How to Make Your Mac's Screen Easier to See: Contrast, Colour Filters and Motion

A modern Mac screen has thin fonts, see-through panels and plenty of animation. If that makes it hard to read or uncomfortable to look at, a few switches can change it.

All of these settings are in one place: Apple menu > System Settings > Accessibility > Display.

Make things clearer

Increase contrast

Turn on Increase contrast. Buttons, boxes and menus get darker outlines, and greys become more distinct. It's the single most useful switch if the Mac's interface looks faint to you.

Reduce transparency

Turn on Reduce transparency. The menu bar, Dock, sidebars and menus become solid, so text is no longer sitting on a blurred background. Turning on Increase contrast does this automatically.

Differentiate without colour

Turn on Differentiate without colour. Where the Mac relies on colour alone to show something, such as a red or green status dot, it adds a shape or symbol as well.

Colour filters for colour blindness

1. In Accessibility > Display, scroll to Colour filters.
2. Turn on Colour filters.
3. Choose a Filter type:

4. Adjust Intensity until colours are easier to tell apart.

A coloured overlay for reading

Choose Colour Tint, pick a colour and set the intensity. Some people with dyslexia or visual stress find a tinted screen, such as a soft yellow, blue or pink, more comfortable for reading. Try a few to see what suits you.

Invert colours

Turn on Invert colours for light text on a dark background everywhere.

• Smart inverts the interface and leaves photos and videos looking normal.
• Classic inverts everything on screen.

For a gentler option, try Dark Mode: go to System Settings > Appearance and choose Dark.

Reduce motion

If sliding and zooming animations make you feel dizzy or queasy, turn on Reduce motion. Opening apps, switching desktops and opening Mission Control then use a simple fade.

Related switches on the same page, depending on your version of macOS:

• Auto-play animated images. Turn this off to stop GIFs moving in Safari and Messages.
• Dim flashing lights. Video is dimmed automatically when flashes or strobing are detected.
• Prefer non-blinking cursor. The text cursor stays steady.

Ease eye strain in the evening

These are in System Settings > Displays:

• Night Shift. Click Night Shift… to warm the screen's colours after sunset. Many people find this more comfortable at night.
• True Tone. On supported Macs, the screen adjusts to the light in the room.
• Brightness. Turn off Automatically adjust brightness if the changes bother you.

Switch settings on and off quickly

Press Option + Command + F5 to open the Accessibility Shortcut panel. To choose what appears there, go to System Settings > Accessibility > Shortcut and tick items such as Colour Filters, Invert Colours, Increase Contrast and Reduce Motion.

This is useful if you only want a filter for certain tasks, like reading a long document.

A good starting point

If you're not sure what you need, try this combination for a day:

1. Increase contrast on
2. Reduce motion on
3. Night Shift from sunset to sunrise

Then add or remove settings one at a time.

Wrapping up

Everything is in System Settings > Accessibility > Display. None of these settings changes your files, so experiment freely and switch off anything that doesn't help.