Is it possible to switch the desktop into grayscale ?

anselm · 2018-06-06 08:25:26

I have read an interesting article here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2019595
It is about using a grayscale colourless desktop / screen to increase productivity. I can confirm that, as I used a grayscale monitor in the past 1 year (date of manufacturing: 1992). It seems I was more productive compared to the previous period, when I used normal colour CRT displays.

Right now I managed to buy a 21.5" colour LED display, and I would like to try out a grayscale desktop settings again. Currently I am using the proprietary nvidia driver, nvidia-96xx-dkms, but I am ready to switch to xf86-video-nouveau, if it supports switching to a grayscale desktop. Unfortunately the application "nvidia-settings" from the "nvidia-96xx-utils" package contains no settings for switching the whole desktop into grayscale.

In a forum post somebody mention, that setting the so called digital vibrance to a value of -1024 will result in a grayscale colour desktop. However when I try to achieve this with "xrandr", it says the value of digital vibrance can be only 0-64, inclusive.

When I searched the internet for finding another suultion, I was able to find only that which mentions editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf the following way:

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Default Screen"
        Device          "nVidia Corporation NV40 [GeForce 6800]"
        Monitor         "Generic Monitor"
        DefaultDepth    8
        SubSection "Display"
                Visual          "GrayScale"
                Depth           8
                Modes         "1280x1024" "1024x768"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

But unfortunately it results in a 8 bit depth screen with 256 possible shades of gray, where there are no continuous / smooth "colour" transitions, in the sense of shades of gray.

What other software methods exist to make the desktop grayscale with smooth transitions between the shades of gray? Or should I use a "patched" VGA cable and disable the colour signal wire?

Last edited by anselm (2018-06-06 08:48:09)

Trilby · 2018-06-06 11:24:08

linked post wrote:

Try counting all the elements on your screen right now that are specifically designed to grab your eye with color. Maybe a dozen program icons in your taskbar/dock, as many favicons in your browser window.
Two dozen items that were designed specifically to grab your attention.

But this is arch linux. If any of those things are on your screen it is because you put them there. Why would you put something on your screen to grab your attention only to switch your screen to grayscale so it could not succeed? Just don't add those program icons, taskbars, docs, etc.

In otherwords, don't artificially deflate the potential informational bandwidth: information is (can be) useful. Instead, stop all of the processes that are using up that informational bandwidth to send you messages that you don't care about. A white noise generator may help mask background noise, but this will not result in you being able to hear the person next to you better. If you want to hear the person next to you, just go somewhere quiet to talk.

Last edited by Trilby (2018-06-06 11:26:45)

ugjka · 2018-07-21 15:09:29

I made a kwin effect that turns screen in grayscale https://github.com/ugjka/kwin-effect-grayscale
I did this out of curiosity to find out if it will make me more productive
It only makes me more disoriented and bored more easily
Maybe I only need to get used to it

Arch Linux

#1 2018-06-06 08:25:26

Is it possible to switch the desktop into grayscale ?

#2 2018-06-06 11:24:08

Re: Is it possible to switch the desktop into grayscale ?

#3 2018-07-21 15:09:29

Re: Is it possible to switch the desktop into grayscale ?

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