DarkAdapted 2.3.5

DarkAdapted 2.3.5  is an application program. It controls the amount of red, green, and blue in your screen gamma so that you may, for example, preserve your dark adaptation while using your computer. Gamma fades can be scheduled, AppleScripts may be scheduled, and system-wide hotkeys can be set up to execute AppleScripts and gamma fades.

DarkAdapted is being used by astronomers, planetarium operators, graphics professionals, medical professionals, airline pilots, air traffic controllers, and others worldwide to provide flexible, dynamic control over their monitor's screen color response. People with monitors that appear too bright (such as owners of certain iMac models), also find DarkAdapted to be valuable. Users may define an unlimited number of gamma presets, and invoke them via global hotkeys, by menu selection, or by typing the first few letters of a preset’s name.

Major Features:

1. DarkAdapted is free of charge (but remains copyrighted by Stephen E. Hutson).
2. Customizable gamma presets. Use predefined settings, create your own, and manipulate your presets with ease. For example, use the “Dark Red” setting to preserve your dark adaptation. Or create a preset to deal with monitor characteristics or viewing conditions.
3. Adjust gamma values via sliders or from the keyboard.
4. High-resolution sliders allow you to adjust red, green, and blue video components individually and in real time. Sliders can be set to report gamma values as percentages or as raw gamma values.
5. Keyboard control of gamma color values, using raw gamma values or percentages. Switch between percentage/raw display with a press of the spacebar.
6. Ganged Slider Mode allows you to control all three gamma components in unison, optionally preserving the gamma’s relative values between adjustments.
7. Small screen mode hides advanced controls, minimizing the use of valuable screen real estate. The control window may also be hidden entirely.
8. Select a preset by typing the first few letters of its name.
9. Export and import gamma presets to and from disk files. Many sample presets files are included with the download.
10. Full AppleScript support (on Mac OS), including a sample AppleScript with the Mac OS download.
11. “Gamma Toggle” keys offer a quick return to full brightness. Modifier keys are fully assignable, and display in the control window to remind you what they are.
12. Switching to gamma presets is performed via smooth fades, never abrupt shifts in screen color or brightness.
13. Gamma fade duration is user-configurable (from instantaneous to two seconds), and slider controls may be set to update in real time during the fade.
14. Almost all windows “remember” their positions on your screen.
15. Saved gamma preset can be restored when DarkAdapted is launched, and reset when DarkAdapted quits.
16. Automatic refresh preference can override gamma adjustments made by screen savers or other software.
17. Automatic or manual checking for updates via the Internet.
18. Useful display features show gamma changes’ effects on selected text, as well as text on different backgrounds.
19. Useful numeric and graphical readouts of gamma values.
20. Includes the same powerful night vision technology as ScopeDriver, a full featured telescope control program.
21. Excellent, hyperlinked documentation can be opened from within DarkAdapted.
22. Try DarkAdapted Pro’s advanced features for free, as often as you like.
23. And many other time savers and productivity enhancers.

 Enhancements:

• Pro Feature: Added Load Shared Preferences... and Save Shared Preferences... menu entries to Special menu. This allows you to share settings between multiple users on a single computer. When loading shared preferences, all settings are immediately updated. Non-administrative users may now also write to the shared preference file. This replaces the shared preference control in the Preferences window.
• Pro Feature: Changing visibility of Dock icon now also works on non-administrative accounts.
• About window now displays name/organization and serial number. For copies registered before Build 218, the name will appear as “DarkAdapted Pro User.”
• Chime and AppleScript Scheduling window: Selecting an event now displays the next event execution time below and to the right of the Events listing. Hold down a modifier key while clicking an event to display the next execution time with dates.
• Updated documentation with section explaining how to use DarkAdapted with display calibration software.
• Performance Enhancements:
• • Build framework has been completely rewritten.
  • Minor tweaks for Mac OS 10.5.7.
  • New version of compiler used.
  • Changed layout of Registration Window. Paste Serial Number button now operates much more rapidly when large amounts of text have been copied.
  • Standard permissions on installed and created files are now read/write/execute for owner and group, and read/execute for other users.
• Internet Update Improvements:
• • Improvements made to performance and reliability of Internet Update Checks.
  • Internet Update now yields time back to time display updates (and the rest of DarkAdapted) as it checks for updates.
  • Internet Update now downloads updates to the user's Downloads folder, unless that folder cannot be found, in which case it reverts to downloading to the desktop.
  • Internet Update continues to preserve existing download files with the same name, but now automatically renames duplicate files, instead of presenting a Save As dialog.
  • Internet Update may now be forced to check in asynchronous mode by holding down the [control] and [shift] keys when beginning an update check.
  • Internet Update should now automatically complete installation, instead of sometimes stopping after the downloaded disk image mounts. Note that this will only occur when performing an in-application upgrade using version 2.3.5b1 or later.
• Mac OS X Installer Improvements:
• • Changed installer methodology. Instead of creating a new DarkAdapted Folder and renaming the old folder, the installer now leaves the DarkAdapted folder in place. Only new or changed files are copied, and existing duplicate files are placed in a "Moved by Installer" folder inside the DarkAdapted Folder. If an existing DarkAdapted application is found, it is placed in a compressed (.zip) archive in the "Moved by Installer" folder, so that the correct copy of DarkAdapted always opens.
  • Installer now works in non-administrator accounts. If you encounter problems installing, try holding down the [option] and [shift] keys when you click the "Install" button, and please report the issue, along with any error messages you receive.
  • Installer now performs its last action ("Finishing Installation...") much more rapidly.
  • Installer no longer resets modification dates of installed files to the release date of the application.
  • Installer now can install to a non-default location, and will upgrade from within the application to the same non-default location. Note that the in-application updating will work when updating 2.3.5b1 or later; for earlier versions, a dialog will appear asking you to specify the install location.
  • Installer now lets you define the actual folder where DarkAdapted and its files will be installed. Previously, you could select the parent folder, but the custom install location’s folder would always be named "DarkAdapted Folder".
  • Installer performs additional error checking and retries failed operations before reporting an error.
  • Installer now logs more of its progress to the Console.
• Bug Fixes:
• • Fixed bug where fixed-size windows could open at an incorrect size when opened by a different version of DarkAdapted.
  • Fixed issue where some scroll wheel drivers could affect non-front windows.
  • Fixed bug in sunrise and sunset calculation where longitude could be reset to 90 degrees if a longitude greater than 90 degrees was used.
  • Chime and AppleScript Scheduling Window: Sorting events by “Time” now correctly sorts numerically instead of alphabetically, and also takes into account the time of sunrise and sunset events.
  • Fixed display of Gamma Toggle Keys on Windows Vista.
    

Requirements:

• Macintosh:
  • Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later.
  • Intel Macintosh or Power Macintosh (Universal Binary).
• Windows:
  • Windows 2000 or newer.
  • PC capable of running the above.
• At least 25 MB available hard disk space.
• Compatible monitor and video card.