MonitorControl - Control your external monitor brightness & volume

Software
1

It does not happen often. Except when it does: you stumble upon a little tool, a nice app. For your menubar. Because you can’t have enough of apps like that. It happened today to me:

https://monitorcontrol.app/

If you are using external monitors, this app can change how you interact with the monitors’ controls.

From the app’s Github page:

  • Control your display’s brightness, volume and contrast!
  • Shows native OSD for brightness and volume.
  • Supports multiple protocols to adjust brightness: DDC for external displays (brightness, contrast, volume), native Apple protocol for Apple and built-in displays, Gamma table control for software adjustment (recommended for OLED), shade control for AirPlay, Sidecar and Display Link devices.
  • Supports smooth brightness transitions.
  • Seamlessly combined hardware and software dimming extends dimming beyond the minimum brightness available on your display.
  • Synchronize brightness from built-in and Apple screens - replicate Ambient light sensor and touch bar induced changes to a non-Apple external display!
  • Sync up all your displays using a single slider or keyboard shortcuts.
  • Allows dimming to full black (advanced feature).
  • Support for custom keyboard shortcuts as well as standard brightness and media keys on Apple keyboards.
  • Dozens of customization options to tweak the inner workings of the app to suit your hardware and needs (don’t forget to enable Show advanced settings in app Preferences).
  • Modern, stylish and highgly customizable menulet reflecting the design of Control Control introduced in Big Sur.
  • Simple, unobstrusive UI to blend in to the general aesthetics of macOS (even the menu icon can be hidden).
  • Supports automatic updates for a hassle-free expereince.
  • The best app of its kind, completely FREE (donations accepted) with the source code transparently available!

:slight_smile:

8 Likes
2

Any idea how this compares to Lunar? I was using it for awhile but didn’t like how it would sometimes randomly dim my iMac screen.

3

Sorry, but I do not know much about Lunar. I am not able to really compare those two apps. :slight_smile:

I have not had issues so far with Monitor Control.

4

No worries, I’m gonna check it out because it drives me nuts when my external monitor is a lot brighter than my iMac :laughing:

5

I’ve been wanting something like this! I run a 13-inch M1 MBA with a 24-inch LG monitor sitting behind and above the MBA’s built-in screen. I’m frustrated because the brightness of the external display varies a lot and I haven’t been able to control it or easily reset it.

The releases page for the MonitorControl app now mentions a follow-on app, called BetterDisplay.This new app seems to fix all my display problems.

For more features and better compatibility with Sequoia consider switching to BetterDisplay .

BetterDisplay not only offers keyboard control of external display brightness, it seems to hold the brightness at the level that I set. And it allows me to turn off the built-in MBA display if I want to without having to close the lid. And the BetterDisplay app supports keyboard shortcuts OPT+SHIFT+BrightnessUp and OPT+SHIFT+BrightnessDown to adjust the screen brightness in small steps.

2 Likes