NegativeScreen

NegativeScreen

NegativeScreen is a small Windows application that inverts the colors of your screen. Its original purpose is to spare your eyes when you browse the bright white web in a dark room and the screen is dazzling you, but it is also useful for accessibility. The program was written by Melvyn Laily, is released as open source under the GPL license, and comes as a single executable of about 130 KB. Unlike the Windows Magnifier, which can also invert colors, NegativeScreen was designed specifically to be easy and convenient to use.

NegativeScreen Features

NegativeScreen makes bright white pages comfortable to read at night by inverting the screen colors with a single hotkey.

1. Screen Inversion: NegativeScreen inverts the colors of the whole screen, turning white backgrounds dark. You can toggle the inversion by clicking the tray icon or by pressing Win+Alt+N.

2. Smart Inversion Modes: Besides simple inversion, it offers several "smart" inversion modes that swap blacks and whites while keeping other colors about the same, so pictures and interfaces stay recognizable.

3. Color Filters: Negative Sepia, Negative Grayscale, Negative Red, Red, Grayscale and Binary (black and white) filters are included. The first eleven color effects can be selected with the Win+Alt+F1 to F11 hotkeys.

4. Color Blindness Simulation: NegativeScreen includes effects that simulate protanopia, protanomaly, deuteranopia, deuteranomaly, tritanopia, tritanomaly, achromatopsia and achromatomaly, which helps designers check how their work looks to people with color vision deficiencies.

5. Custom Effects: Any color effect that can be modeled as a color transformation matrix can be added. Matrices, hotkeys and options such as smooth transitions, the initial color effect and activation on startup are set in a plain-text configuration file.

6. Minimal Interface: NegativeScreen has no main window. It runs as a system tray icon with a context menu that lists all color effects, their hotkeys, the configuration file and the About box. Win+Alt+H closes the program.

7. Web API: Version 2.5 and later include a basic web API that lets other programs control NegativeScreen. It is disabled by default and, when enabled, listens only on localhost port 8990.

8. Requirements: NegativeScreen uses the Windows Magnification API, so it runs on Windows Vista and later but not on Windows XP. It needs the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.

NegativeScreen is a simple and reliable tool for anyone who works at night or finds a bright screen tiring. With its smart inversion modes, color filters, color blindness simulation, configurable hotkeys and tiny footprint, NegativeScreen is a practical choice for making the screen easier on the eyes. The source code is available on GitHub, and the last release dates from April 2021.