Redbright

An app that takes the strain away from your eyes.

Main Features

• Turn the screen red and black
• Dim brightness the better way

Technical Features

• Tray icon with quick actions:
  • Toggle Red
  • Pause/Unpause Brightness
  • Toggle Red + Brightness
• Global hotkeys (configurable in-app) for all actions
• Starts minimized (optional) and remembers last settings

Requirements

• Windows 10/11 (SDR recommended; HDR pipelines may ignore gamma ramps)
• .NET Desktop Runtime 8 (if running framework-dependent builds)

Install

Download and run the installer produced under installer/Output/Redbright-Setup.exe, or build it yourself (see Build below).

The installer:

• Installs to Program Files (C:\Program Files\Redbright)
• Creates Start Menu and optional Desktop shortcuts
• Does not require elevation (PrivilegesRequired=lowest)

Usage

• Launch Redbright. The main window shows:

  • Big “Turn Screen Red” button (toggles color only)
  • Brightness slider (software dimming)
  • “Pause brightness” checkbox (locks dimming to 100% and disables the slider)
  • Autostart and “start minimized to tray” checkboxes

• Tray icon menu:

  • “Toggle Red”
  • “Pause/Unpause Brightness”
  • “Toggle Red + Brightness”
  • “Show/Hide”, “Exit”

• Hotkeys:

  • Three rows in the window let you set (or clear) shortcuts by clicking the field and pressing the desired combo (e.g., Ctrl+Alt+R). The field click clears existing first, then captures.

Notes:

• Brightness slider affects software dimming regardless of color state.
• “Toggle Red + Brightness” pauses brightness at 100% when enabling red-only, and restores your previous brightness when disabling red-only

Crash logs

• Global crash handling writes logs to: %LocalAppData%\Redbright\logs\crash-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.txt (Release) or %LocalAppData%\Redbright-Dev\logs\crash-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.txt (Debug/dev builds)

Issues & Features

• Issues, suggestions and pull requests are very welcome 😊✨

Build (Developer)

Prereqs:

• .NET 8 SDK
• Optional for installer: Inno Setup 6 (iscc.exe on PATH)

Build & run (Release):

dotnet build Redbright.sln -c Release
dotnet run --project .\Redbright.App\Redbright.App.csproj

Build Installer

From the installer folder:

cd installer
.\build.ps1 -Restore   # first time or when NuGet restore is needed
# Next times (if restore already done):
.\build.ps1

Output: installer\Output\Redbright-Setup.exe

Build script steps:

• dotnet publish Redbright.App (single-file, self-contained by default, RID=win-x64)
• Compile Inno Setup script installer\Redbright.iss to generate the installer

If iscc.exe is not found:

• Install Inno Setup 6 and add its folder to PATH

Known Limitations

• HDR: Some HDR pipelines ignore gamma ramp changes. Dimming/tint may not apply.
• Exclusive fullscreen apps/games may bypass desktop gamma.
• Vendor calibration tools or GPU control panels can overwrite gamma ramps. The app re-applies on changes, but conflicts may exist.

Privacy

• The app does not collect or transmit data.

License

Apache-2.0

Thank-yous

Thanks to Iris for heavy inspiration.