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I am using a macbook pro running OSX 10.6 snow leopard.
In System Preferences/Displays/Display, I can change the brightness of the macbook's screen. However, this option is not available for the external monitor.
Is there a way to change the brightness of an external monitor without resorting to changing the settings manually on the monitor itself ?
This happens using both of the mini-displayports adapters (DVI & VGA)
user27972
Posted 2010-07-08T12:46:32.683
Reputation: 163
4
You cannot do this from System Preferences because the video adapters do not have an interface into the brightness controls of the external monitor.
Sorry, but adjusting manually on the monitor is the only way.
Doug Harris
Posted 2010-07-08T12:46:32.683
Reputation: 23 578
4
Try the preference pane Shades
There is also Dark Adapted, which will change many more aspects of each screen independently, but it is not longer supported (though it works with lion)
brian
Posted 2010-07-08T12:46:32.683
Reputation: 41
2
Use my own fork of Brightness Menulet
It supports auto adjustment based on the ambient light sensor
Muhammad Hewedy
Posted 2010-07-08T12:46:32.683
Reputation: 369
From @wise_rice: Your fork is awesome and works great with the ambient light sensor! But it does not set the brightness to the lowest or the highest possible values. Only to like 20% and 55%. It would be lovely to have it Set to 1% or even 0% (that is still bright at night on my Dell U2515H) and to 90% at very bright daylight. Can I change that somewhere in the code? (I am not a pro, but I have xCode and all that installed. How do I create an app-build out of your github code with xcode?) – fixer1234 – 2015-09-01T08:12:15.857
1
If you are using an Apple external Display you can use Control-F1 and Control-F2
hashier
Posted 2010-07-08T12:46:32.683
Reputation: 181
0
...and here's another way I found. You can open the display prefs and drag the menu bar object to the display you want to adjust in the "Arrangement" pane. At that point, the plain F1/F2 will adjust that display's brightness setting. (In most modern versions of OSX the menu bar object is almost irrelevant anyway as the menus are on all displays and whichever one you're on hosts the active set.)
This way is particularly useful if you have more than one external display (e.g. daisy chained Apple thunderbolt monitors) where the notion of main (F1/F2) and external (ctrl-F1/crtl-F2) breaks down as there's no shortcut for the 2nd external display or presumably other's beyond even that...
Enno
Posted 2010-07-08T12:46:32.683
Reputation: 1
I have this issue and your reply looks useful, but "drag the menu bar object" - not sure what's meant here? – Dave Everitt – 2019-01-23T16:10:57.793
Works great! This should be the reaccepted answer. – gak – 2012-05-15T07:55:13.107