is some random "fake news" that could be
             | found on Facebook, when it is still backed by some decent
             | evidence.
        
               | Maxburn wrote:
               | Debunked or not I personally haven't seen it make a
               | difference in sleep. But it DOES make these screens much
               | more pleasant to the eye in dusk/evening hours. I'm a
               | fan.
        
           | KaiserPro wrote:
           | > Science oozes back and forth.
           | 
           | Not really.
           | 
           | The point is this, the whole blue light business popped up
           | because the people who were doing the studies forgot that
           | amber dusks are fairly rare outside of cities/equator.
           | 
           | Those of us nearer the poles have long, blue evenings. Yes,
           | in march and august we tend to have brilliant orange sunsets.
           | However those are the exceptions, not the rule. If you look
           | at the colour temperature from noon till actual dusk, you'll
           | see that it increases as time goes on.
           | 
           | pinning screen colour on the quality of sleep is a fools
           | errand. We do not look at a screen for it's colour we look at
           | for its content. That content has a much great effect on our
           | sleep than the screen brightness and colour temperature.
           | 
           | TLDR: twilight is blue, not orange. Colour temperature and
           | sleep quality is not convincingly linked.
        
             | johnisgood wrote:
             | You do not have to be looking at a screen for its color for
             | it to affect you, methinks. That said, there is huge
             | business from it. Same with the common saying from
             | optometrists to parents that you have to replace your
             | glasses (lenses at the very least) every 1-2 years. It is
             | bullshit. It actually makes your eyes worse because it
             | makes it work harder. If you are at -4, and you would need
             | -5 to see sharp, do NOT get that -5, you can train your
             | eyes to see sharper, but regardless, by getting that -5,
             | your vision will only continue worsening. You need glasses
             | to see your screen? Try looking at it for an hour without
             | it. You will actually see it a tiny bit better without
             | glasses, and that is just after an hour! Your eyes might
             | relax a bit too much as well so you might get diplopia when
             | you look close (at your phone screen) after looking at your
             | monitor without glasses. It is harmless though.
             | 
             | As for the warmer color temperature: I do use it. I prefer
             | it warmer because it burns my eyes much less. Similarly I
             | prefer the brightness of my phone's screen around 40%. I
             | have lenses that "block" blue light (i.e. makes white look
             | more yellow).
             | 
             | If you are a developer doing UI/UX and that sort of thing
             | where color matters, then you probably want to disable
             | f.lux, redshift, or whatever it is that you are using.
             | 
             | We could also get philosophical here and discuss qualia. Is
             | my red your red? :)
             | 
             | So much to discuss!
        
         | hackernewds wrote:
         | Ah so it is about the brightness of the screen and not the
         | warmth? For some reason, warm colors also seem less brighter
         | and harsh though - intuitively for me, I'd say Night shift/mode
         | do work. YMMV
        
         | pmarreck wrote:
         | how about permanent damage over time from blue wavelengths
         | possibly leading to macular degeneration?
         | 
         | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4734149/
        
           | moate wrote:
           | This sub-thread seems to be about dunking on the sleep
           | claims. Nobody seems to be doubting the effects on ocular
           | health.
        
             | jrm4 wrote:
             | Which is _weird_ because it would seem quite reasonable to
             | assume that removing something that very likely negatively
             | affected health would also improve sleep.
             | 
             | Stop eating junk food before bed? Probably better sleep.
             | Stop getting poked with a stick before bed? Probably better
             | sleep. Etc.
        
         | herf wrote:
         | That is one interesting study in mice, but it goes against many
         | in humans, so I wouldn't use the word "debunked" in this
         | situation. Previous comments are here:
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21916679
        
         | Weebs wrote:
         | I know this is anecdotal but tools like f.lux made a huge
         | different for me. I grew up with difficulties falling asleep
         | and blue light filters like f.lux made an immediate impact on
         | my ability to fall asleep on time. I was no longer in my teens
         | at the time so that may be a factor
        
         | kmlx wrote:
         | > According to the team, using dim, cooler, lights in the
         | evening and bright warmer lights in the day may be more
         | beneficial to our health.
         | 
         | so it's actually the opposite to the current common belief. it
         | should be blue at night, warm during the day :)
        
         | Drew_ wrote:
         | The comment you replied to made no mention of blue light, only
         | "ultra high brightness screens" which the research you linked
         | does not disagree with.
        
       | dwighttk wrote:
       | Weird
       | 
       | I've used computers for years without f.lux and haven't noticed
       | any eye strain symptoms or sleep issues. I also got some blue
       | blocking coating for my eye glasses last time because it was on a
       | big discount and can't tell the difference (symptom-wise... I can
       | see the included blue laser is mostly stopped and things look
       | slightly yellower) compared to my old glasses.
        
