Working for long hours on a computer induces headaches. If you don’t take breaks in between the work, your eyes will hurt and as the time passes by, your eyesight will degrade.
What precautions can you take while working on a PC?
Use glasses that filters blue light
Get your eyesight tested in a nearby hospital. Then, take the slip the doctor has provided you to the optician and ask him to use glasses that offer UV/BL rays protection in your new spectacles.
Use eye protection software
There are a plethora of programs that adjust the screen brightness and temperature automatically. The best applications among the lot are mentioned below.
IRIS
IRIS is the best eye protection software right now. As in other similar programs, you don’t have to enter the longitude and latitude of your location in IRIS. IRIS detects your location and adjusts screen color automatically.
The software supports two modes i.e automatic and manual. Both modes allow you to select one of the following color presets:
- Health, sleep, Reading.
- Programming, BioHacker, Sunglasses.
- Dark, Movie and overlay.
Some of the above presets will modify Windows registry entries or disable GPU. If you don’t want IRIS to make changes to the screen temperature, brightness or contrast, you can pause it for an indefinite time.
The IRIS program is available in two versions, Free and Pro. The Pro version of IRIS allows you to change the blue light, transition, location, sleep, monitor, font settings, etc.
F.Lux
F.Lux is the most popular software for eye protection. You can configure this software to make the screen warmer when the backlit system of the monitor dims.
Laptops have dedicated buttons to control the brightness, but computer keyboards don’t. As the software supports hotkeys, users can adjust the screen brightness by pressing the Alt and Page Down/Up keys.
F.Lux is compatible with the Philips Hue light system. The software allows you to change the screen color temperature manually. Like IRIS, it can detect your location and set the screen temperature automatically.
F.lux ships with the following color modes:
- Ember, candle, Dim Incandescent.
- Halogen, Fluorescent, sunlight.
If you’re doing a color sensitive task, you can disable the program for an hour with a click of a button. Unlike IRIS, F.Lux is a cross-platform program.
Redshift
Redshift is the 2nd most popular application on our list. It is a cross-platform, open-source, and lightweight program. Redshift ships with a global configuration file which users can edit as per their requirements.
To use this application, users must enter the latitude and longitude of their region or they must select the timezone and location in the Redshift location interface. Users can change the temperature of the screen in the command line mode in Redshift.
By default, RS keeps the screen color temperature to 6500K. If you increase this value, the screen will increase the emission of blue rays. If you reduce the value, the monitor will display more red lights. The Redshift program adjusts the screen color temperature automatically. It doesn’t affect the performance of other applications. It is easy to use.
SunsetScreen
SS is a good alternative to the above applications. When it is active, SS consumes 4 megabytes RAM.
SunsetScreen provides a slider to change the color and brightness level of the screen. The program offers ten color presets. It has the option to set the sunrise and sunset time. It lets users disable the night day/mode. SS responds to six combinations of keys.
SunsetScreen is available for download in two versions – standalone and portable.
Conclusion: Redshift, F.Lux, SunsetScreen, and IRIS are the best eye protection programs for Windows, Mac and Linux OS.
