If you get a warning stating that it can't be opened because it's from an unidentified developer, you will have to. You could also just press 'OK' to exit the warning, then either Control-click or right-click on Shady, select 'Open,' then hit the 'Open' button to bypass your security settings. Control Shady from the Menu Bar When Shady launches, it goes to work automatically.
You might get a prompt asking if you want the program to update automatically, so just choose whatever you're comfortable with. When ready, head over to the app's menu bar icon where you'll be presented with a couple of easy options to choose from. The main option is a slider that allows you to configure how dark or light you want your screen to be. The remaining options will let you hide the app icon in the Dock (via 'Preferences'), turn Shady off, or completely quit the app (which will remove the menu bar icon until you open it back up again). Or Using Keyboard Shortcuts Shady also has some keyboard shortcuts, which can be better if you don't like messing around in the menu bar.
Just click on the Dock icon to bring Shady to the front of all your open windows (if you disabled the Dock icon via the menu bar, you'll have to reenable it), then use the up and down arrows to adjust brightness, or press Q to quit the app. From the Dock icon, via Options, you can opt to keep Shady in the Dock, open it at startup, or show in the Finder. The Benefits & Limitations of Shady If you have multiple displays and have them set up for, both displays will be affected by Shady's dimming powers. However, if they are in, Shady will only work for one of the displays. The app allows you to range your display's brightness from the maximum all the way down to 90% shaded (and will remember your last-used setting), which makes it quite dark indeed when paired with your Mac's built-in dimming controls. Shady works by basically drawing an overlay across your screen, which makes your screen darker without doing any damage to your Mac.
This will hook up between your graphics card and displays, and essentially make your multiple monitors appears as one large display to your computer. These days, you can do something similar with most graphics cards, however.
![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/2/5/3/125396051/422458407.jpg)
Note that Shady will alter your screenshots because of the overlay being drawn on the screen. This is not a big problem since you can just temporarily disable Shady if you need to take properly-lit screenshots. All that said, Shady is a great solution. The software is free, easy-to-use, and can be a real eye-saver. Cover image by Justin Meyers/Gadget Hacks; screenshots by Isaac Sahag/Gadget Hacks. Follow Gadget Hacks on, and. Follow Apple Hacks on and.
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