       | avipars wrote:
       | had it for a while, then microsoft, apple , and google all made
       | their own versions of night light
        
       | namlem wrote:
       | I used to use f.lux but it had such poor configurability. Is it
       | better now? I switched to SunsetScreen a while back which worked
       | much better, but then eventually started using the built-in
       | Windows blue light filter even though it is less powerful than
       | SunsetScreen simply because it's less hassle.
        
       | zthrowaway wrote:
       | Flux is amazing, and a life saver for eye strain. Way better than
       | Apple's attempt at warm display settings.
        
       | janandonly wrote:
       | So, this app does what an iPhone/iPad/MacBook does out of the
       | box: True Tone [1]
       | 
       | [1] https://www.imore.com/why-you-should-use-true-tone-your-
       | ipho...
        
         | alin23 wrote:
         | The macOS equivalent is actually Night Shift, not True Tone.
         | And f.lux was among the first apps to do this cross-platform.
         | 
         | Night Shift was developed much later.
        
           | alpb wrote:
           | I don't know if it's fixed but "Flux developer says Apple's
           | new competitive macOS Night Shift feature falls short"
           | https://9to5mac.com/2017/03/28/flux-developer-says-apples-
           | ne...
        
             | alin23 wrote:
             | It works better than f.lux for me, because it works at a
             | lower level than Gamma table manipulation. I've been using
             | Night Shift ever since it was released and I like its color
             | rendering more than f.lux.
             | 
             | But it's subjective, some people like the extreme warmth of
             | f.lux more. It depends on how you perceive colors and how
             | well you can adjust to warmer colors.
             | 
             | Shifty is also a very nice addition if you want more
             | control over Night Shift: https://shifty.natethompson.io
        
         | h4waii wrote:
         | Except it's been doing it for over a decade before Apple did.
        
       | sys_64738 wrote:
       | Built into most OS variants nowadays. Time moves on.
        
       | jader201 wrote:
       | Many MacOS users (and some Windows users) may not know this, but
       | f.lux supports auto-adjusting the color/brightness of Hue bulbs
       | [1], so that your home lights also match your screen.
       | 
       | I installed Hue bulbs in my home office for this reason, which
       | keeps my lights at a nice energizing color during the day, then
       | warms up during sunset (especially useful during the winter
       | Standard time).
       | 
       | Unfortunately I'm not aware of similar support for MacOS at this
       | time, but maybe others know of options there.
       | 
       | [1] https://justgetflux.com/lighting/
        
         | andrewcarter wrote:
         | The Home app now supports a dynamic color option by default
         | which changes based on the sun / lighting in your condition.
         | Seems to work- I think it showed up for me about a year ago or
         | so, so it's pretty new.
        
         | rroarke wrote:
         | Would be cool to get this on linux so you can set it up on a
         | raspberry pi or something similar.
        
           | zimmund wrote:
           | You can use redshift[1] on linux, and there are a lot of cli
           | tools that can be used to easily script color changes in hue
           | lights and others via cron. It's not as integrated as f.lux,
           | but reasonably easy to get working. There's also redshift-gtk
           | to contorl redshift from the systray.
           | 
           | [1]: http://jonls.dk/redshift/
        
         | Lramseyer wrote:
         | I used it a few years back, but for me the color temperatures
         | never scaled right. I like my lights at 4500-5500K during the
         | day, but it looks a little too warm on my monitor (f.lux
         | defaults daylight to 6500K.) Maybe it's my lights/monitor, but
         | I really wish I could set different curves, or at least
         | different color temperature targets for my lights and monitor.
         | f.lux didn't allow me to do that. It only gives options for
         | "warmer" and "a lot warmer," which both look weird at night. I
         | ultimately hacked something else together, but it was a little
         | disappointing, because I really like f.lux.
        
       | LoveMortuus wrote:
       | I used to use f.lux on Win7 but since moving to Win10 I've been
       | using the built-in one. Am I perhaps missing any cool features?
        
       | boomboomsubban wrote:
       | I used to be a big fan of f.lux, then I just stopped using it and
       | never felt the need to go back. My eyes never got any more sore
       | and my sleep didn't suffer.
       | 
       | I started to wonder how much of it was the placebo effect, the
       | initial change is certainly noticeable but the benefits are hard
       | to actually quantify for yourself.
        
         | skocznymroczny wrote:
         | I think there is some placebo effect to it. I often see people
         | saying "use f.lux for a while, then try to disable it to see
         | how blinding your normal screen used to be"... but that's
         | because it changes suddenly. If you enable f.lux suddenly
         | without a smooth transition then the screen also looks reddish
         | and weird.
        
