Iris has several types. These are some settings that many people use and I selected for you to understand how Iris works more quickly.
- https://iristech.co/health-mode/
- https://iristech.co/sleep-mode/
- https://iristech.co/reading-mode/
- https://iristech.co/biohacker-mode/
- https://iristech.co/programming-mode/
- https://iristech.co/movie-mode/
- https://iristech.co/design-mode/
| Type | Specialty |
|---|---|
| Health | General Health |
| Sleep | No Blue light |
| Reading | E-ink Grayscale |
| Programming | Color Inversion |
| Biohacker | Sleep + Programming |
| Sunglasses | Minimize Flicker |
| Dark | Reduce Light |
| Movie | Improve Light |
| Overlay | Color Therapy |
Basically, these are some different preset values that I made.
Iris vs Iris Pro
The presets are a little different in different models of Iris. In Iris Pro all reduction is stronger and closer to the best possible eye protection. Bellow, you can find the values of Color Temperature and Brightness for both Iris and Iris Pro during all transition periods.
Iris
| Iris | Day | Night | Sleep |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health | 6000K / 100% | 4400K / 85% | 3700K / 80% |
| Sleep | 0K / 100% | 0K / 85% | 0K / 80% |
| Reading | 6000K / 100% | 4400K / 85% | 3700K / 80% |
| Programming | 6000K / 100% | 4400K / 85% | 3700K / 80% |
| Biohacker | 0K / 100% | 0K / 85% | 0K / 80% |
| Sunglasses | 6500K / 100% | 6500K / 75% | 6500K / 65% |
| Dark | 6000K / 100% | 4400K / 85% | 3700K / 80% |
| Movie | 6500K / 120% | 6500K / 120% | 6500K / 120% |
| Overlay | 5% / 0% | 40% / 10% | 40% / 10% |
Iris Pro
| Iris Pro | Day | Night | Sleep |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health | 5000K / 100% | 3400K / 80% | 2700K / 75% |
| Sleep | 0K / 100% | 0K / 80% | 0K / 75% |
| Reading | 5000K / 100% | 3400K / 80% | 2700K / 75% |
| Programming | 5000K / 100% | 3400K / 80% | 2700K / 75% |
| Biohacker | 0K / 100% | 0K / 80% | 0K / 75% |
| Sunglasses | 6500K / 100% | 6500K / 75% | 6500K / 65% |
| Dark | 5000K / 100% | 3400K / 80% | 2700K / 75% |
| Movie | 6500K / 120% | 6500K / 120% | 6500K / 120% |
| Overlay | 5% / 0% | 40% / 10% | 40% / 10% |
You see how in Iris Pro you have better values for Blue light and Brightness – 6000K vs 5000K, 4400K vs 3400K, 3700K vs 2700K, 85% vs 80%, 75% vs 70%, etc.
Now, I will try to explain what every type does and when to use it.
Health
Day – 5000K / 100%
Night – 3400K / 80%
Sleep – 2700K / 75%
Health mode is the preset which I and almost all users use. It’s made for slight blue light and brightness reduction. It feels really good on the eyes and doesn’t change the colors much.
During the day Color temperature will be 5000K and Brightness will be 100%
During the night Color temperature will be 3400K and Brightness will be 80%
Health mode during the night looks like this
Use it if you have no idea what to use and just want to protect your eyes and sleep better. You can customize it a little by changing the Mode
Sleep
Day – 0K / 100%
Night – 0K / 80%
Sleep – 0K / 75%
Sleep mode is for the best sleep. It will remove all the blue light from your screen and set the Color temperature to 0K.
It is not exactly 0K, because zero kelvins are absolute black, but it removes all blue and green light and your screen will look like this
During the day the Brightness will be 100% and during the night it will gradually change to 80%.
Use sleep mode when you want to get to sleep in the fastest amount of time after using your PC.
Reading
Day – 5000K / 100%
Night – 3400K / 80%
Sleep – 2700K / 75%
Screen effect – Grayscale
Reading mode will make all your colors black and white like E-ink device.
I made it as a joke to show people how to turn any monitor into E-ink device, but it actually became really popular and I found some science why this is healthy.
It came out from conversation with one user and he told me that there is actually a bigger problem than PWM and this is the subpixel flicker and changing polarity of the backlight.
We first tried to make Color overlay with random colors, but it turned out that this is worsened the subpixel flicker. Grayscale mode or the Reading mode was actually the solution for this.
