Dimmer 1.4.1

Dimmer 1.4.1 fixes one thing.

• Changing screen brightness with the lid part-closed now stays where you put it; closing further dims from there, and opening the lid all the way brings back the brightness you had with it open. Before, Dimmer forced the screen back to its own level until the lid was opened again. Go dark, and a screen dimmed all the way to black, still hold their level.

The veil is a visual cover, not a lock. No Screen Recording, Accessibility or Input Monitoring permission. No account or telemetry. Update checks are optional.

One universal app for macOS 14 or later, signed with a Developer ID and notarised by Apple. Tested on a 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max (MacBookPro18,2) on macOS 27.2; Intel is untested.

On 1.3.0 or later, Dimmer offers this update itself, or choose Check for updates…. Dimmer 1.2.1 and earlier cannot update themselves, so install 1.4.1 by hand once: download Dimmer-1.4.1.dmg below, open it and drag Dimmer to Applications, replacing the old copy. Your settings carry over.

Check it against SHA256SUMS with shasum -a 256 Dimmer-1.4.1.dmg.

The privacy shortcut uses KeyboardShortcuts by Sindre Sorhus (MIT). Updates use Sparkle 2.10.0 (MIT, with BSD and zlib notices).

Found a problem, or a translation that reads wrong? Open a bug report.

Dimmer 1.4.0

Dimmer 1.4.0 fixes a first-close bug that dates from 1.0, works on Macs without a lid sensor, and gives every blur box a choice of named looks.

• The first close after opening the lid now dims. Before, it sometimes did nothing, because smoothing hid the lid reaching the top of its range, so the screen never took its open brightness. Now the keyboard and screen start dimming once the lid is about two degrees below the top of their range. This fixes the cause I could reproduce; if a first close still fails after Dimmer has been running for a long time, a bug report with what happened helps.
• On a Mac without a readable lid-angle sensor, Dimmer no longer leaves you with nothing: Privacy veil (Ctrl+Cmd+P), Go dark and Keep awake all work, and the angle controls are unavailable. Nothing polls the lid, and Go dark wakes on keyboard or pointer input instead. This mode is tested by forcing it on a Mac that has the sensor; no Mac without one has been tried.
• Snap to blur, Blur by angle and Privacy veil each have a Look menu: Frost, Mist, Slate, Smoke and Charcoal. Snap to blur and Privacy veil set blur strength and tint together; Blur by angle sets its tint and keeps its range. Change a control yourself and the menu shows Custom; Cmd+Z undoes a look in one step.

The veil is a visual cover, not a lock. No Screen Recording, Accessibility or Input Monitoring permission. No account or telemetry. Update checks are optional.

One universal app for macOS 14 or later, signed with a Developer ID and notarised by Apple. Tested on a 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max (MacBookPro18,2) on macOS 27.2; Intel is untested.

On 1.3.0 or later, Dimmer offers this update itself, or choose Check for updates…. Dimmer 1.2.1 and earlier cannot update themselves, so install 1.4.0 by hand once: download Dimmer-1.4.0.dmg below, open it and drag Dimmer to Applications, replacing the old copy. Your settings carry over.

Check it against SHA256SUMS with shasum -a 256 Dimmer-1.4.0.dmg.

The privacy shortcut uses KeyboardShortcuts by Sindre Sorhus (MIT). Updates use Sparkle 2.10.0 (MIT, with BSD and zlib notices).

Found a problem, or a translation that reads wrong? Open a bug report.

Dimmer 1.3.1

Dimmer 1.3.1 makes Settings smoother, gives Snap to blur its own blur strength and puts a preview in every blur box.

• Settings stays smooth while you drag a range or move the lid: the window no longer redraws every box for each change.
• Snap to blur has its own blur strength, separate from the privacy shortcut's. Your settings carry over: both start from the strength you had before.
• Snap to blur, Blur by angle and Privacy veil each have a preview in their box. Snap to blur and Privacy veil preview their own strength and tint; Blur by angle previews its tint at full blur.

One universal app for macOS 14 or later, signed with a Developer ID and notarised by Apple. Tested on a 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max (MacBookPro18,2) on macOS 27.2; Intel is untested.

On 1.3.0, Dimmer offers this update itself, or choose Check for updates…. Dimmer 1.2.1 and earlier cannot update themselves, so install 1.3.1 by hand once: download Dimmer-1.3.1.dmg below, open it and drag Dimmer to Applications, replacing the old copy. Your settings carry over.

Check it against SHA256SUMS with shasum -a 256 Dimmer-1.3.1.dmg.