       | agilob wrote:
       | I'm so glad I don't need to remember to install such things and a
       | colour temperature control is now built-in in Gnome and KDE
        
       | spicybright wrote:
       | I used to actually keep flux at it's dimmest setting 24/7 during
       | work. Drove my coworkers crazy when they had to look at my
       | screen.
        
       | vermaden wrote:
       | There is also _REDSHIFT_ and _SCTD_ for this purpose:
       | 
       | - https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2018/06/28/freebsd-desktop-pa...
        
       | herf wrote:
       | Thank you to this community for all the support through the
       | years! We're spending a lot of our time on basic research and
       | sensing, and we have a few small updates planned for f.lux, too.
       | The main challenge as we learn more about the biology is to keep
       | things simple enough--it's easy to make things complicated, and
       | it's pretty hard (for me) to distill them to something that makes
       | sense to most people.
       | 
       | Also, if you care about how your eyes and circadian system work,
       | don't forget about all the light from _outside_ your screen too.
        
         | dncornholio wrote:
         | > don't forget about all the light from outside your screen too
         | 
         | Time for you to make us some great sunglasses :) or curtains..
        
           | aasasd wrote:
           | Just in case: there are yellow glasses marketed specifically
           | for use at the computer and for avoidance of blue light.
           | 
           | (This is not an endorsement, however.)
        
             | lukka5 wrote:
             | does someone have any idea if they really have the same
             | effect than f.lux?
        
               | aasasd wrote:
               | They work pretty much the same way, so I think there
               | shouldn't be a difference in regard to computer screens.
               | As for the surroundings--I toyed with cycling glasses for
               | a bit, which for some reason had amber-yellow plastic,
               | and personally I prefer to just have yellow 'evening'
               | lights in the rooms.
               | 
               | With cycling glasses, I had more of relaxing effect due
               | to them keeping moisture on my eyes, instead of it being
               | burned away by the winter heating.
        
               | DougMellon wrote:
               | My eye glasses filter it out but I honestly haven't been
               | able to tell a difference.
        
               | drc500free wrote:
               | I got a pair of blue-blocking lenses that are much more
               | aggressive than f.lux. Personal annecdata from my wife
               | and I is that they are fantastic. I can feel my whole
               | body relax when I put them on, and I can go straight to
               | bed after using screens.
               | 
               | Went with these ones:
               | https://spectra479.com/products/clip-on-lenses-blue-
               | blocking...
        
           | teekert wrote:
           | More like ultra-bright leds :)
        
         | gsich wrote:
         | Is there a possibility to always make the cursor bright?
         | 
         | Thanks for f.lux.
        
         | mrzool wrote:
         | Thanks for f.lux! I've been using it for years, basically
         | without ever touching it, it just runs in the background on
         | every machine I use. Couldn't imagine living without it.
        
         | rg111 wrote:
         | This was recently covered in the Huberman Podcast as well.
         | 
         | One should not only maintain screen color and brightness, but
         | also room and overall environment color and brightness.
         | 
         | I bought a "smart" light after listening to that episode.
         | 
         | No clearly visible signs of improvement yet. But it certainly
         | feels good.
        
           | jyscao wrote:
           | Which episode of Huberman did he discuss this on?
        
           | n00bface wrote:
           | 10 years ago flux inspired me to start down this path as
           | well.
           | 
           | All the lights in our house automatically lower their color
           | temperature and brightness at sunset every 15 minutes from
           | 5000k to 2700k and 100% to 10%. SmartThings and the community
           | created Circadian Daylight Coordinator have made this pretty
           | straight forward to accomplish.
           | 
           | I don't have data, but anecdotally I can say it makes an
           | appreciable difference in overall comfort.
        
             | DougMellon wrote:
             | Wow, this sounds amazing. I'm going to dig into it some
             | more.
        
           | mackmgg wrote:
           | The biggest advantage of smart lights I've noticed (I have
           | the Hue Color Ambiance) is the simulated sunrise. No matter
           | what time you want to wake up, it'll gradually get light just
           | before your alarm goes off. This makes a noticeable
           | difference in how I feel if I have to wake up early for
           | something.
        
       | politelemon wrote:
       | It is possible to apply f.lux to HN's top bar by setting the
       | topcolor to ffeee3
        
       | tarique313 wrote:
       | No longer working with Linux Mint and some versions of Ubuntu.
        
       | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
       | I guess now that this is built into many OSs by default is the
       | connection with other smart devices?
        
