Tell HN: Compiz Color Filter on Linux rocks

2 points by luser001 ↗ HN
I just discovered an AWESOME Linux [1] feature : Compiz Color Filter. I frequently find websites' color schemes to have too little contrast, which makes reading the text hard (e.g., http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/03/the-go-nowhere-generation-speaks-id-love-to-move-but-i-cant/254579/). The "too-small-text" problem can be solved by zooming the whole web page, but I didn't have problem for the low-contrast problem (other than things like Readability).

Anyway, Compiz Color Filter is designed for people with visual impairments precisely to improve contrast. It gives you a hot key using which you can switch around the colors either on a per-window basis or for the whole screen. It's instantaneous and has zero performance impact. It has multiple schemes through which you can cycle until you find the scheme that suits the web page in question. Or make your own.

I'm typing this in a scheme which converted HN to have white text on a bluish background color scheme.

It's frigging awesome. Check it out (or it's equivalent if one exists for Windows/Mac).

I don't think I have any vision problems. Do I? Does everybody else find the page I linked above easy to read?

[1] I'm unsure which project exactly should take credit, so I'm leaving it vague.

3 comments

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pics or it didn't happen :)

on a side note, all distros with gnome3 retardedness prevented their users to use even the most basic features available for gnome2+compiz users, such as editing shortcut keys or selecting a theme. let alone something like this.

gnome3 wise designers give you a extreme high contrast theme option, or nothing. just like windows did. oh, and it do NOT help reading webpages at all! just seeing buttons.

Yes, I am doing this on Ubuntu 10.10 (which has gnome2). I will check if this exists on Ubuntu 11.10 and get back to you.
Based on mucking around for a bit in Ubuntu Unity 11.10, it doesn't seem to be working. The option is there but it doesn't work. Looking more.