Screen Light For Mac

Make sure the screen brightness is turned all the way up. I used my 13.3' MacBook Pro, which was slightly small for a 8.5x11' paper. A larger screen would certainly be better. crarko adds: I've used an iPhone as a flashlight, but would not have thought of using a laptop as a light table. Start Using Screens 4 Now And control your computers from anywhere. Download Trial Buy Now. Screens is also available on the Mac App Store and Setapp. Supports macOS 10.12 Sierra or later. If you own any previous version of Screens, you are eligible for an upgrade license. We also offer volume discount. For more details about our license usage, click here. Our order process is conducted.

I tend to use a window. Of course this only works in the daytime.

I'd be very leery about doing this without something transparent and HARD like a sheet of glass between whatever I'm tracing with (pencil? pen? marker?) and the screen.

That sounds like a really bad idea, depending on the implement you're using to trace. The last thing you want is some permanent marker on your screen because you slipped!

Permanent marker is easily removed with rubbing alcohol or some other alcohol-based cleaner.
Also, since I was using an 8.5x11' paper on a 13' diagonal screen, there was no danger of slipping off the paper.

You call this a hint? Please bring Rob back.

This is a hint? Is there an editor? Other ideas: use your mini as a paperweight or panini press.....

Using an iPhone screen as a backlight isn't a terrible idea. There's a layer of hard glass between you and the soft screen.
But a laptop? The kind of screen that gets dark spots if you poke at it? This seems like a recipe for having whatever you're tracing permanently visible on your screen.

Caveat: Only do this if your device has a glass screen. You don't want to do this on an Air!
I've never used a computer for a lightbox, but I've used a window on a sunny day. It's awkward but it works when you don't have one around. I also have a glass coffee table, mostly because it looks good, but the fact that I can throw a light under it to use as a light table is certainly a bonus.

Terrible idea. So easy to accidentally press too hard and crack the screen...

If you press that hard, this tip is not for you. ;)

And in case you have no tools near, you can use it as a hammer....
...or a door stop....
...or to level a table with a shorter leg....
...or use a dozen of them as pilates...
...as a frisbee...
...and of course, as a notebook.
Lot of uses!
:)

Excellent. Good clean fun. Thanks to original poster and this commenter.

;-)

I was serious when I made this post. I did it, and it worked for what I needed to do. ;)
I'm sure it could work for all the things you suggested, but at 1.25' thick, using my laptop as a doorstop would probably not be very effective. That, and I'm not in the market for a new one.

Thank you for sharing, wallybear. I'm having trouble, though, using my macbook air as a frisbee. I'm running 10.7.3 and everything else is working just fine. The folks at Apple Care say this is a known issue, and can be traced back to hardware rectangularity, but they've been less than forthcoming about a solution. Any help would be most appreciated.

There is a simple solution to your problem.
Just buy or borrow another MacBook and use it as an hammer on the edges of the four corners of your future frisbee, until you get a rounded shape: the rounder the better. It will require some trial and error, but eventually you will succed.
Just please don't launch your shiny new frisbee at your dog, it could get hurt.
:)

I've used an LCD monitor (not on a laptop) as a light table for negatives; open a blank browser window in full-screen, shoot with a digital camera, and invert in Photoshop. The quality is not good, but it's sufficient for a contact sheet of large-format negatives so you can decide which ones you want to pay to have scanned.

You guys are being kind of harsh. I had to do this on occasion when I was an art student and my laptop is still in mint condition. It actually works well in a pinch.

Agreed. It's not like the submitter's telling little kids to do it. If someone posted a hint about using the edge of an Air as a bread knife, I'd just decide that it wasn't for me.

Really? Do you mean it cannot be used for bread? It could work as a cake knife? For butter? For taking apart oysters?
Don't take it too seriously, let's us joking a little, life is so short.
And remember, if you need to trace a really little sketch, you can use your iPhone with similar results.
:D

It is true, this is primarily a glass-screen tip. I specified my model.
Damage would only occur if you press really, really hard. We're talking a pencil here. I used B-hardness lead, which may affect the outcome. Don't press any harder than you would for normal writing—you're not doing an etching.
A window would have worked, but I was at a part of a library where there were no windows.
I'm also the guy that drew on the lid of my laptop with a pencil. ;)

I matched an old iBook with a white screen set up and 2 refurbished APC UPS batteries for emergency light ( as well as audio player/ recorder, & music alarm clock,. I have only used it once in the last 6 years and the screen lit up the entire room for over 40 min on one battery before the electricity came back on. I have not bothered calculating how many minutes each battery would provide. I have not had to change batteries yet, but replacement lead acid batteries are less than 20 bucks.

I have used the screen of a laptop as background light for experimental photography with great luck. I used an old IBM Thinkpad as I wouldn't risk my beloved MBP. ;o)) It is n fact a very funny idea, as You have a polarized glass in front, and if You place some plastic objects on the screen, and use a polarizing filter on your camera, you can get many funny results.

• Highly Compatible.

  Bring your own DMX interface: USB, Art-Net, sACN, or ESP-Net.

• Vastly Powerful.

  Lightkey’s built-in FX engine takes your light show to a new level.

• Surprisingly Simple.

  Easy to learn, quick to set up. Engineered exclusively for Mac.

Highly Compatible.
Bring Your Own DMX Interface.

Save the cost of expensive proprietary DMX hardware: Lightkey works with a wide range of USB interfaces plus any Art-Net, sACN, or ESP-Net-compatible device, thanks to the Open Lighting Architecture. Whatever DMX interface you have, there’s a good chance that Lightkey supports it—simply download Lightkey for free, plug in your interface, and give it a try.

Choose from a wide range of USB–DMX interfaces from various manufacturers

Or use any Art-Net, sACN, or ESP Net network interface

Hardware Control.
Enhance Your Experience.