I think this is the best mode for eye protection, because it makes the screen most healthy. It removes blue light, PWM and subpixel flicker.
On Windows 7 you need to enable Aero to get Reading mode to work.
Programming
Day – 5000K / 100%
Night – 3400K / 80%
Sleep – 2700K / 75%
Screen effect – Inversion
Ever read white pages for hours and wished you had a black theme. Well I made programming mode, because one of my editors didn’t have a black theme and I was cursing it a lot.
Programming mode will invert your screen colors. It looks like this
So for example if you want to read this page with black theme
Using Programming mode will make it like this
I personally use this mode when I write something in editor with White theme and I am sure you will find your way. The bad thing is that pictures will be inverted also, but you will probably not look at pictures when you use Programming mode.
Biohacker
Day – 0K / 100%
Night – 0K / 80%
Sleep – 0K / 75%
Screen effect – Inversion
Biohacker is the combination of inverted colors and no blue light. You can say that it’s the combination between Sleep and Programming mode.
Biohacker mode looks like this
Use it if you want to hack your sleep somehow. Pause and activate it and measure your melatonin levels. This is not made for everybody, but use Biohacker mode if you like it.
Sunglasses
Day – 6500K / 100%
Night – 6500K / 75%
Sleep – 6500K / 65%
Sunglasses mode will only decrease the brightness during the night and not touch the blue light. The reason for this is because some people use blue blocking glasses to block the blue light instead of Iris and they prefer their screen colors to be more real.
Blue-blocking glasses are really hot today, but they actually do the same work like regular sunglasses which also block blue and UV light.
Sunglasses mode looks like this
Use it if you wear blue blocking glasses or sunglasses in front of the screen and don’t want Iris to touch the blue light emitted from your screen. Iris will only reduce the brightness without PWM during the night for less eye strain.
Dark
Day – 5000K / 100%
Night – 3400K / 80%
Sleep – 2700K / 75%
Opacity – 30%
Radius – 30%
X – center
Y – center
Dark mode will make the corners of the screen more dark and will reduce the light emitted from the screen. This is usefull if you want full brightness, but still want less light.
It will also use the Health preset as values for blue light and brightness.
Dark mode looks like this
Use it when you want less light emitted from the screen, but still want your brightness to be high value.
Movie
Day – 6500K / 120%
Night – 6500K / 120%
Sleep – 6500K / 120%
So I was watching one scary movie and all the scenes were dark. I put my monitor at maximum brightness, but still it was too dark to see anything. I then closed Iris, but it was again too dark and my eyes got strained.
Then an idea came into my mind. What if I can increase the brightness over the maximum? The next day I tried to accomplish this and I did it.
Basically Movie mode will pause all Iris color changes and will set the Brightness to 120%
This is how Movie mode looks like
And here is a scene from Star Wars with normal screen and with Movie mode
Overlay
Day opacity – 5%
Day dim – 0%
Night opacity – 40%
Night dim – 10%
I made Overlay mode for computers which don’t allow color changes on low-level or any color changes at all. Overlay mode places transparent overlay over the whole screen and it looks like this
You may think why do you need this, but there are several cases when this mode is useful.
Use overlay mode if you want all your colors to be as close to normal as possible, but still want to protect your eyes and have good night sleep.
Use overlay mode if you have multiple monitors connected with USB or with some docking station. On strange configurations like this, Overlay mode and High-level Color API are the only ways to get Iris running on all monitors.
is there a way of getting a black screen background like with Programing mode without having pictures inverted to negatives
Right now no, but it’s in my TODO for future versions 🙂
Hey there. You have all the programmes listed apart from gaming. what makes gaming different from the others and why has it not been listed with the other automatic settings?
Hi Samantha,
When you choose a certain mode and type in the program you can see the specs of it in the upper right corner of the program window
Gaming type is 3600K and 93% blue light
The chart above lists “sunglasses” as the mode that reduces flicker. Don’t all the modes reduce flicker?
If I need flicker reduction and blue light removed, is “Reading” mode the only mode available that does both? You say “Reading” mode is the healthiest but the brightness of this mode seems to stimulate at night where as “sleep” mode is more sedating. I prefer the red light of “Sleep” mode but also want flicker reduction. Which mode is best?
Thank you, Daniel!!!!
