I recently found that iOS allows adding a ☀️ icon to the control center. It's called "Reduce White Point" which is a bit technical. What it actually does is make the screen darker than the brightness setting allows.
When I have a migraine attack, I sometimes still can and want to use a screen. But even the lowest brightness setting can be too much. So it would be great to see a feature like this in GNOME!
Jul 7, 2026, 11:04 AM@sophie a bit different, but I rely on https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/6325/control-monitor-brightness-and-volume-with-ddcutil/ daily to control brightness of external display. Super handy when I need to reduce brightness right away without being blinded by display and having to go through clunky monitor's menu.
@sophie oh! I too have optical migraine, this would be so helpful!
Jul 7, 2026, 11:31 AM@Quenti @sophie Redshift can reduce both color temperature and brightness (among other settings) as well set a maximum brightness lower 100% even the screen's own setting is at 100%.
However I'm not sure what "darker than the brightness setting allow" means. Unless recent GNOME versions now have a minimum brightness setting which is too bright? Haven't use GNOME since GNOME 2.
Most other desktop allow setting brightness down to 0. So I'm not sure if we're talking about the same thing?
Jul 7, 2026, 11:44 AM@Quenti I've had this once: I suddenly started to feel dizzy and seeing blurry (even with glasses on) but it wasn't a brightness-only issue.
The brightness itself was not that high but a long day search stuff online (stupid job offers at that time) and reading text on white background for a long time was the cause. At this point I just stopped using the computer and and had to lie down on a bed…
So if you're referring to that kind of migraine, Low brightness/color temp won't help
@devnull @Quenti My desktop screen doesn't support going to zero brightness. I know that some laptops allow that, my screen doesn't.
The solution on the software level is to only deliver pixels that have a max value of say (150, 150, 150) to the screen, instead of (255, 255, 255). Of course that reduced the color depth that can be represented.
Even if the screen can go to zero, sometimes the level above that is too bright already.
Jul 7, 2026, 12:06 PM@sophie Ok thanks for clarifying. white point refers to color temp, not brightness. So the name was a bit confusing.
Redshift can set a low brightness but I can't try on screens that won't allow 0 so I don't know how it behaves with such screens. So I guess testing it would be a good way to see if it achieves the exact results you want.
1/2
Jul 7, 2026, 12:09 PMHowever, I don't know if redshift can have a neutral white point of 6500 K, while being active (low-brightness-only mode, without orange hue implied by lower color temp), never tried such settings as 6500 K is "too white" for me. I use 5700 K during days and much lower during evenings/nights, unless I'm post-processing photos (In which case, redshift is completely turned off because it's incompatible with monitor calibration)
> white point refers to color temp, not brightness
Thanks for explaining things wrong to me. There is absolutely nothing that prevents you from setting a white point to (150, 150, 150). White point is more than you can change in your image editing app.
Also, this post was suggesting the feature to GNOME, not about extensions.
@sophie Not starring that you get migraines... they're the worst. But that's a great idea!
@sophie Ah yes that's a great feature I also use daily on Android!