Mac Tip: Reverse Screen Colours

Published on September 3rd, 2008 by Franz Jeitz | 11 Comments »

At first I though it was just a little fun thing they added to Mac OSX, but today I discovered that it actually feeds a purpose. I was reading an interview on a dark website and half way through my eyes started to hurt. So I used the shortcut to reverse my screen colours which allowed me to read black  text on a white background which really helped getting through it. Below are screenshots of what it looks like. I used this site as an example.

To access this shortcut press: ctrl+alt+apple+8
Hit it again to reverse to the original display.

Written by Franz Jeitz

Franz Jeitz is a freelance designer and owner of Fudgegraphics. Originally from Luxembourg he now lives in London. Franz loves design, music and is a tea enthusiast. Follow him on Twitter.

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11 Awesome Responses so far
  1. palma tayona

    does anyone know how to reverse screen colors on PC?

    palma tayonas last blog post..A TRIBUTE

  2. Anne

    Hej,

    that’s a quite cool feature – didn’t know that there exists a special shortcut. Thanks!

  3. NaldzGraphics

    nice trick:)im using pc though:)is there a reverse color command for pc?

    NaldzGraphicss last blog post..How to Create a Simple Face Text Portrait in Photoshop

  4. Georges

    interesting shortcut. do you know nocturne? with this app you can also switch to monochrome colors. i sometimes use it in dim conditions on my MacBook.

  5. fudge

    @Palma Tayona @Naldzgraphics
    Unfortunately I don’t know whether there exist a simiar shortcut for PC.

    @Gerges
    I didn’t know that program. It looks really cool and I will definitely give it a shot. Thanks for the tip.

  6. Joseph Cyr

    I can’t get this to work with the new aluminum flat keyboards.

    Any suggestions?

  7. fudgegraphics

    @Joseph:

    Sorry, unfortunately I don’t know why it doesn’t work for you. It might be that you have some manual shortcut set which interferes with it.

  8. Joseph Cyr

    I found the problem. I had the keyboard shortcut turned off in the System Preferences. I assign keyboard shortcuts in many applications and lots of the system ones were interfering so I turned most of them off.

    Thanks,
    Joseph

  9. Jim

    Didn’t even know this function existed! Thanks for the tip =)

  10. Stefani

    That is a great find! I can think of several other uses—for looking at the world in a new way, and thus seeing some art where none was intended; for testing the contrast of a page; and to play a prank on a friend when their back is turned! :-)

    Thanks,
    Stefani

  11. subcorpus

    very useful feature when screen grabing … makes stuff stand out more …
    kewl …

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