         | nicoburns wrote:
         | It is built in, but at the least the Apple implementation isn't
         | very good. It doesn't go red enough to completely eliminate the
         | waking effect.
        
           | dainiusse wrote:
           | Yep. And I hate how apple limits lowest brightness level on
           | iOS devices. I used to jailbreak only to have better screen
           | brightness management...
        
             | nicoburns wrote:
             | There is an accessibility setting to lower it further
             | (which you can assign to triple home button click). But
             | generally I agree.
        
               | dainiusse wrote:
               | Thank you! I didn't know that. Not ideal, but still
               | solved my problem
        
         | 0x6c6f6c wrote:
         | If I remember correctly, f.lux had an iOS app but they got
         | removed from the store just prior to Apple announcing their own
         | support for the same feature.
         | 
         | They do have an Android app as well as desktop apps. f.lux has
         | been in the space for years and years now.
        
           | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
           | Yeah, I remember downloading this many years ago, but I know
           | for Android and Windows you don't need it anymore.
        
           | jeromegv wrote:
           | flux had an iOS app, but it was always side-loading through
           | Xcode (or for jailbroken) but never on the actual iOS App
           | Store. They need to use private APIs so it was never
           | authorized in the first place.
        
             | phoenix3200 wrote:
             | If I recall correctly, they started with doing a screen
             | overlay, and migrated to using the hardware gamma tables (I
             | think I might have pointed them to it?). Android apps that
             | do screen dimming use overlays, which ends up causing
             | flickering.
             | 
             | http://thebigboss.org/dimmer-quit-blinding-yourself
        
       | eminence32 wrote:
       | I've used flux, or something like it for at least 10 years (these
       | days, most operating systems have this feature built-in and don't
       | require a 3rd party app). My eyes and brain rather like it,
       | though I did have a friend visit me recently and he instantly
       | commented "why is your screen so red?". I was surprised that the
       | change of color was that noticeable to the un-accustomed eye.
       | 
       | A quick specific complaint (in hopes of learning about
       | workarounds): The implementation on Windows (known as "Night
       | light") seems particularly bad: Sometimes it won't turn on at the
       | expected time, or sometimes it will only apply on 1 monitor but
       | not the other. Has anyone else seen this? Any hints to make it
       | more reliable?
        
         | alisonatwork wrote:
         | Yeah, the Windows implementation is annoyingly buggy. I've
         | found the best way to force it on (or off) without going into
         | the settings and toggling it again is to kill explorer.exe via
         | Task Manager - when it restarts then the night light will apply
         | properly again.
         | 
         | I have my suspicions the reason why it doesn't work
         | consistently has something to do with power savings or hardware
         | profiles or something, but i haven't been able to reproduce it
         | consistently enough to open a bug report.
        
         | Cthulhu_ wrote:
         | > I was surprised that the change of color was that noticeable
         | to the un-accustomed eye.
         | 
         | You should turn it off once late a night, your retinas will
         | hate you for it :D
        
           | eminence32 wrote:
           | Oh, I've tried this and they certainly do :)
           | 
           | But if I step away from my computer at night for an hour, and
           | then go back to it, nothing appears unusual or jarring when I
           | return
        
       | ZeroCool2u wrote:
       | While it's not strictly necessary anymore, because most OS's have
       | at least a basic feature that mimics flux built in now, I feel
       | like we owe the devs a huge debt for forcing the conversation
       | about the toll our ultra high brightness screens have on our
       | sleep patterns and quality and our eyes.
       | 
       | Plus, it's a great example of a really high quality piece of
       | software developed with a lot of care and a huge long term
       | commitment.
        
         | emaro wrote:
         | Also note that most OS night light modes just toggle and don't
         | allow a smooth transition.
        
         | neal_jones wrote:
         | Agreed. I learned about it while at a coding bootcamp when I
         | felt like my eyes were going to break. Total game changer for
         | me.
        
         | int_19h wrote:
         | The problem with OS-provided facilities for this is that they
         | often don't give you enough control. I still use f.lux on an
         | Android phone that I rooted specifically for this purpose,
         | because that's the only way I can get dark red on black text in
         | Kindle (for night reading).
        
           | dp-hackernews wrote:
           | I used to use f.lux on Android until I found "Twilight"
           | 
           | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.urbandroid.
           | ..
           | 
           | I also used to use f.lux on Linux until i found "Redshift"
           | 
           | http://jonls.dk/redshift/
        
             | int_19h wrote:
             | Twilight doesn't do the same thing. It, and all other
             | screen filters on Android that do not require root, can
             | only _add_ color, not _subtract_ it. Thus, it cannot make
             | white text on black background into red text on black
             | background - it can only make it into pink text on red
             | background.
        
