How can I sleep my laptop display, but not the external display?

Tech Support
1

I’ve been using an external EIZO display with my M1 MacBook Air in clamshell mode, but now I’m experimenting with positioning the laptop beside the EIZO to use the laptop to display Obsidian with my extensive Photoshop note system.

When I’m not using that note system, is there a way to sleep the laptop’s display? If that’s not possible, is there a way to launch a screen saver on one display only? (I see Sonoma lets you have display-specific screen savers, but with my reliance on Adobe products I usually wait year to update the OS, so I’m still on Ventura.)

Of course, I could just close the MacBook, but first I thought I would check for a keyboard-only method.

2

If you’re open to a paid app, the soft blackout feature in Lunar will do this for you.

3

Thanks! I’ll check it out.

4

Lunar is a great app for managing screens and I recommend it (as a non-tech person). I bought it because it allows you to set screen brightness across multiple screens (so e.g. you can make sure your laptop screen brightness matches your external display), and also because it lets you dim screens further than Apple does.

I ended up liking it so much (such a simple interface) that I removed the Touchbar’s brightness buttons on my MBP, because even when I’m just on laptop I prefer Lunar to be in charge.

(I’m trying to remember and I’m 80% confident that it’s Lunar that also fixed an audio issue with my external monitor and enabled the monitor to “take over” audio control from the MBP.)