Adjusting your screen colour

When you want to change the colours on your computer or device, you can do this by changing the way the whole operating system appears, or by changing individual programs. We will keep this simple and just show a couple of techniques, but if you think this could be helpful, there are more ways to change your colours.

It is also worth noting that many devices now have a Night Time mode, where some of the brightness is removed, but also, the blue light which can be damaging to sleep is filtered out. For those who are night owls, this can be a very useful setting.

Type of device PC (Windows) | Apple Mac | iPad or iPhone | Android

Type of software or browser: Word | Edge | Chrome | Safari

PC (Windows)

Use colour filters in Windows 10 or 11 – Click on the link and then choose the tab on the page for the operating system you would like. This can be especially useful for those who have colour-blindess. The colour-filters also allow you to invert colours (so white pages become black) or you can work in ‘greyscale’ where colours are filtered out completely.

Set your display for night time in Windows – The link will show you how to switch on ‘night light’ on your computer. The computer can do this automatically from your local time settings or you can fix times for it to switch on. This is through Display – Brightness and Colour.

Apple Mac

Use colour filters on a Mac – this changes the colour appearance of your computer, allowing to choose from a range of colours and also adjusting for colour blindness if needed.

Use Night Shift on a Mac – to adjust the colours on your display to softer colours. Find this in Preferences – Displays – and then Night Shift in the bottom right-hand corner of the display box.

iPad or iPhone (iOS)

Change your display colours on an iPad or iPhone to adjust your preferences and for colour-blindness.

Night Shift on an iPad or iPhone – This is especially important if you are someone who reads your phone or tablet in the hour before you go to bed.

Android

Please note that due to the large number of variations using the Android operating system, you may need to check details for your particular device. The instructions here are based on Android 12.

Colour correction and preferences for Android – including colour-blindness

How to invert colours on your screen in Android 12

Using Night Light in Android 12 – to reduce the brightness of the screen and filter out blue light.

Word

In Microsoft Word, you can change your background colour by choosing Design – Page colour and then choosing a colour from the drop-down menu. Many people prefer to read from a pale pastel colour, rather than white.

If you would like to have white text on a dark background, choose black for the background colour in the Design tab, move to the Home tab, click Ctrl+A (to select all text) and then choose white a your font colour.

Edge

Go to the 3 dots in the top right-hand corner, choose Settings, choose Appearance, select the colour combination that you prefer on the browser.

Chrome

Whitebuster is an app that you can install from the Chrome Store. It appears as a button on your toolbar and allows you to choose the background colour for pages. For anyone who finds that white ‘glares’ from the screen, this can be a very useful tool as the pages will have a tint, chosen by you.

Safari

Go to the cog for Settings and then choose Appearance, where you have the choice of a ‘light theme’ or a ‘dark theme’.

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