         | gsich wrote:
         | True, but Windows 10 mode looks different. Might just be
         | subjective.
        
         | joshspankit wrote:
         | I still advocate for the use of f.lux itself. Not only does it
         | support them continuing to lead the charge, but we are also at
         | risk of OS makers reducing the functionality if we don't keep
         | them on their toes.
         | 
         | f.lux _still_ lets me go to a lower colour temp than either
         | Windows or OSX. I know I'm a niche audience, but it makes a
         | difference to me and I don't think I'll get anywhere by
         | shouting at the giant Wall of Apple to expand their range.
        
           | jabroni_salad wrote:
           | I like that it has a hotkey for toggling it off and on, as
           | well as some automation features for toggling it off when
           | certain apps are in use. It's nice that windows has built in
           | Night Light but it turns all my screen recordings orange.
        
           | dmlerner wrote:
           | And a lower brightness than you can go to without it, for
           | Windows at least. On linux, you can make it happen, of
           | course. Idk about Mac.
        
           | hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
           | Glad someone else commented this. The a stock MacOS and
           | Android features don't get nearly red enough for my
           | preferences at night.
        
             | jthrowsitaway wrote:
             | I used to run custom Android ROMs and now on my Pixel
             | devices the #1 thing I miss are warmer temperatures. The
             | stock options barely do anything.
        
           | cHaOs667 wrote:
           | I also still run it on every Mac I own. Love the tool and its
           | functions.
        
           | aghilmort wrote:
           | there's also some sort of associative positive placebo effect
           | -- oh flux kicked in and it just makes us feel better
           | somatically / prophylactically -- time to relax, deep breath,
           | not stressing about or late night coding or life or whatever
        
             | b3morales wrote:
             | Yes. I do the same thing with my LED houselights, making
             | them yellow and then orange in the evening. When I set them
             | to white temporarily and then forget to change them back
             | I've noticed it seems to increase my alertness/delay
             | drowsiness.
             | 
             | It's most likely just that I've conditioned myself, but in
             | practice I don't really care about the cause. I only care
             | that it helps me wind down in the evening.
        
               | nightgarden wrote:
               | If you use home assistant there are some addons that
               | allow you to sync the temperature of your LED bulbs to
               | how high the sun is at the moment in your location...
               | it's pretty neat. https://github.com/claytonjn/hass-
               | circadian_lighting
        
               | joshspankit wrote:
               | Yep, I also do this. It's excellent. Whether it's
               | conditioning, placebo, or an effect of the receptors in
               | the eyes; I'll take it.
               | 
               | There's something that feels good about being in sync
               | with the natural day/night cycle. Cool white in the
               | morning, warmer more dim light at night. I also like the
               | idea of having a "sunrise/sunset" wall for any room that
               | doesn't have proper windows but I've never implemented
               | it.
        
             | treeman79 wrote:
             | I had extreme migraines for several years. 10 minutes under
             | a fluorescent light would leave me completely
             | dysfunctional.
             | 
             | Flux helped noticeably. For true relief FL-41 glasses would
             | extend the time to a few hours.
        
               | joshspankit wrote:
               | I've noticed (varying degrees of: thankfully very few
               | people get migraines) the same effect with hundreds of
               | co-workers and employees.
               | 
               | A few times for late shifts in various businesses I've
               | convinced the execs to shut off the fluorescents and I
               | cannot describe the wave of relaxation that hits almost
               | everyone.
               | 
               | It's so much worse also with the combo of 60Hz monitors
               | and 60Hz AC power.
        
           | jeffkeen wrote:
           | This comment reminded me that when I used flux and I'd work
           | late, I'd reach a point where I'd get _tired_ because the
           | blue light was gone (and I had my flux settings cranked). I
           | haven't felt the same way with Apple's Night Shift.
        
           | karlshea wrote:
           | Still use it myself as well... I like it less warm than
           | macOS's night mode, and since I'm a night owl I get to make
           | f.lux start its color change later than sunset.
        
             | dewey wrote:
             | You can also adjust the warmth of the color in macOS's
             | night shift mode. Does that not work for you?
        
         | whazor wrote:
         | I still recommend it on Mac because you can manually fill in
         | your location. Mac OSX temporarily disables your WiFi in to
         | figure out your location, which can cause stuttering in live
         | streams. With Flux you can also switch the dark theme of Mac,
         | so it completely replaces Mac implemention.
        