The privacy shortcut uses KeyboardShortcuts by Sindre Sorhus (MIT). Updates use Sparkle 2.10.0 (MIT, with BSD and zlib notices).

Found a problem, or a translation that reads wrong? Open a bug report.

Dimmer 1.3.0

Dimmer 1.3.0 adds Blur by angle, a blur that follows the lid with its own tint, and brings more controls into the panel and Settings.

• Blur by angle frosts the screen more as the lid closes, between two angles you set. Snap to blur, Blur by angle and the privacy shortcut each have their own Frost to Smoke tint, and typing or touching the trackpad now fades the privacy veil away at the Clear speed you set.
• Pause for 15 minutes or 1 hour and Dimmer resumes by itself. Resume keyboard dimming hands back only the keyboard, leaving screen and privacy control running.
• Cmd+Z undoes range and privacy adjustments in Settings, and each box has its own restore link that resets only that box.
• Go dark can have its own shortcut, unassigned until you record one, and the panel now offers every preset Keep awake duration.
• The panel explains when screen dimming is waiting, retrying or unavailable. Settings gives each feature its own box and updates more smoothly as the lid moves, and the privacy shortcut can now be switched off in its box.
• Quitting while macOS has dimmed the keyboard for inactivity now restores your brightness.
• Dimmer now checks for updates, if you agree. On its second launch it asks whether to check automatically; then once a day it fetches a small signed file, https://kalkmancode.co.uk/dimmer/appcast.xml, and updates download from GitHub. That check is its only network connection, and the request carries your IP address, preferred language and a User-Agent naming Dimmer's and Sparkle's versions, nothing more. Check for updates… checks once, and Settings → Updates turns automatic checks off.

One universal app for macOS 14 or later, signed with a Developer ID and notarised by Apple. Tested on a 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max (MacBookPro18,2) on macOS 27.2; Intel is untested.

Dimmer 1.2.1 and earlier cannot update themselves, so install 1.3.0 by hand once: download Dimmer-1.3.0.dmg below, open it and drag Dimmer to Applications, replacing the old copy. Your settings carry over. From 1.3 on, Dimmer offers updates itself.

Check it against SHA256SUMS with shasum -a 256 Dimmer-1.3.0.dmg.

The privacy shortcut uses KeyboardShortcuts by Sindre Sorhus (MIT). Updates use Sparkle 2.10.0 (MIT, with BSD and zlib notices).

Found a problem, or a translation that reads wrong? Open a bug report.

Dimmer 1.2.1

Dimmer now speaks Spanish, Portuguese, German, French and Japanese, following your Mac's language.

• The menu bar panel, Settings, the welcome, About and the uninstall guide are all translated. Any other language falls back to English.
• Settings can be made wider and remembers its size, and longer labels wrap rather than being cut off.
• Everything else works as in 1.2.0, and your settings carry over.

One universal app for macOS 14 or later, signed with a Developer ID and notarised by Apple. Tested on a 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max (MacBookPro18,2) on macOS 27.2; Intel is untested.

Download Dimmer-1.2.1.dmg below, open it and drag Dimmer to Applications, replacing 1.2.0. Check it against SHA256SUMS with shasum -a 256 Dimmer-1.2.1.dmg.

The privacy shortcut uses KeyboardShortcuts by Sindre Sorhus (MIT).

Found a problem, or a translation that reads wrong? Open a bug report.

Dimmer 1.2.0

A privacy shortcut out of the box, Go dark and Keep awake in the panel, and better manners with the keyboard backlight.

• Ctrl+Cmd+P blurs every screen from any app. Change or clear it in Settings, where the field now has an outline and says to click it.
• If macOS has dimmed the keyboard for inactivity, Dimmer leaves it dark and lets macOS bring it back. Screen dimming and the privacy veil carry on meanwhile.
• One press of a keyboard brightness key always hands the keyboard back to you. If automatic keyboard brightness was on, it comes back at the level you chose.
• Go dark and Keep awake are in the menu bar panel. Go dark starts from the current brightness and darkens both keyboard and screen, even with a lane switched off.
• Settings fits smaller screens and opens where you left it. An uninstall guide is under More in the panel.
• VoiceOver reads each Settings control's name once, and every switch and the shortcut field now have names. With Reduce Transparency on, near-miss partial veils are skipped.

Upgrading from 1.1: your settings carry over. One exception: if you had no privacy shortcut set, including one you cleared, you now get Ctrl+Cmd+P, because 1.1 did not record clearing it. Clear it again in Settings if you do not want it.