Do you prefer the physical controls on a lighting console? Then you can have the best of both worlds. Lightkey integrates seam­lessly with any standard MIDI controller and DMX console (through DMX-In). You can map each hardware control to whatever feature you like and build your own custom-tailored show control desk to trigger cues, presets and sequences, adjust fixture properties, tap the beat, and whatever else you need.

Designed for Creativity.
Take Your Light Show to a New Level.

Designed for the needs of creative lighting designers, Lightkey breaks free from the old thinking about DMX values and channels. Thru advanced fixture profiles it understands all your fixtures’ properties—like Color, Gobo, Shutter, Prism, Zoom—, and provides specially-designed, easy-to-use controls for each of them. The current state of your fixtures is always visible in the live preview. Simply concentrate on the perfect light show and let Lightkey translate it to the proper DMX values.

• Virtual Light Beams

  Virtual light beams show your lights’ real-world positions and also reflect intensity, color, focus, zoom, iris, frost, and shutter/strobe states.

• Built-In Stage Editor IMPROVED

  The built-in graphical editor lets you recreate the stage or dance floor on the screen. Apart from your fixtures you can add shapes, trusses, and custom images.

• Copy & Paste

  Easily copy and paste properties and effects between fixtures – even fixtures of different types. Of course, you can undo as well.

• At a Glance

  Little “bubbles” in the Preview show you at a glance which fixture properties are overridden or defined by a preset, sequence, or cue.

• On-the-Fly Changes

  Quickly change any fixture property on the fly—perfect for nightclubs and parties where you don’t have a song run sheet in advance.

• Intelligent Design View

  The Design view automatically adapts itself according to your fixtures and their properties so you only see the controls you really need.

Effects.
Infinite Possibilities.

Lightkey’s powerful effects engine makes it easy and fun to create amazing dynamic looks. Choose from over 50 effect templates or create your own pattern, curve, or movement effects. Effects can be applied to almost any fixture property and stored in presets and cues while staying editable all the time. Apply effects to multi-beam LED strips and matrixes. Synchronize effects to music. Overlay multiple effects for countless possibilities.

Beat Control.
Stay in the rhythm.

Effortlessly sync your light show to music. Lightkey connects to your DAW, DJ app, or audio analysis software through MIDI Clock or Ableton Link. Or simply tap the beat and Lightkey will continue at the same tempo. You can adjust the speed of individual cues at any time with a Beat Multiplier.

• Tap the Beat

  Tap the beat with the mouse, keyboard, or a MIDI controller, and Lightkey will pick up the tempo.

• MIDI Clock

  Receive a MIDI Beat Clock signal sent by a DJ software, mixer, or audio analysis tool.

• Ableton Link

  Ableton Link syncs beat information between apps on the same computer or local network.

Always in Sync.
Run Your Lighting From Ableton Live.

The unique Live Triggers feature makes it quick and intuitive to trigger lighting cues directly from Ableton Live: Simply drag cues you created in Lightkey to the Ableton Live timeline. If you’re a live performer, you can create a light show that’s perfectly in sync with the music without any manual operation during the show.

Setup.
Surprisingly Simple.

An interactive assistant guides you through the entire setup process: Configure DMX output, patch your fixtures, create a visual representation of the stage. And if you ever need a fixture profile that is not in the built-in library, simply send us the DMX specs and we’ll create it for you within a few days.

Blue Light Screen For Macbook Pro

Command Central.

Don’t waste your time shuffling windows and panels around. Everything you need is cleanly arranged in a single window, providing you with exactly the controls you need at any time. The elegant, white-on-dark UI has been specially designed for use in low-light environments—it even adapts itself to the light colors.

Screen Light For Macbook Air

• Full-Screen Mode

  The single-window user interface has been specially designed for full-screen mode.

• Touch Screen Support

  All controls have large clickable areas and work great with touch screens.

• Multi-Touch Gestures

  Pinch, swipe, scroll, force click: With a Multi-Touch trackpad you can change fixture properties in a natural way. (And it’s fun too.)

• Extensive Keyboard Shortcuts

  A clever, well-structured, and extensible system of keyboard shortcuts lets you control virtually every application feature.

Fixtures.
State of the Art.

Lightkey handles even the most sophisticated fixtures with ease. Its smart fixture profiles support multiple modes (“personalities”), 16-bit output, conditional properties, RGB/CMY color mixing, multiple color and gobo wheels, custom beam layouts, and much more. Lightkey comes with a huge library of over 3000 high-quality fixture profiles for all popular manufac­turers, and it can import thousands of freely available profiles in the formats SSL2, FXT, and PFF.

Built-In Fixture Editor

To make fixture profile creation as easy as possible, Lightkey’s fixture editor has the same layout as a typical DMX chart. (Click the image for a side-by-side comparison.) And it’s built right into the application so changes take effect instantly.

High Technology.
Made for Your Mac.

Lightkey was engineered from the ground up as a native Mac app, so it’s finally goodbye to the Windows emulation. It perfectly matches your Mac’s look and feel and comes with all the familiar features like Dark Mode, full screen view, autosaving, copy and paste, unlimited undo, or automatic updates. Under the hood, Lightkey takes full advantage of your Mac’s capabilities including 64-bit processing, multicore computing thru Grand Central Dispatch, support for Retina displays, and pristine graphics using Apple’s Core Animation and Metal 2 technologies.

Editions & Pricing.What’s your Lightkey edition?

• All editions come with the full feature set, even the free edition.
• You can always upgrade if you need more channels later.

Check it Out.
Today. For Free.

Screen Light For Macbook

Lightkey uses the Open Lighting Architecture, an open-source framework by the Open Lighting Project.
Download the source code here or get the latest version on GitHub.