           | ezfe wrote:
           | >Mac OSX temporarily disables your WiFi in to figure out your
           | location
           | 
           | Uhh, this is not true...I've just confirmed that a livestream
           | video call saw no effect when locating myself in Maps
        
         | gjvc wrote:
         | Amen to that -- f.lux was a revelation to me. Donated.
        
         | vlunkr wrote:
         | It's true, how often does a little tool like this get mimicked
         | in every major OS? It's too bad the devs don't get a payout for
         | that, but it's a pretty unique achievement.
        
           | phoenix3200 wrote:
           | I got a payout back in the day for something low-level on
           | iOS...
           | 
           | http://thebigboss.org/dimmer-quit-blinding-yourself
        
         | jjfoooo4 wrote:
         | I appreciate how once installed I just don't have to think
         | about it at all. If I fly somewhere, it pops up and confirms
         | where I am, but otherwise it simply works flawlessly and
         | entirely in the background for years on end.
        
         | 88913527 wrote:
         | I wonder how Flux works in regions which reach 24 hours of
         | sunlight or 24 hours of nighttime in certain seasons. Can you
         | make reasonable (or meaningful) assumptions about sleeping
         | hours in those conditions? The program seems to kick in around
         | sunset. What if there is no sunset?
        
           | cprecioso wrote:
           | There is a preset for "close to the poles". I can't remember
           | what it did exactly though, I haven't used it in a long time.
        
           | hoosieree wrote:
           | Given latitude/longitude, you can make a lot of assumptions -
           | current weather, time zone, daylight savings (ugh) in effect
           | or not.
           | 
           | I'm sure there would still be plenty of edge cases, but this
           | would be plenty accurate for me.
        
       | securingsincity wrote:
       | I'm sure it was a mix of things (stress etc) but in 2013, I was
       | regularly working late and my eye started to twitch. I remember
       | downloading f.lux and a lot of eye strain and the eye twitch
       | going away in a few days. Who knows if blue light was the
       | culprit, but I've enjoyed f.lux ever since
        
       | ModernMech wrote:
       | All the operating systems tried to copy flux, but they can't get
       | it right. On mac with night shift, the colors are never warm
       | enough. On windows with night light they tried progressive
       | reddening but it happens over a matter of minutes rather than
       | hours and isn't configurable. Also it's buggy with turning off.
       | 
       | Flux has been resilient in being featureful through the years and
       | has survived being obviated by operating systems including its
       | basic functionality.
        
         | qalmakka wrote:
         | Sadly, it can't survive the transition to Wayland, given that
         | applying filters on the entire screen is something only the
         | compositor can do and thus it must be handled at that level and
         | not in a separate app, like f.lux did on X11.
        
       | kareemm wrote:
       | Been a f.lux user for (I want to say) more than a decade. No idea
       | if it actually helps me wind down at night and sleep better, but:
       | 
       | 1. When the screen color changes at sunset it's a subtle but
       | powerful cue to know that the work day is coming to a close. And
       | then if I'm on my computer when it changes around bedtime that's
       | a cue to GTF off the computer.
       | 
       | 2. All the science I've read suggests removing blue light in the
       | evenings does indeed help with sleep. So why not use it?
        
         | arethuza wrote:
         | I'd actually quite like something that gave a subtle indication
         | that "the work day is coming to a close"...
         | 
         | I've used f.lux for a long time, but it kicks in in the middle
         | of the afternoon in winter and probably about bedtime in
         | summer!
        
           | TorKlingberg wrote:
           | I changed the location in f.lux to somewhere south-west of
           | where I am. Yes it gets dark at 3pm in Sweden in winter. That
           | doesn't mean it's anywhere near bedtime.
        
           | jseban wrote:
           | Use os x built in night shift feature, there you can set the
           | schedule.
        
         | xattt wrote:
         | If you're seeing blue, the filter isn't working. You're better
         | off getting an amber phosphor monitor.
        
         | nerdponx wrote:
         | Even if it doesn't help with sleep while I'm actually sleeping,
         | removing blue light from the screen definitely helps me wind
         | down for the night.
        
         | kitkat_new wrote:
         | Well, all studies?
         | 
         | https://time.com/5752454/blue-light-sleep/
         | 
         | https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/blue-light-filter-smar...
         | 
         | https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/12/191216173654.h...
        
           | kareemm wrote:
           | I stand corrected. Thanks!
        
         | cameronh90 wrote:
         | > powerful cue to know that the work day is coming to a close
         | 
         | Unfortunately in northern latitudes, our sunset can be as early
         | as 3PM or as late as 10PM, so it doesn't quite work for that
         | purpose here!
         | 
         | Nevertheless, I find matching the colour temperature with the
         | time of day makes my eyes far more comfortable.
         | 
         | The studies on whether blue light messes with sleep are mixed,
         | but I personally find if I set my lights brighter and bluer in
         | the morning that I feel more awake than I do otherwise.
        
