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Brighten up the Keyboard

Some Macs have an ambient light sensor to automatically adjust lights that shine through the keyboard, making the keys visible.

Brighten up the Keyboard
Mac Tip #348, 23 July 2008

Sometimes I sit in the semi-dark with my MacBook Pro reading email or news feeds, maybe writing a MacTip. This is especially the case if it’s early morning, and I just don’t want to put on a harsh overhead or desk light.

Luckily the MacBook Pro has a very handy feature that I really miss on my MacBook (not Pro): an ambient light sensor to automatically adjust lights that shine through the keyboard, lighting up the keys.

A recent Tip explained the ambient light sensor that controls monitor brightness on certain models of Mac. The backlit keyboard works in the same kind of way. Brightness is controlled by physical keys in the row at the top of the keyboard.

If you have a Mac equipped with a backlit keyboard try this Tip.

Keyboard Preferences

Visit System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard and notice whether you must hold down the fn key in order to use the F keys across the top of the keyboard for the function printed on the key.

Also check the box labelled ‘Illuminate keyboard in low light conditions’ and adjust the slider for when the backlight should turn off if the computer is not being used.

Any light takes power — if you run on battery a lot turning off the keyboard backlight could squeeze a few extra seconds or minutes out of the battery.

Either take your Mac into a darkish room or cover up the sensor — it’s probably under the right side grille on the keyboard.

Mac keyboard backlight keys - unlit

Now press the 3 keys that control keyboard backlighting. On my MacBook Pro those keys are F8, F9 and F10. The keys display a horizontal line only, with a nearby fringe of dots and a far away fringe of dots respectively.

Mac keyboard backlight keys - lit

The photos here show the keys and the effect of the backlight.

F8 is like the Mute key for sound: it turns off the backlighting altogether. F9 decreases the brightness, while F10 increases brightness.

I find the keyboard backlight feature incredibly useful. How about you?

If you found this Tip useful you definitely need my ebooks Sizzling Safari Tips for Mac Users & 22 Tempting Timesavers for Mac Users. And remember to subscribe for regular Tips.

Read more Tips tagged with: brightness • keyboard

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Andrew 18 October 2008 at 19:47:09: Thanks, this solved my problem. When I googled my problem it was showing results for a program called ‘Labtick” — which is used for controlling the backlight. I don’t see the point in installing second party software when you don’t need to. In this case all you have to do is press a few keys.

Thanks, Andrew.

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Miraz Jordan 19 October 2008 at 12:05:18: Thanks Andrew. I’m glad the Tip was useful.

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