One universal app for macOS 14 or later, signed with a Developer ID and notarised by Apple. Tested on a 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max (MacBookPro18,2) on macOS 27.2; Intel is untested.

Download Dimmer-1.2.0.dmg below, open it and drag Dimmer to Applications, replacing 1.1.0. Check it against SHA256SUMS with shasum -a 256 Dimmer-1.2.0.dmg.

The privacy shortcut uses KeyboardShortcuts by Sindre Sorhus (MIT).

Found a problem? Open a bug report.

Dimmer 1.1.0

Adds a Settings window, a snap-to-blur privacy veil, Go dark and keep-awake.

• Settings draws the keyboard and screen ranges on one lid-angle axis with the live lid on it. Drag an end sideways for its angle and up or down for its brightness, or type exact values. Each range has its own switch.
• New defaults: the keyboard and screen both fade from full with the lid at 100 degrees to off at 68. If you moved a slider in 1.0, your angles carry over instead; if you never did, you get the new defaults, and you can drag the ends in Settings to change them.
• Snap to blur (off by default): snap the lid quickly down into its zone, 68 to 99 degrees by default, and every screen frosts over with the pointer hidden. Typing, the trackpad or mouse, or pushing the lid back up clears it. Snap size, speed, clear speed, strength and tint are all settings, with a live preview.
• A privacy shortcut you record in Settings brings the veil up from any app, snap on or off. There is none until you record one.
• Go dark, on the menu bar icon's right-click menu, fades the keyboard and screen to off until you touch a key, the trackpad or the lid.
• Keep awake for 15 minutes to 5 hours, until a time, or indefinitely, optionally with the display on.
• You can hide the menu bar icon; open Dimmer again from Applications or Spotlight to get Settings back. About, Report a bug and View latest release are on the right-click menu, and a short welcome greets you the first time.
• VoiceOver can read and set every value in Settings, the axis ends move with the arrow keys, and Reduce Motion and Reduce Transparency are respected. Still no Accessibility, Input Monitoring or Screen Recording permission needed.

One universal app for macOS 14 or later, signed with a Developer ID and notarised by Apple. Tested on a 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max (MacBookPro18,2) on macOS 27.2; Intel is untested.

Download Dimmer-1.1.0.dmg below, open it and drag Dimmer to Applications, replacing 1.0.1. Check it against SHA256SUMS with shasum -a 256 Dimmer-1.1.0.dmg.

The privacy shortcut uses KeyboardShortcuts by Sindre Sorhus (MIT).

Found a problem? Open a bug report.

Dimmer 1.0.1

Fixes screen dimming from 1.0.0.

• Reopening the lid always brings your screen brightness back. In 1.0.0, if automatic brightness changed the screen while the lid was part closed, Dimmer stopped dimming, did not restore it, and could then treat the dimmed level as your normal one, so the screen stayed dim.
• Dimmer now takes your normal brightness only while the lid is fully open, and keeps the screen on its curve while the lid closes.
• The screen now goes fully dark at the off angle. A MacBook panel still glows at its lowest brightness, so Dimmer fades the picture to black as well.
• Coming back up is a smooth ramp, with no flash.

One universal app for macOS 14 or later, signed with a Developer ID and notarised by Apple. Tested on a 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max (MacBookPro18,2) on macOS 27.2; Intel is untested.

Download Dimmer-1.0.1.dmg below, open it and drag Dimmer to Applications, replacing 1.0.0. Check it against SHA256SUMS with shasum -a 256 Dimmer-1.0.1.dmg.

Found a problem? Open a bug report.

Dimmer 1.0.0

First release. Dimmer is a menu bar app that dims a MacBook's keyboard backlight as the lid closes, following the hinge angle: full brightness above 85 degrees, off at 30, both adjustable. It puts the backlight back the way it found it when you pause it, quit it or the Mac sleeps. It dims the built-in screen along the same curve and restores it when the lid opens again, leaving automatic brightness alone; switch that off with Dim screen too.

• One universal app for macOS 14 or later, signed with a Developer ID and notarised by Apple.
• Tested on one machine only: a 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max (MacBookPro18,2) on macOS 27.2.
• Intel is untested. Only an Intel MacBook with the hinge sensor can work, reportedly the 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro onwards.
• It uses interfaces Apple does not document, so a macOS update may break it.

Download Dimmer-1.0.0.dmg below, open it and drag Dimmer to Applications. Check it against SHA256SUMS with shasum -a 256 Dimmer-1.0.0.dmg.

Found a problem, or tried it on an Intel Mac? Open a bug report.