           | jseban wrote:
           | > Unfortunately in northern latitudes, our sunset can be as
           | early as 3PM or as late as 10PM, so it doesn't quite work for
           | that purpose here!
           | 
           | Yeah, that makes it totally unusable for me, it's ridiculous
           | that they don't let the user set the hours and insist that
           | you must follow the sun, because that's "more natural". Even
           | though that might be true, it's totally impractical, you
           | can't organise your work day after the sun, that's totally
           | incompatible with the rest of society. At least os x night
           | shift let's you set the time like the responsible adult that
           | you are..
        
       | dr-detroit wrote:
        
       | qalmakka wrote:
       | KDE Plasma has included a builtin feature very similar to
       | f.lux/redshift for a while, which works fine on Wayland. I've
       | been using it constantly for the last 2, 3 years (I think?) and
       | it does its job all right.
        
         | pluc wrote:
         | Android also has "night light" since like Android 6
        
         | alias_neo wrote:
         | As does Gnome.
         | 
         | I haven't had to use f.lux for many years now because it's
         | built in to every platform I use (KDE, Gnome and Android).
        
           | [deleted]
        
       | davidhyde wrote:
       | I believe that it is the intensity rather than the colour
       | temperature of light that keeps you awake at night. The reason
       | that red shifting the light works is that our eyes are more
       | sensitive to the greener part of the spectrum (shifting towards
       | red) and therefore you need a lot more blue light to see the same
       | detail as you would for green or red light.
       | 
       | If you have an e-reader that only emits bluish light like a
       | kindle paperwhite then you can turn down the light intensity and
       | increase the font size to compensate for lost of detail
       | sensitivity.
        
       | branon wrote:
       | The original! Very nice program. Nowadays I mainly use Red Moon
       | on Android, and GNOME 3's built-in "Night Light" feature on
       | desktop.
       | 
       | I don't use Windows much anymore, but when I do, I run f.lux
       | there.
        
         | Markoff wrote:
         | I remember I tried Red Moon but it must have had some issue
         | (either bright installation, or bright status bar or something
         | else) because I end yp using "Screen Dimmer (dims notifications
         | too)" from etsang, which is also open source and can recommend,
         | works fine, everything dark plus has very good notificationto
         | easily in steps brighten/darker your screen without going
         | somewhere deep in settings
         | 
         | I remember there was some widely popular screen dimmer, which
         | didn't even let you manually change setting and relied on
         | location provided by google services which I don't have, not
         | sure if it's not f.lux because it ws one of the most famous
         | options
        
       | shaicoleman wrote:
       | If you're using an external monitor, it's better to do it on the
       | monitor itself rather than in software. When you do it on the
       | monitor it applies everywhere, even when rebooting or using
       | another OS. When I did it in software (redshift) I noticed it was
       | causing my laptop to overheat.
       | 
       | Here's how I do it on Linux with a Dell U2720Q monitor.
       | sudo apt-get -yy install ddcutil # Install ddcutil on Ubuntu
       | sudo modprobe i2c_dev  # Load required kernel module            #
       | Night - Set brightness to 20% and color temperature to 3000K
       | sudo ddcutil setvcp 10 20       sudo ddcutil setvcp 1a 43
       | sudo ddcutil setvcp 18 69       sudo ddcutil setvcp 16 100
       | # Daytime - Set brightness to 50% and color temperature to 6500K
       | sudo ddcutil setvcp 10 50       sudo ddcutil setvcp 1a 100
       | sudo ddcutil setvcp 18 100       sudo ddcutil setvcp 16 100
        
         | kelvie wrote:
         | Funnily enough I built a tool that does the same for my
         | gigabyte monitor:
         | 
         | https://github.com/kelvie/gbmonctl
         | 
         | Along with some systemd scripts to toggle it for
         | sunruse/sunset, with another simple tool:
         | 
         | https://github.com/kelvie/sunrise-monitor
         | 
         | I really wish there was a common (XDG?) interface for monitor
         | brightness so that e.g. Plasma/KDE can hook into this with
         | their sunrise/sunset settings.
        
         | jamal-kumar wrote:
         | Ditto for my laptop, the software approach is just a bit
         | untenable when I do work with graphics or design especially
         | because you need consistency in these cases.
         | 
         | Personally, I just hit the brightness down button on my
         | keyboard a few times around 8pm. I think windows has this as a
         | built in feature now, too? I'm curious to know what f.lux
         | offers over this:
         | 
         | https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/set-your-display...
        
