Invert display colors

Question

Is it possible to invert display colors on Windows like Macs can?

I have nVidia GeForce 6200 graphics card and 17" Samsung SyncMaster display.

Answer 1

Windows 7 maginifier glass tool supports color inversion and the magnification is not obligatory.

Note: You must have Aero enabled to invert colors for the whole screen.

Answer 2

PowerStrip didn't work for me, and I couldn't find the advanced options in Nvidia (does it even ever exists with new drivers?) I was so disappointed to find there was no solution except the Magnifier trick, that I developed my own.

It's called NegativeScreen and it's a simple but complete program written in C# (sources open)

You can try it out here.

Answer 3

The following won't work for everyone, but if you have XP and an NVIDIA graphics card then there is a proper color inversion that is equivalent to the Mac. I use this successfully with my work computer.

If you don't have an NVIDIA card, then as others have said you can use the Accessibility High Contrast features to approximate inverted colors and the magnifier glass gives some functionality on XP, but I found this unsatisfying (and I have to use XP for work). Instructions are in other answers and in the wikihow article that I adapted the NVIDIA instructions from

Go to NVIDIA control panel - I can do this by right clicking on the icon in my tray and selecting "NVIDIA Control Panel", but you can also: Right-click on your screen and choose Properties.

1. Under Setting tab click on Advanced.
2. From the upper row of tabs select the one related to you graphic adapter (with on image icon).
3. Click Start the NVIDIA Control panel. (You need to have these NVIDIA utilities installed.)

Now you can invert colors - note that this is on a display-by-display basis. Also, there is a note that this is only inverting the basic display and that video will not be affected (unless inverted separately) - I have not explored this.

1. I recommend saving your profile before you start (and after you finish) so that you can more easily switch back and forth. At the top of the window select Profiles → Save... and save your regular color profile. I use names that identify normal or inverted and the display configuration (laptop, external home, external work) - if you only have one configuration this is not required.
2. Inside NVIDIA control panel, from the left side navigation bar, under Display select Adjust desktop color setting. Note: you need to view the Adjust desktop color setting item in the Advanced Settings. In the standard settings, you will not see the graph option below.
3. Under 2. Apply the following .... switch to graph tab.
4. There are three points already forming the graph, select the one on the upper right side of the graph and set the values In to 1, and Out to 0. (On my machine, I am not able to set the values and I have to do this by dragging the top right point to the bottom right. This is very frustrating, but if you play around with it you can get these reversed. Try not to set both Out values to the same number (1 or 0) or it is very difficult to see the points you need to drag on the graph - I drag the point to the middle right and then finish after dragging lower left to top left.)
5. Then Select the point on the lower left of the graph and set the values In to 0, and Out to 1. (Again, I have to drag the point with the mouse on my machine from lower left to top left.)
6. Apply the settings and you have successfully inverted your colors.
7. Finally, you will want to save this profile. Again, go to the Profiles menu and select Save...

Now you should be able to use Profiles → Load... to switch back and forth. I have to re-open this control panel to invert my colors, but I plan to set this to some shortcut, once I figure out how...

The following screen shot shows that Adjust desktop color setting does not have the graph option under standard options:

The following screen shot shows that Adjust desktop color setting does have the graph option under advanced options (it is the second - not the default - tab under 2. Apply the following...:

The graph after inverting the colors:

Answer 4

You can sort that out programming a pixel shader or fragment program (OpenGL) to invert all the screen pixels synched with the refresh rate. I believe this can be done fast enough in the GPU to be executed in your gfx card model, altough I must recognize i'm ignorant about the pixel fillrate of the Turbocache variants.

Answer 5

If you don't have Windows 7, you can use a shareware app called PowerStrip, that will achieve the color inversion with hotkey support. I've used this extensively on XP. This app interacts with the video driver.

If you want to write your own app in user-mode code, then you have two options:

1. Use DirectX overlays, capture the entire screen, invert blit to the overlay, repeat fast enough to look alright.
2. Use some GDI tricks, create a dead window that is on top of everything else, capture the screen, invert blit to the dead window. The dead window has 99% opacity, so to capture the windows underneath it, don't use the CAPTUREBLT flag with BitBlt(). In order to allow the mouse events to get through to the real window, use SetWindowRgn to put a 1-pixel "hole" in the dead window where the mouse is. Uh, this is quite hacky but works.

You can also download the debug symbols for the Window's magnifiers, and study those ;-)

Answer 6

In Windows 10 it's even easier. Since build 16215 onward Microsoft included the color filter options for ease of access which can be toggled by Windows+Ctrl+C

Windows 10 now includes color filters at the system level, including filters designed to make it easier for people with color blindness to differentiate between colors like red and green and to make it easier for people with light sensitivity to create and consume content. You can find these new filtering options under Settings > Ease of Access > Color and High Contrast (previously called High Contrast Settings).

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/06/08/announcing-windows-10-insider-preview-build-16215-pc-build-15222-mobile/#C1B2TQQ8YvwdEsjV.97

In some cases for older Windows maybe the shortcut Left-Alt+Left-Shift+PrntScrn to high contrast mode ON will help

Related:

• How can I invert all the display colors in Windows Vista?
• Is there any way to change a specific window's colors?
• How to invert colors of a specific application, or window, only using Magnifier
• Win7: Invert Colors Of One Specific Window
• Why did my Windows 10 suddenly turn monochrome?

Answer 7

Go to the appearance settings (in vista this is through personalization > color and appearance > classic properties)

You can then customize your settings or pick one of the high contrast schemes.

Answer 8

This would be a pretty easy application to write. In fact, it would take more time hooking it up to a keyboard combo or some other hook than anything else. The best way I guess would be to make an application that just inverts the colors, and then add it as a shortcut, with a hot-key combo. Like Ctrl+Alt+I to Invert the colors, and again to switch them back.

If you need help with this let me know. This should only end up as an hour or less C++ application.

Answer 9

You can use:

• Notepad++ with VibrantInk theme
• Stylish Firefox addon with "NishtShift - eye care" style
• VibrantInk theme on Eclipse or another with black background

• On PDF-XChange Viewer you can do it at Edit/Prefs:

     [v] Override document colors; 
     Use Custom Color Scheme:
        page background: black; 
        [v] text color: white(gray); 
        [v] Line Art: fill Color: black; Stroke color: black;
  

All these are solutions for a particular program, but with an inverter it can be done for any program.