Screen colour schemes and filters

If you use a separate monitor, you can switch between a range of pre-set modes.

• Look for the buttons on the front, side or back of your computer screen. 
• Switching modes changes the brightness and contrast of the screen, which can result in reduced discomfort and easier reading. 
• If you select the Custom option, you can adjust colour sliders to create a bigger effect. For example, see images.

These are specially tinted plastic sheets to cover your book, computer screen, or phone or tablet.

Coloured overlays at World Wide Learning: select the coloured glasses to test which colour filter suits you best. Then you can place an order if you wish.

Coloured overlay clings at Irlen.com: a US site also sells coloured overlays which have an optical-grade clear adhesive to stick onto your screen. 

Before trying third-party screen display tools, it is worth checking out the different screen display options provided in Windows:

Night light

This is a very simple setting, but it might be all you need.  It gives an adjustable orange tint to the screen.

• In the search box next to the Windows Start button, type night light, then select the Night light app from the search results.
• Select the Turn on now button
  
• Move the Strength slider to increase the effect 

Colour filters

1. In the search box next to the Windows Start button, 
2. type Settings, then select the Settings app, 
3. select Ease of Access. 
4. In the left column select Color filters, 
5. in the main panel Turn on color filters.  Colours will now be inverted. 

High contrast 

1. In the search box next to the Windows Start button, 
2. type Settings, then select the Settings app, 
3. select Ease of Access. 
4. In the left column select High contrast, 
5. in the main panel Turn on high contrast. Colours will now be contrasted. 
6. There are several options in the Choose a theme drop down box 

Windows 11

Windows 11 includes an improvement in these settings. In the example below 

1. select a theme, e.g. Dusk, 
2. select Edit to create a customized colour palette for your windows. 
3. give your custom display a name
4. select the Apply button.

Below is an example of how these changes can look in StudentWeb. 

The 2023 version of StudentWeb includes the option of a dark mode.  Select the moon button in the upper right side.  This works for any browser.

When in dark mode, you can switch back to the white background by selecting the same button, which has changed to a sun icon.

It is very easy to change the background and text colour of pages in Microsoft Word. 

To change the page colour, 

1. go to the Design tab on the ribbon
2. choose a colour from within the Page Color drop-down. 

To change the text colour, 

1. go to the Home tab on the ribbon
2. right-click on the Normal style. 
3. Select Modify from the menu
4. select the Format button in the dialog that appears. 
5. In the new window you can change the font colour to affect the entire document. 

Dark Reader is an add-on, or extension, to your Edge browser. It inverts the colours in Edge and it has sensitive adjustment. It seems preferable to the colour inversion in the Windows 10 settings – though it is restricted to Edge only.
To install it, go to the webpage for Edge Dark Reader add-on and select the Get button.
Select the Dark Reader icon in the top right area of the Edge window in order to see the options.
(Unfortunately installation is currently blocked on BHI computers) 

There are several different extensions that you can add to your Chrome browser in order to tint the screen colour.  Some of them dull the text and images, but an excellent choice is dyslex.ie. - which has additional, user-friendly tools for people with dyslexia.

1.  In Chrome go to the Dyslex.ie extension page
2. Select the Add to Chrome button towards the top right, then select the Add extension button when prompted
3. Select the Extensions icon near the top right of the Chrome window
4. In the displayed list of extensions, select the pin icon to the right of the Dyslex.ie extension.  (This places a Dyslex.ie icon on your address bar)
5. Close Chrome then restart it.
6. You should now see a Welcome to Dyslex.ie page.  (If not, open another web page that is NOT the Google search page.)  Select the Start button.
7. The first page is a questionnaire, but you can skip it.
8. You are then questioned about how dyslexia affects you.  You will be prompted to select your preferred font.  Finally you will be prompted to select your preferred screen colour.  The white background is now changed to your selected colour.
9. When you open a new web page, if the page colour does not change automatically, select the Dyslex.ie icon in the address bar.  (Unfortunately Chrome system pages remain white)
10. Each web page now has 3 round buttons in the upper right for settings, text only, and close
11. Select the settings cog button to display a menu where you can
• change text size
• change line height
• place boxes around paragraphs
• change the font  (one option is font Open Dsylexic)
• display a bright line focus bar
• change the colour tint and the background tint.  
• Note.  To give the screen display the best clarity, try leaving the colour tint switched off, but switch on the background tint
• The last menu option is to take the initial test again

 There are other Chrome extensions available. Ensure you access the following link using Chrome and not another browser.

Chrome extensions for colour overlays

ColorVeil is free software that provides a colour filter, not just on your browser, but for everything on your computer. You can choose any colour, and alter the transparency using a button in the Notification Area (bottom right of your screen).
You can install it on your own computer, and there is a zip file version which allows you to run it on any computer without installation
To download the app, visit the Colourveil homepage
(The drawback of Colorveil is that the filter is applied to everything on the screen, not just the white parts, so text and images become more dull. However, you can adjust the contrast on your monitor/screen to alleviate this somewhat.) 

If the above tools are not sufficient, you can find out more about Irlen dyslexia and special glasses with tinted lenses, at the website for the Australasian Association of Irlen Consultants