           | forgotpwd16 wrote:
           | First thing I see is f.lux lets you configure the transition
           | (speed/intensity) between day/night modes as well as color
           | temperatures rather having an abstract "strength" setting.
        
           | pewu wrote:
           | One feature missing from the Windows solution, which flux has
           | and it works tremendously, is an automatic trigger to disable
           | the color/brightness change when a certain app is opened.
           | Works beautifully when I'm up to do some Lightroom work.
        
       | seumars wrote:
       | If you're on macOS I would also recommend Black Light
       | [https://michelf.ca/projects/black-light/] which lets you add all
       | kinds of color filters to individual (or all) screens.
        
       | Jamie9912 wrote:
       | I've just realised i've been using flux for about 10 years now
       | also, and never gave them a penny.
       | 
       | I've just donated $25 -
       | https://justgetflux.com/windows/contribute.html
        
         | ndr wrote:
         | Thank you for the prompt, I just did the same.
        
         | orzig wrote:
         | Thanks for the nudge (public philanthropy has positive
         | externalities!) I just did the same, and my day is better for
         | it
        
         | lukka5 wrote:
         | donated $10 as well. My eyes were being taken care by their
         | software for many years
        
         | iKlsR wrote:
         | Over 10 years and the same. I literally cannot use computers or
         | any device without a warm filter. The builtin "night lights" in
         | OSes don't work as well and are wonky. Fantastic software.
        
         | knowald wrote:
         | Hah, you just made me realise how many years I've been using it
         | and recommending it as a life changing thing to everyone, every
         | time i see a cool screen in the evening.
         | 
         | Just said "thanks" to them with the same.
        
         | toomuchtodo wrote:
         | On Mac, this redirects you to the Paypal link
         | https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/justgetflux/10 with $10
         | prefilled but unable to edit. Change the integer param to
         | donate the desired amount. (donated)
        
       | pluc wrote:
       | There's also Redshift that was inspired by f.lux which may work
       | better for some (and has a nice gtk tray client):
       | http://jonls.dk/redshift/
        
         | forgotpwd16 wrote:
         | I've used redshift since ever but didn't knew f.lux had a Linux
         | version. Though nowadays GNOME and Plasma offer built-in
         | functionality for this, it is still needed for those of us
         | preferring a window manager (and gammastep for Wayland users).
        
         | asicsp wrote:
         | I use redshift (haven't tried f.lux) and works great. I use a
         | constant 3000K temperature instead of location/time based
         | changes.
        
           | pluc wrote:
           | My experience is Redshift works better on Linux whereas f.lux
           | works better (or "is more elegantly integrated") on OSX
        
       | smoyer wrote:
       | I was a happy f.lux user for several years and suddenly had a new
       | (Xubuntu) machine which seemed to override it's settings.
       | Redshift is "built-in" to Xubuntu and I find it to be equivalent
       | for my needs.
        
       | tough wrote:
       | Flux is awesome, There's also lunar.fyi
       | 
       | https://lunar.fyi/
        
         | alin23 wrote:
         | Lunar developer here. Thanks for mentioning it!
         | 
         | Just a note to avoid confusion: Lunar serves a completely
         | different purpose than f.lux.
         | 
         | f.lux changes the colour temperature by altering the Gamma
         | tables.
         | 
         | Lunar's main function is controlling the hardware
         | brightness/contrast/volume/input/colors of external monitors
         | using DDC and private macOS methods.
         | 
         | macOS also has a native approach to f.lux called Night Shift. I
         | use it with Shifty (https://shifty.natethompson.io) to get the
         | same featureset as f.lux.
        
       | prometheus76 wrote:
       | Besides turning my screen more amber at night, the main feature I
       | use f.lux for is matching my ambient office light. I downloaded
       | an app that measures color temperature and took a picture of a
       | white piece of paper with my phone. My particular ambient light
       | temperature is 4200K because of the fluorescent lights they use
       | in my office. I set my monitor to match that, and it has helped
       | my eyestrain and headaches considerably. The other thing I did to
       | eliminate eyestrain was to get a pair of +1.00 reading glasses,
       | because my eyes are just starting to get a little blurry.
        
         | MrWiffles wrote:
         | Thank you for mentioning this! I've been experiencing eyestrain
         | and eye pain far more than usual lately and was wondering if
         | there was anything out there I could use to help me figure out
         | what was going on, or at least adapt, beyond glasses (which I
         | now have). I didn't know flux could do this, so thank you!
        
       | txsoftwaredev wrote:
       | Just wanted to say I've been using f.lux for a while now and find
       | it a required install on my mac. Thanks!
        
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