This would be a cool app

B

BRDude

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Aug 28, 2003
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Looking at a CRT monitor can be very stressful to the eyes. Its like staring straight into a lightbulb (if you dont believe me, just close the windows/curtains and turn off the lights).

The most eye straining things to stare at IMHO are websites, since most of them follow the dreaded universal "black-text-on-white-background" color standard.

I find the opposite (white-text-on-dark-background) much more forgiving, dont you agree? Its why I keep going back to sites like www.bluesnews.com despite all the annoying ads.

So I was thinking of a temporary solution for this unnecessary burden on my eyes: how about a simple app that inverts onscreen colors?

I wouldnt want it on everytime, of course, just something I could toggle on the tray/keyboard when surfing the net or reading long articles, etc.

Ive looked everywhere and only found Black Light Magic, an app/screensaver that does exactly that, only its for the Mac. :(

How many Windows users would find this app useful?

I guess it could be done easily with some knowledge of DirectX programming.
 
Arent there web browsers that let you change this stuff for every webpage you visit (overriding the site default)?

Pete
 
I know, I use Firebird, you can force color preferences on all webpages.
Reasons why I dont like this feature though:

1. you cant just toggle it on/off, you have to reload page and disable the cache
2. it usually messes up the webpage display, most website elements are designed to match the intended background color
3. graphical webpages, CSS-bound and flash sites arent affected

Anyway, would you use this app?
 
Personally? No, but I use a laptop (lcd screens dont have this problem to the same extent as desktops).

I think youd be better off working on an alteration to Firebird than this app.. it would be less effort too. Just add a toolbar button to invert everything, then do it (I know firebird uses xul for its interface.. but how hard could it be?).

Pete
 
thanks, Ill look into it. So youre saying it would be easier for me to learn this XUL thing, how to make extensions for Firebird and do this for the benefit of Firebird users only? I dont know, hard to understand your advice.
 
Hi,

Its just that your app seems quite hackish, and probably extremely difficult to achieve (try it and see). I think more people would use an extension to Firebird than any standalone app.

After all, besides a web browser, what other apps would you use it with? Most of the large apps have this ability already (Word has had the ability to use different backgrounds and font colours without changing the doc for ages).

Pete
 
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