50 Mac Essentials #13: Flux

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We all like our eyes. What a shame we subject them to such an endless onslaught of photons from computer screens all day long.

F.lux is an app designed to make your eyes feel a little more comfortable while working on a computer.

Computer screens are really bright these days. Anyone who’s sat in front of a recent iMac knows what I mean. The brightness isn’t such a problem during daylight hours, because our eyes (and our brains) are used to it. But if you’re working into the evening and deeper into the night, it’s not so good for your eyes to keep staring at something so bright.

F.lux takes care of it by automatically – and oh so gradually – adjusting your display’s warmth and color settings so that it looks like daylight during the day, and artificial electric lights after dark.

The effect is very subtle, so don’t try F.lux for just five minutes before making your mind up. Switch it on and leave it running for at least a couple of days – see what kind of difference it makes for you.

It displays a Menu Bar widget which lets you make adjustments on the fly – you can change the night lighting environment, or disable F.lux completely for an hour (useful if you’re doing some color-sensitive work).

F.lux is free and available for OS X, Windows, and Linux.

(You’re reading the 13th post in our series, 50 Essential Mac Applications: a list of the great Mac apps the team at Cult of Mac value most. Read more.)

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