Screen Shade: Darken Your Screen While Keeping Dock Bright [Mac]

Brightness Slider and Shady, both of which allow you to adjust your screen’s brightness from the menu bar. While Brightness Slider is simple in its functionality, Shady allows you to use keyboard shortcuts to adjust brightness. Screen Shade is yet another free Mac app that lets you control the screen’s brightness without darkening the
menu bar or the Dock. The app can be set to start at login and will remember the previous state it was set to, so that you don’t have to adjust it each time. You can darken the Dock and menu bar if you like by selecting the option from the app’s menu.

When you launch the app, it automatically reduces the screen brightness and also adds an icon to the menu bar. Click the icon and use the brightness slider to adjust your screen’s glare. Move the slider to the left to darken the screen, and to the right to brighten it. Select the Start with System option to set the app to launch at start up. By default, the app does not darken the Dock and menu bar, but if you prefer they be darkened when you decrease the screen’s brightness, select the Dark also Dock & Status Bar.

The app has no keyboard shortcuts, but hitting Q when the app menu is open will quit the app. Hitting S will turn it off but keep it running in the menu bar, so that it can be turned on again with ease.

While the app essentially does the same thing as Brightness Slider and Shady, it has the added advantage of letting you keep the Dock and Menu bar bright. Once again, your selection of use from among these three apps comes down to usage. If you need to darken your screen for comfortable reading, this app might be a good choice, since it will allow you to use the Dock easily.

Get Screen Shade From Mac App Store