Reduce Computer Eye Strain with F.lux
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When you use your computer at night, your eyes will be taking a beating due to the brightness of the screen. Even at the lowest possible brightness setting, your screen may still cause lots of eye strain. Thankfully, software exists to combat this problem – F.lux. By adjusting the colors on your screen depending on the time of day, using your computer in the morning or at night will be easier on the eyes.
F.lux is designed to make your computer screen look like your surroundings during any time of day. During the daytime when the sun is out, your screen’s color temperature will be adjusted so everything is a little more blue. When the sun sets, your screen’s color temperature will be tweaked so that everything will be tinted slightly orange, similar to candlelight. You may not see the effect instantly, but once the nighttime kicks in, you’ll definitely feel the difference and your eyes will be more comfortable.
Want to see a quick demo of how F.lux changes your screen? Click on the time-color graph and F.lux will run through a quick simulation of the transition between daytime and nighttime. If you’re a photographer or graphic designer, you can still use F.lux to reduce eye strain and disable it for one hour in one click.
You can easily adjust the color temperature settings for day and night if you don’t like the default ones that F.lux comes with. If you think F.lux transitions between day and night too quickly, you can bump up the transition time from 20 minutes to an hour.
After using F.lux for a while, I’ve found that it really does reduce eye strain during the nighttime hours, and your eyes will thank you after installation. F.lux is set-and-forget software, and needs no user input to run – it kicks in during your sunset (determined by a location setting). It seems like F.lux is also relatively light on system resources, pulling only 2.3 MB of RAM.
Free and cross-platform, F.lux is software that you should really consider trying out. It’s a quick download and fast install, and if you’re one of those people who want instant gratification, run the simulation demo by clicking on the time-color graph. Head over to the F.lux homepage for more information and download links for all operating systems.
