To easily and quickly manage external screens connected to your Mac, there is a very thoughtful application.
When you use an external display with your Mac, you need to use the buttons on the display to adjust brightness, sound, and other settings. Which, of course, is far from ideal. If you’re fed up, if you’re dreaming of a software solution for this, know that it’s possible. Here’s how.
Use Lunar to control screen settings
Lunar is an application that lets you manage your monitor settings right from your Mac. One of the most convenient options is to adjust the brightness levels of all external displays, which is very intuitive on macOS. If you have more than one display, you can use the app to turn off displays you’re not currently using so you can automatically turn off your MacBook’s display whenever it’s connected to external displays.
You can also switch between displays, dim the brightness below the minimum for true black, or even boost it above 100%. You can use your Mac’s brightness and volume keys to control these settings on the screen. Comfortable. If you prefer to use your own shortcuts, the app offers several for different options.
With Lunar, you need a modern monitor to use most of the features. If you are using the app with an old TV or monitor, some features will not work because the Display Data Commands (DDC) feature is sometimes not supported depending on the ports. For example, Lunar uses DDC to adjust brightness, and if your monitor or Mac blocks these commands on certain ports, the options will not be available. Using a different port can sometimes work around the problem. You can also try restarting Lunar to see if the issue persists.
How much does Lunar cost?
This application lets you use many features for free, so you can try it out to see if your monitors are compatible and comfortable with them. While it works with desktop Macs like Mac Studio and Mac mini, Lunar offers some options exclusively for MacBooks. For example, one paid feature allows you to use your laptop’s ambient light sensor to automatically adjust brightness levels on all screens. In other words, it is quite possible to take full advantage of Lunar in its free version. The pro version costs $23. And there is a 14-day free trial.