Lunar controls the same brightness that you can change by using the monitor's physical buttons, even on M1.
Unlike other software that only simulate a brightness change by adding a black overlay over your screen,
Lunar uses DDC (Display Data Channel)
to send commands like set brightness to 30% or switch input to HDMI 2 directly to the monitor.
This keeps the colour rendering closer to reality, consumes less power and minimizes the backlight bleeding effect.
Apple vendored displays get special treatment as Lunar uses an implementation hidden inside macOS Display Services to control them natively. The list of displays include:
The same brightness and volume keys can now control all your external monitors.
Hold Control while pressing brightness keys to adjust external monitors, or Control+Option if you want to change the contrast.
If the monitor audio output is active, the volume and mute keys will control it without any setup.
When using multiple devices with the same monitor, you can switch to other inputs and adjust the brightness to a preset value with a single key press.
Sync Mode ports the MacBook's adaptive brightness feature to all your external monitors.
Whenever macOS adapts your MacBook display using the built-in Ambient Light Sensor, Lunar will sync that adjustment to all your monitors.
Syncing also works with adjustments made by TouchBar or brightness keys.
Sensor Mode brings adaptive brightness for any Mac device.
If you use a Mac Mini, a MacBook with the lid closed, or even a Hackintosh, Lunar can automatically adapt your monitors' brightness and contrast based on readings from an external ambient light sensor.
The sensor is wireless, can be powered by USB or Lithium-ion battery and can even be used for multiple computers as long as they're in the same network as the sensor.
In Location Mode, Lunar will automatically adapt your monitors based on the sun position in the sky.
Location Mode shines in environments with lots of natural light, where the ambient light in the room correlates with the sun elevation.
If you're using a Mac Mini or a MacBook with the lid closed, Location Mode can be a good alternative because Sync Mode is not available without a built-in Ambient Light sensor.
If you still need the monitors to adapt to the light around you, Sensor Mode would be a better choice.
The M1 MacBook Pro can work with more than one monitor with the help of a DisplayLink adapter and a Raspberry Pi.
Even though the M1 MacBook has two Thunderbolt ports, only one of those can be connected to a monitor.
To work around this limitation, DisplayLink adapters can collect video data from the Mac through a simple USB connection and then send it to multiple monitors.
These are cheaper but they need a separate USB-C hub or adapter as they only have an USB-A connector.
These are more expensive but with a single USB-C connection you get multi-monitor support, a ton of USB ports, card readers, ethernet and 65W-100W charging.
After connecting a DisplayLink adapter to your MacBook, install the required software
and your monitors should appear in System Preferences -> Displays and in Lunar.
The DisplayLink software on macOS doesn't support passing through DDC or Gamma changes to the monitors, so we have to get inventive.
Lunar can control DisplayLink monitors with the help of a network connected Raspberry Pi.
The way Lunar does this is by having a Pi board connected to a separate HDMI port of your monitor and Lunar relaying the DDC commands through a custom server running on the Pi.
Minimum requirements
Setting up the Pi is as simple as clicking on Install DDC Server on Raspberry Pi and waiting for Lunar to install and configure the server.
Lunar can work around the lack of DDC support of some devices using two separate and very different methods.
The works out of the box method.
Lunar can approximate a decrease in brightness by changing the software gamma tables to make the colors look darker.
This doesn't change the hardware brightness as DDC does, so you have to manually set the monitor's brightness and contrast (using the monitor physical buttons) to the highest possible values that look good for your monitor.
This also means that monitor volume and input can't be controlled.
The why do I have to do this? method...
If you want your DDC controls back, Lunar can use a Raspberry Pi with network access for this.
The way this works is by having the Pi connected to a separate HDMI port of your monitor and Lunar relaying the DDC commands through a custom server running on the Pi.
Minimum requirements
Use your monitor as a really bright LED panel when you're having video calls in your cozy dark room.
If having your face well lit in a video call is more important than screen space, Lunar can help you with a single hotkey.
Press Control+Command+5 or use the Lunar menu to activate FaceLight and Lunar will increase the active monitor's brightness and contrast to maximum and place a warm-white overlay on top of your screen.
Press the hotkey again to deactivate FaceLight and return to the previous brightness.
Focus on the real work by disabling screens that you don't need.
Sometimes you only need to see one screen, but you don't want to disconnect or turn off the other displays. In the case the MacBook internal display, turning off isn't even possible in an easy way.
BlackOut enables you to selectively turn off displays using a single hotkey.
Use cases:
Press Control+Command+6 with the cursor on the monitor you want to disable to activate BlackOut.
Lunar will set the active monitor's brightness and contrast to 0 and mirror the other still visible screen to the disabled one so that you have all your windows visible.
Press the hotkey again to deactivate BlackOut and return to the previous brightness.
Forget about configuring obscure settings. Just set the monitor brightness to what you need and Lunar will learn from that.
All adaptive modes (Sync, Sensor, Location) support an auto-learning algorithm.
When the brightness or contrast of the monitor is not what you would expect it to be, change it to your preferred value, and Lunar will adjust its brightness/contrast curve to better match your own perception of light.
Lunar can use DDC to control monitors on all M1 Macs! (except the HDMI port of the Mac Mini)
Lunar can use the M1 GPU to communicate with monitors through the I²C protocol and do the following:
Control and automate your monitors from the command-line.
lunar get and lunar set: Quickly set/get monitor values if you have a single external monitorlunar displays: Control and query each display separatelylunar lux: Check the ambient light around you (only on M1 Macbooks and iMacs)lunar builtin: Query the built-in display of the Macbooklunar ddc: Send arbitrary DDC commandslunar gamma: Control the Gamma tables per monitorlunar lid: Check if the lid of the Macbook is open or closedlunar ddcctl: Use ddcctl directly (only on Intel Macs)lunar hotkeys: See all the hotkeys of Lunar| Feature | Free version | Lunar Pro |
|---|---|---|
| DDC Controls | ✔ | ✔ |
| Fallback when DDC fails | ✔ | ✔ |
| Brightness keys support | ✔ | ✔ |
| Volume keys support | ✔ | ✔ |
| Command-line integration | ✔ | ✔ |
| Input switching | ✔ | ✔ |
| Multi-monitor support | ✔ | ✔ |
| Per-app brightness | ✔ | ✔ |
| Sync Mode | Ｘ | ✔ |
| Location Mode | Ｘ | ✔ |
| Sensor Mode | Ｘ | ✔ |
| FaceLight | Ｘ | ✔ |
| BlackOut | Ｘ | ✔ |
| Manual Mode | 100 adjustments per day | Unlimited adjustments |
| Pricing | Free | $23 |