How to tint your screen on Windows
Windows has several ways to change the colour of your display, and most of them are free. Here is what each one does, where to find it, and where it falls short.
Last updated September 2026 · Applies to Windows 10 and Windows 11
People want to tint a screen for different reasons, and the right tool depends on which reason is yours. Reducing blue light in the evening is a different problem from reading a long document comfortably, which is different again from making one particular window easier to look at while the rest of the desktop stays normal.
Work through these in order. The first three cost nothing.
1. Night light (built into Windows)
Night light shifts the whole display towards warm orange. It is designed to cut blue light in the evening, and it is the first thing to try if your eyes hurt at night.
Windows 11: Settings → System → Display → Night light.
Windows 10: Settings → System → Display → Night light settings.
You can set the strength with a slider and schedule it to come on at sunset. It is well made and costs nothing.
Where it falls short: the only direction is warmer. If a soft green or blue is what helps you read, Night light cannot produce it, and it always affects the entire screen.
2. Colour filters (built into Windows)
Windows has a separate set of accessibility filters: greyscale, inverted, and filters intended for colour blindness (red-green and blue-yellow).
Windows 11: Settings → Accessibility → Colour filters.
Windows 10: Settings → Ease of Access → Colour filters.
The keyboard shortcut Windows + Ctrl + C turns them on and off once enabled, which is handy for comparing.
Where it falls short: these are fixed transformations, not a tint you choose. There is no "make everything slightly yellow at 20% strength" option.
3. Your monitor's own settings
Most external monitors have a colour temperature setting in their on-screen menu, reached with the buttons on the monitor itself. Warm, Cool and Custom RGB are common. Because the adjustment happens in the monitor, it costs no performance and applies to everything, including games and video.
Where it falls short: laptop screens usually have no such menu, the controls are fiddly, and there is no per-window control at all. It is also easy to forget you changed it and later wonder why photos look wrong.
4. Overlay software
Overlay software draws a translucent colour over what is on screen. This is the category to look at when you want a specific colour, control over how strong it is, or the ability to tint one window while the rest of the desktop stays as it was.
It is also the only approach that offers a reading ruler: a band of normal brightness with everything above and below it dimmed, so you can follow one line of text at a time.
WinShades is our app in this category. Others exist, and f.lux is a well-known free option if warm-shifting on a schedule is all you need.
Which one should you use?
| What you want | Use this |
|---|---|
| Less blue light in the evening | Night light, free, built in |
| Greyscale or a colour-blindness filter | Colour filters, free, built in |
| A consistent warm screen all day | Your monitor's colour temperature |
| A particular colour at a particular strength | Overlay software |
| Tint one window, leave the rest alone | Overlay software |
| A reading ruler to keep your place | Overlay software |
Before any of this, check your brightness. A screen much brighter than the room is tiring whatever colour it is. Put a sheet of white paper next to your monitor: the screen's white should look about as bright as the paper. Most people run their screens far too bright, and fixing that alone solves a surprising amount of eye strain.
Things worth knowing
Don't stack too many at once
Night light, a monitor set to warm, and an overlay on top of both will leave you unable to tell what is doing what. Change one thing, live with it for a day, then decide.
Tinting is not the same as dark mode
Dark mode swaps the colours in an application, so pages become light text on a dark background. A tint keeps the layout exactly as it is and lays a colour over it. Some people find dark mode much more comfortable and never need a tint at all; it is worth trying first, since most apps and browsers now offer it.
Screenshots and video
An overlay drawn on top of the screen may or may not appear in a screenshot, depending on the tool. Night light and monitor settings never appear in screenshots, because the image is captured before those are applied.
If reading is the actual problem
If you are tinting your screen because reading is uncomfortable rather than because of evening blue light, it is worth understanding what a tint can and cannot do for that. We have written it up honestly, including what the research does not support, in coloured overlays and visual stress.
Trying an overlay
WinShades tints a single window or your whole screen in any colour and strength you choose, adds a draggable reading ruler, and includes reading tools alongside: text read aloud, spell check, and dictation that runs entirely on your own PC.
There is a free trial, which matters here because the colour that helps is personal and you cannot know yours in advance.