Dim your background for better proofing

[Gare]

ronmatt, Gary Eden, and our other members who use OS X might find this valuable, and it's free.

doodim dims the desktop background so your foreground app can stand out. I'd think this is good for accurately evaluating colors as you balance images without the distractions.

BTW, if you want to dim the document background in Photoshop, drag the document borders out so you can see the background, pick a foreground color, and then with the Paint Bucket tool, Shift+click. This is not an action, so it's not undoable--so think twice before choosing chartreuse!

My Best,

Gare

[Welles]

Belatedly....

For Mac users who like to have colorful desktop images but like recognize the need for a neutral color in all sorts of apps try using Desktop Curtain (freeware). I set the color to 60% gray and have it sit above the icons on the desktop and I have a perfectly neutral screen.

Desktop Curtain

[Gare]

Thanks for the tip, Welles,

60% black is better than 50% if for only one reason: cursors and bounding box handles in Photoshop and many other applications use inverted screen colors. So at 60% black, you have a good chance of seeing bounding box handles, path anchors and such. At 50%, you can't see anything--the opposite of 50% is 50%! Many frustrating hours trying to edit a 50% black image!

My Best,

Gare