How to make your screen black
- Press Full screen, press F, or click the black preview. The whole screen turns black and the mouse pointer hides.
- Press Esc, or move the mouse or tap and press Exit, to go back.
- Need a different colour? Pick White, Grey or any colour below the preview.
Uses for a black screen
- Cleaning. Smears and fingerprints stand out on black. Switch to white to find dust.
- Backlight bleed and glow. In a dark room, black shows light leaking through the edges of an LCD panel.
- Hot pixels. A pixel that stays lit on black is stuck. The dead pixel test checks every colour.
- A dark screen while something plays. Keep a laptop showing black in a dark room while music or a talk plays in another tab.
- OLED checks. On an OLED screen pure black is off, so any glow you see is a fault or a reflection.
Grey instead of black
Pure black hides some faults. Pick Grey and lower the Brightness for a very dark grey that shows uneven panels, often called clouding or banding, better than black does.