macsforme Nice, BTW make sure to turn off the touch bar if you haven't already to avoid PWM from the touch bar OLED strip:

there's multiple ways to approach that…

easiest method: set touch bar to Quick Actions + turn off Control Strip on keyboard preferences to entirely black it out. then set "hold Fn" behavior to Show Expanded Control Strip.

you can then hold Fn to control volume and brightness (but will lose access to the "real" F1-F12 keys)

if you want to toggle between black and shortcut keys, but ALSO want to maintain access to real F1-F12 keys when needed: Hide My Bar app (trial, then paid)

if you want a completely black touch bar but still want access to shortcut keys at ALL times: make a custom setup with the MTMR app (free) or BetterTouchTool (40 day trial, then paid) with black-colored "invisible" buttons that control volume and brightness (this is what i did!)

      async How do I apply your overlay? From the terminal? And then to disable it?
      I am curious to try with the macbook air 15!
      Thanks 🙂

          photon78s by the way, does the amount of flicker on M2 TB MBP change based on whether resolution is set to native @2x/200% scaling ("Looks like 1280x800") vs. the default "scaled" resolution ("Looks like 1440x900")?

              Lauda89 are you a developer so you have Node installed? In which case you can download the zip I put here earlier and run npm run start. If not I have to find a way to make it into a proper app at some point. It's fairly easy to get running with chatgpt and some terminal commands as it is just an electron app

                  NewDwarf I used to own an Intel MBP 2016 13" (also Touch Bar) with Iris 550 graphics. It was a pretty usable device, screen was generally crisp, UI looked sharp — was actually a really great device for graphic design and music production, at least around the macOS Mojave era.

                  However, some issues I had with the Intel MBP 2016 13" is that sometimes different color schemes (e.g. VSCode themes) made me feel tired or looked blurry while using them. There were also times where working with very long documents was really tiring and hard to focus on.

                  Despite the screen being usable for some applications, I remember changing color schemes, fonts, and line spacing over and over on the Intel 2016 13" (which is usually a sign that a screen is impacted by at least some level of temporal dithering)

                  So for heavy schoolwork and coding, there were a lot of times where I ended up switching to old Windows and Linux laptops to really be able to focus.

                  (At the time, I had no idea what PWM or temporal dithering was or that I even "had issues with screens", so I did not know at all why I occasionally had such an urge to switch devices when working with a lot of text.)

                  FWIW, I later had a 2020 Intel 13" MBP for a short time (the very last Intel made) and its screen was way worse than the 2016, looked blurry even at native res and lots of eyestrain. 2016 13" was my only usable Intel MBP .

                  So…

                  I'd actually say the 13" Touch Bar M2 MBP (with Stillcolor) is actually better than my old 2016 13", as so many color schemes all look equally as good on this screen without starting to feel "weird".

                  (The 13" Touch Bar M2 MBP is especially better than the 2020 13" Intel MBP, lol, as the TB M2 screen is actually sharp. But it's honestly better than the 2016 13" too!)

                  The screen on the Touch Bar M2 is actually so sharp that even looking at it from halfway across the desk, I can use it on TRUE native (2560x1600, super tiny) resolution and still be able to read coherently which totally shocked me.

                  If I can read THAT precisely once I'm put in front of a "good screen", maybe that explains why I can notice temporal dithering and why I'm sensitive to it…

                  The Touch Bar M2 MBP also seems to be noticeably better at displaying very dense, cluttered UI — and especially better at displaying "repeating lines of the same thing" and allowing me to easily "line them up" in my head without everything feeling like it looks unstable or unbalanced.

                  So the Touch Bar M2 MBP is better than even a usable Intel MBP, IMO

                  Note that this is specifically about the 13" Touch Bar M2 MBP.

                  All the other M1/M2/M3 MBAs, MBPs I've tried, I have significant issues with (even with Stillcolor) and I would not want to use any of those as my primary device. Mini-LED MBPs especially are totally unusable for me.

                  However, the screen on the Touch Bar M2 MBP is built totally different from all of the other Apple Silicon laptops…

                  It's something you could swap out a good Intel Mac with and not notice much of a difference — or if anything, actually notice an improvement (this all relies on Stillcolor, of course).

                      Was very excited to try this and purchased an open-box M3 15" MBA from BB. I installed Stillcolor 1.1 and confirmed it was working via terminal. I mostly used it with my 32" 4K monitor connected via USB3 -> DisplayPort and running at 3840x2160 60Hz. I tried various color settings with no real difference. I did not try to use any other program to reduce colors (although I may try that later).

                      The good news is that there was a noticeable improvement - no nausea! The bad news is that there's still something going on that's causing eye-strain/headache albeit to a lesser degree than before. I was able to use the machine to work all day with mild pain and did have lingering effects all evening. I do wonder if I would get used to it, but for now I don't have to so I'm going to return it.

                      personal eye-strain history:
                      I tried an M2 15" MBA last year and it caused the usual headaches nausea and returned it (just as I have returned a 16" Intel MBP, other M1 MBP/MBA, any touch bar 15" MBP, and last intel MBA).

                      I never had any problems with any displays until I purchased an iPhone X which i returned after 2 weeks of trying to get used to it. Since then I've tried every OLED iPhone and they all cause noticeable pain/nausea to a various degrees. I'm currently hanging onto an iPhone 11 (non-Pro with LCD screen) which causes no issues.

                      I am currently using a late 2013 Intel MBP 15" (pre-touchbar) with zero issues.