The idea is that PWM flicker occurs if you lower your hardware brightness from the monitor buttons so prefer to control the brightness with Iris instead. Iris brightness is different and doesn’t cause a change in the flicker frequency. For more info
https://iristech.co/pwm-flicker
Reading type is best for flicker reduction
https://iristech.co/type-dropdown-help/#reading-type
All types remove PWM flicker but Reading type also remove Subpixel flicker for LCD monitors
For more info see:
https://iristech.co/how-to-test-my-monitor-for-pwm-flicker/
https://iristech.co/how-to-test-my-lcd-monitor-for-subpixel-flicker/
Daniel ?
CEO Iris
I bought IRIS PRO a few days ago. My card was charged. However, the activation code you sent me was not recognized by your software. I tried to reach you via your online form but no one has responded to me.
The $49 charge is pending on my card. If I don’t hear from you by Wednesday, I will contact my VISA to dispute the paypal charge.
Barry Miller
traderjoe9@comcast.net
Hi Barry,
I just sent a mail with your code, info about it and a video on how to activate Iris
I think that should help and if not just email me back and we’ll fix it together 🙂
Thank you for this prompt reply Daniel.
I have a Macbook Air LED-backlit glossy display, pretty sure this classifies as a “LCD” screen and therefore in need of the additional subpixel flicker reduction. Is “Reading” type the only setting that reduces subpixel flicker?
Is there a way to combine the benefits of Reading type AND the red Sleep light?
Is there a way to adjust flicker using the Advanced Settings (Besides having the native monitor brightness maximized)? Or is Reading type the only way to control it more?
thank you !!!!!!
Reading, Sleep and Biohacker reduce subpixel flicker. You can read more here
https://iristech.co/how-to-test-my-lcd-monitor-for-subpixel-flicker/
At maximum hardware brightness, you don’t have flicker but the thing is that the monitor is really bright for night time usage
This is why if you want to reduce the luminance without flicker just use the Iris Brightness page
https://iristech.co/brightness-page-help/
Or leave some type running they automatically lower the brightness at night
So to recap at maximum hardware brightness you don’t have PWM flicker
Use the test here and suggestions to see if your monitor has subpixel flicker
https://iristech.co/how-to-test-my-lcd-monitor-for-subpixel-flicker/
Both Sleep and Reading type remove Subpixel flicker but it’s really not that dangerous even if you ignore this
Blue light and flicker will not kill anyone but they may cause delayed sleep, eye strain, and headaches.
It’s good to reduce the blue light because it causes some health issues like macular degeneration in the long run but for flicker, if you set your hardware brightness from the monitor buttons to 100% and let Iris control the brightness automatically you should be completely safe from flicker.
Hardware brightness to the MAX from the monitor buttons + Any type which reduces brightness Health, Sleep, Reading, Programming, Sunglasses, Biohacker, etc and you are protected from flicker 🙂
Daniel
CEO Iris
I went to see if my monitor brightness was maximum which you advised, but I get the message ‘Monitor Locked’
How do I overcome this?
Also if I want to process any photos how do I get natural colours with Iris?
Thanks in anticipation.
What do you mean by monitor locked? Is it some limitation on your monitor’s brightness?
As for the photo editing, you can check this:
https://iristech.co/color-pausers-page-help/
I wish to try Iris. How can I log in ?
I do not use Facebook.
You can download Iris from here:
https://iristech.co/install
There is no need to login or use Facebook at all you can get it through the link above 🙂
My Iris Pro does not work properly anymore. It changes the light all the time. Shifting from darker light to bright light.
What can I do ?
Greetings
Kailani Simone
Hi Kailani,
This usually happens when you’re running more than one instance of Iris at the same time or another software like flux for example
Check in the task manager if that’s happening
If that’s not the reason I would recommend resetting the advanced settings or reinstalling the software
If the problem continues write to us at contact@iristech.co
Valentina
Customer Communications Manager and Lead Marketing Specialist
Iris Technologies Ltd.
Hello! Is there a way to create custom presets with Iris?
Hi Susan,
For now, you can only adjust your preferences in Advanced view
Custom presets are on our todo list for future updates so stay tuned 🙂
First of all, your product is awesome! I’ve been using f.lux for ages and this is way better since it actually cuts green (f.lux doesn’t really) and just better in all stats.
Wondering if you’ll have a combo health + sleep? I like my computer to cut all blue/green at night and would love to have it set so I don’t have to remember to change it.
If you have an easy shortcut/hack for this, let me know!
Thanks!
Hi Lauren,
Sleep type does block all blue and green light
If you only want it during the night and not day you can set nighttime in the Sleep menu in Advanced view
best work