How to Filter or Disable Blue Light on Ubuntu

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How to Filter or Disable Blue Light on Ubuntu

Desktop screens emit blue light that might affect your sleep cycle. Learn how to filter blue light on your Ubuntu machine. For most of our waking days, we are surrounded by screens. While it's not a big problem in itself, staring at screens well into the evening can result in a disturbance of the natural sleep cycle, which in turn, can result in health risks like insomnia, daytime fatigue, and more. The culprit behind this is the blue light emitted by these screens. This makes it pertinent that we remove, or, at the very least, filter the blue light from our screens. There are both manual and automated ways to disable the blue light on your Ubuntu system. Let's get started with the manual one.

Manually Disable Blue Light on Ubuntu

This is one of the simplest methods available for a task like this. For Ubuntu users, it's also the default way to turn off the blue light. Click on the drop-down menu in the top-right corner of your screen. Click on the Settings icon. In the Settings section, select Displays and switch to the Night Light tab. Turn on the Night Light filter. And in this way, you can filter the blue light on Ubuntu. You also get additional options to edit the settings, such as setting up a schedule for automatically turning on the blue light filter for the next time. There's also a feature to maintain the color temperature of your screen.

Filter Blue Light on Ubuntu With Third-Party Apps

Manual methods for turning off the blue light don't come with as many options. But don't worry. There are many third-party apps out there that will filter out the blue lights for you. Here are two of the best options that are available for free:

1

If you google for the best Ubuntu blue light filters, you are bound to encounter Iris Mini. An open-source and minimalistic alternative to , Iris Mini does the job of removing the blue light from your screen. Moreover, it can also decrease your screen brightness without increasing the flicker rate of the screen. To install Iris Mini, visit their website and download the app from there. After you've downloaded the TAR.GZ file, open the folder where you've downloaded the file, and extract its contents wherever you want. Now, click on the newly extracted AppImage file to launch Iris Mini. You can tweak the settings of the app from the desktop icon that will appear after you launch the app, or from the new Iris Mini icon at the top of the screen. The Change mode option can only switch between two options, though. For more functionalities, you can purchase the pro version of Iris mini.

2

Redshift is another popular option in the Linux community that's suitable for the job. It works by adjusting the temperature of the screen according to your timeline settings. As said by the creator himself, Redshift takes its inspiration from the popular blue-light filter tool, f.lux. Initially, it started as a command-line project, but now it's also available as a GUI app. To install it on your system, head over to Ubuntu Software, search for RedShift and install the application from there. Finally, launch it and configure the settings according to your fancy.

Filtering the Blue Light From Your Screen

The blue light emitted from your screen can disrupt your sleep cycle. Therefore, it's necessary that you take steps to reduce your exposure to it. Hopefully, one of these methods did the trick for you. But don't stop now. Linux comes packed with many similar tricks that most people are still unaware of.