                        I also want to add that I am blown away that this was even attempted! This is the first ray of hope I've had in years for this and I'm highly motivated to help test any new updates, features etc.

                          specamfi try connect your external monitor with hdmi cable, it will be better. Type-c display port will use 10bit all the time, no matter what you do, don't know why, but its happening with my setup.

                              specamfi So you're suggesting it's the OS doing something additional or the GPU?

                              I have an early 2013 Macbook 13" and ever since I started having problems with screens, I wouldn't say that machine is issue-free either.

                                  madmozg should I try a usb-c to HDMI adapter? My monitor has an HDMI 2.0 input. Any idea if it will be limited to 30hz at 3840x2160?

                                    new-jdm honestly, no idea. Something changed on the MacBooks around 2015-16 for me (same with recent iMacs). Since it affects both the MacBook displays and external monitors, I'd always assumed it was dithering. I suspect that for issues, Stillcolor does something but doesn't eliminate the issues completely. Unfortunately, I'm not technical enough to suggest anything, just a sufferer.

                                        specamfi purchased an open-box M3 15" MBA

                                        specamfi The bad news is that there's still something going on that's causing eye-strain/headache albeit to a lesser degree than before

                                        Check out my posts in this thread — there is definitely still something weird about all of the Airs!

                                        For example, flicker can be detected on solid gray on both the M1 Air and M2 Air, when filming at 240hz slow motion (I suspect this is equally as true on the M3 Air too).

                                        I also agree that the Airs did not work for me. I tried M1 Air and M2 Air, M1 Air made me feel very tired to use and M2 Air made me feel motion-sick when trying to think while looking at the screen, even with Stillcolor.

                                        However, there is an Apple Silicon Mac that is not an Air but has a standard LCD screen…

                                        I've been mentioning it many times already — so I hate to sound repetitive to others who have been reading my posts — but it's the 13" M2 Touch Bar MacBook Pro.

                                        This MacBook has a standard IPS LCD similar to the Airs, but does not flicker on camera even on dark grays, and for me has none of the problems that all of the Airs had! For example, unlike the M1 Air, I don't "suddenly feel tired" after I start working on it.

                                        The M2 Touch Bar MBP works perfectly with Stillcolor and appears completely still to my eyes!

                                        It's 100% worth a try if the Air isn't working for you.

                                        The screen feels very different to me compared to the Airs and works for me in areas where the Airs simply didn't.

                                        The only issues are PWM on the OLED Touch Bar strip, but you can turn the touch bar off or create a custom setup with "invisible" buttons to get past this.

                                        (One thing to note is that the screen is also slightly more reflective than the Airs, even when the computer is turned off. If this bothers you, you can always apply a matte screen protector or the like.)

                                        The M2 Touch Bar Pro is the only Apple Silicon Mac out of every single one I tried that seems to eliminate dithering on the internal screen entirely after activating Stillcolor!

                                              new-jdm it was completely fine until last year

                                              There seems to be a running theme with iOS 17. I'm pretty sure that temporal dithering was either "enabled for the first time" on iOS 17 or "bumped up in strength by a significant amount".

                                              For example, I saw a good amount of people here say that the iPhone SE 2020 is their "only usable iPhone".

                                              Seeing this, I decided to buy an SE 2020 earlier this year as a secondary device as they have been going for really cheap recently — but mine came with iOS 17.2.1.

                                              "At least with iOS 17", I hate the screen on my SE 2020. Even the screens I wasn't really satisfied with on the M1 Air and M2 Air are still hundreds of times better than the seasickness-inducing, blurry, and "constantly twitching" image that I get out of my SE 2020 despite it having a "PWM-free LCD". The colors on app icons also look way too oversaturated to me.

                                              On the other hand, I also own an iPhone 14 Pro that is still on iOS 16.4.1. Even though I 100% get all of the familiar OLED PWM symptoms and generally do not like the screen on this phone either, the image is sooooo much more "stable" and I don't really notice anywhere near the dithering I see on the SE 2020. It only has really bad PWM — so I still wouldn't try to do any heavy work on it — but it's generally tolerable for basic phone use and web browsing.

                                              I have some older LCD devices like an iPad 6 and iPhone 7, both on an earlier version of iOS 15, that are so much more usable than the SE 2020. So I suspect iOS 17 is related in some way.

                                                specamfi All Apple Silicon Macs should have the same behavior with Stillcolor and an external monitor. I've found output from Apple Silicon Macs (with Stillcolor activated) to look the same as output from an Intel Mac, and aiaf has verified this with capture card footage too.

                                                In addition, another factor on macOS that can affect screen quality is whether macOS attempts to send out a "YCbCr" or "RGB" signal. RGB is generally ideal, but a lot of times macOS will choose YCbCr instead which can decrease quality. Search up "M1 Mac force RGB EDID" method for more info on how to fix this.

                                                Outside of this if you're still having strain with a monitor, it's probably an issue with the monitor itself such as FRC.

                                                Note that you should avoid any "HDR", "local dimming", "P3 color gamut", or "10-bit capable" monitors, as Apple Silicon Macs attempt to send out a 10–bit signal whenever possible, which would activate the monitor's own built-in temporal dithering functions on those types of monitors.

                                                The best monitors to use with Stillcolor and an Apple Silicon Mac are "true" 8-bit that do NOT use built-in FRC temporal dithering (which are unfortunately hard to find, as information can be inaccurate about whether a given "8-bit" monitor uses FRC or not…)

                                                    dev