Night Vision Protection? Astronomers want to know!

from Stardock Forums

Hello,

Can I use a Window Blinds theme that doesn't destroy night vision?  I really want to see no white on my screen whatsoever.

As an amateur astronomer, I use my laptop while observing.  Most applications have a display mode that attempts to remove all white other bright colors so as to keep their users night vision protected.  All the white dialogue boxes that pop up in windows are a frequent disaster.  Changing between applications is a high risk behavior.  We need mostly pure black and a deep red for just about everything else.

Has anyone created such a theme?  Maybe know one that is a good start towards such a theme?

Help would be greatly appreciated!

-Bob

windowblinds
4,056 views 7 replies
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

There used to be one that is totally black, Oni or something similar. Not the recent Oni but one older. I don't remember the author or skin name though.

Edit: I just went through my WB folder. Oni is nearly completely black and very dark grey, No white that I noticed....never mind, there's white in the windows. Bummer!

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Venom, by vStyler. pure awesomeness in black and red.

Endeavour by 2of3;  another dark beauty that won't hurt your eyes.

Xiandi has been mentioned, and she also has some excellent dark skins, such as Innominatum.

 Two are Master Skins and worth every penny. These are 3 of the best, done by 3 of the best. :thumbsup:

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

A word of warning, though. Skinning your laptop with WindowBlinds may make it look so nice, you won't want to take your eyes off of it and go back to your telescope. ;)

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

Thank you for the great suggestions!

I have looked at Venom and tried Endeavour, since it comes with WindowBlinds.  Both are very good starting points but not quite acceptable as-is to a picky astronomer.  There's really too much white visible in the demo and screen shots.  

To be acceptable to astronomers, it should be nearly all black with red.  No white anywhere.  We want our eyes to be very sensitive to the white of very dim stars so any white on the screen weakens our ability to see dim objects.  For instance, look at Endeavour that comes with WindowBlinds.  The white X in the corner of window example is too much. 

Our eyes are very sensitive to white, blue, yellow, green but not very sensitive to red.  Red doesn't affect night vision like the other colors, so looking at red on the computer screen doesn't effect our ability to see dim objects.

I tried to modify Endeavour to change it but I had no luck figuring out how to it works.  Are there any good tutorials on how to use WindowBlinds and SkinStudio?  I want to remove every little bit of white: lettering in all text and in every icon that appears on screen.

-Bob