Color Changes in Mac OS X for the Visually Impaired? 87
drdink asks: "I am an avid FreeBSD and Windows user. This semester for a class I'm having to use MacOS X for the first time, and I've also been pondering jumping into the Apple scene anyway. However, I am also visually impaired and I can't seem to find a way to do specific color theming in a way similar to Windows, KDE, and GNOME. I want to be able to say 'Text is white, backgrounds are black, but EVERYTHING ELSE is its normal color.' The only options I've found that are similar is using 'White on Black' in the Universal Access control panel. However, this results in me losing all display colors and my machine looking monochrome. I don't want to use a $2,000+ machine just to have no colors. Is there anybody out there who has actually managed to get Mac OS X to use the normal colors but have high contrast white on black dialog boxes? I am interested in the Apple platform, but I can't use it for useful things, if I have no color."
One idea (Score:5, Informative)
Here's two resources... (Score:4, Informative)
Hope they help:
ResExcellence Themes [resexcellence.com]Theme Park Tutorial [geekspiff.com]
What does this mean? Make your own. While I'm not familiar with the creation process for other windowing systems (like you mentioned) I do know that you can probably make your own theme to specifications you desire. Those links are where I would start; perhaps there's something there that you can modify or a theme that fits the bill without changes.
Good luck!
Curious (Score:2, Informative)
OS X's Aqua GUI has a lot of white, and now with Panther(Apple's fast approaching major OS update) coming out, brushed metal(metallic darkish grey) is going to be everywhere. Just not sure how that is going to look with any solution you may find.
The Solution: BlackLight (Score:5, Informative)
This program inverts the colors (white->black, black->white, blue->brown, brown->blue, etc). This will give you color-cue information still.
If you want to just convert white to black and black to white, keeping the rest, you might ask the author if he can set up a color conversion table to do that for you. I know that he's already set up a preferences to eliminate light grays for example.
You're welcome.
Newer Panther Options (Score:5, Informative)
Also current versions support a nifty zoom in feature.
Re:Curious (Score:5, Informative)
It is more of an issue of contrast. I can see white on black so much easier than black on white. Since there is less white blazing out at me, it is easier to see the text. I can see black on white, but it causes eye strain much faster and takes a lot more effort to read. Having the majority of my 'readable' screen area in high-contrast colors saves my eyes from catching on fire after a while.
Not in Pather. (Score:5, Informative)
Looks like Apple have cleaned up that little glitch...
Reverse the Polarity (Score:5, Informative)
Open Terminal and enter the following command.
defaults write com.apple.CoreGraphics DisplayUseInvertedPolarity -bool YES
This command sets a preference that reverses all color polarity on the screen (like a photographic negative). I think you'll have to reboot or at least log out and back in to see the results. Of course, changing the -bool YES to -bool NO will return your display back to normal.
http://www.apple.com/disability/ (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.apple.com/disability/
Re:One idea (Score:5, Informative)
Hit Control+Alt+Apple+the star on the num pad. It will switch your display into grayscale and invert it. Under MacOS X 10.3 you will have to press Control+Alt+Apple+8
It obviously won't leave everything else as a normal colour, but you'll get your white text on black background. Hope that helps some!
-- james
System.clr holds the key (Score:4, Informative)
I am sure there must be some utilities out there to load/change/store the colors contained in this file. If not, a slashdoter who is up to speed on Cocoa should be able to whip something together pretty quickly. Until then, the best place to search for handy utilities of this sort is http://www.versiontracker.com/ [versiontracker.com]. Good luck.
``Dark Adapted'' utility useful for this (Score:4, Informative)
It's intended for astronomers so as to preserve their night vision, but is fully configurable.
Free too.
William
Re:Write to Apple or call (Score:5, Informative)
Switch to Millions and then 256- better contrast! (Score:2, Informative)
I know this sounds stupid, but:
For better contrast, switch to Millions of colors and then switch back to 256 colors.
This results in an inversed color screen that is much more readable. I think using 256 colors will be more helpful to the visually impared user; I was having lots of trouble reading text on the inverted screen under Millions of colors.
Thanks for the tips! I didn't know you could do this! I'll see how much work I can get done before I've gotta switch the screen back.
Black Light (Score:3, Informative)
Re:iCal coloration (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/
Or:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/ical.html
There is a feedback page for just about every iApp and for Safari. There are links to them from the App's application menu.
Scotopic Sensitivity (Score:3, Informative)
The Irlen Institute [irlen.com] has done quite a bit of research about this and I can tell you from both my experience and observation that it works. After all, if the problem is occuring when using a computer, I imagine reading a book (if you ever do so), must be incredibly difficult.
My mom is a reading specialist and she has been testing people for SSS since I was in grade school. The difference between the reading abilities of her students was immediately noticable. I highly recommend looking into SSS testing.
Re:Here's two resources... (Score:2, Informative)
As more people create quality themes, the value of this sort of utility keeps growing. I bought a Kaleidoscope [kaleidoscope.net] license way back when -- alas, MacOS 8.x - 9.x only -- the tons of excellent themes made it worthwhile.