How can I make the screen brighter?
If you have a laptop or netbook, there are probably some screen brightness controls on the keyboard. They usually have stylized "sun" icons, and are often on or above the function keys (e.g. F4). On some laptops, you must hold-down the Function (Fn) key and then press one of the brightness keys to change the screen brightness. For example, you might press Fn+F4 to decrease the brightness and Fn+F5 to increase it.
You can also change the brightness by clicking the icon at the very right of the top panel, selecting System Settings and then opening the Screen preferences.
If you have a desktop computer, you should be able to use controls on the monitor to change the brightness of the screen. How you do this depends very much on what monitor you have - some have specific buttons to change brightness, whereas others have buttons which you use to navigate on-screen menus.
If you have increased the brightness to the maximum but it's still not bright enough, you may need to adjust the contrast or gamma settings of the screen instead. Not all screens allow you to change both of these settings, however.
More About
- Power problems — Troubleshoot problems with power and batteries.
- Screen problems — Troubleshoot screen and graphics problems.
See Also
- Adjust the contrast — Make windows and buttons on the screen more (or less) vivid, so they're easier to see.
- Set screen brightness — Dim the screen to save power or increase the brightness to make it more readable in bright light.
- Why does my screen go dim after a while? — When your laptop is running on battery, the screen will dim when the computer is idle in order to save power.