Redshift: adjust the color temperature of your screen

There is a myth that using the tidy, television, smartphone or any device with a screen on a place with little light or at night can be harmful to your eyes, the truth is that it is not like that.

What if it's real is that the use of your devices with white light in these conditions the eyes get tired that's because researchers have shown that blue light emitted from your computer screen can harm your health by interrupting your sleep cycle (circadian rhythm). That is why modern devices and systems include a feature that changes the color temperature of the screen.

With this function you manage to change the type of light on your screen when it is about to get dark with a warmer light and when it dawns it changes to the one we normally use.

It is because of that this time we are going to take a look at Redshift which is an open source application and free based on f.lux, this application adjusts the color temperature of your computer screen day and night. This program is suitable for people who work on computers during the night shift, as it will harm their eyes less.

About Redshift

Redshift adjusts the color temperature according to the position of the sunAs night approaches, your computer screen gradually turns reddish so that your eyes can slowly adjust to it.

Se set a different color temperature during the night and during the day. During twilight and early morning, the color temperature changes smoothly from night to daytime temperature to allow the eyes to slowly adjust.

At night, the color temperature should be adjusted to match the lamps in your room. This is typically a low temperature around 3000K-4000K (the default is 3700K).

During the day, the color temperature should match the light outside, usually around 5500K-6500K (the default is 5500K). The light has a higher temperature on a cloudy day.

How to install Redshift on Ubuntu 18.04 and derivatives?

In the case of Linux Mint 18.3 (Serena) the application comes installed by default, But for Ubuntu 18.04 and others we have the facility that the application is within the official Ubuntu repositories.

Only we must open the software center and look for the application to install it in our system or if you prefer you can open a terminal and run the following command:

sudo apt install redshift

How to use Redshift?

Firstly, we must open the application, we will find it in "Menu and in Accessories" you will find Redshift.

Now open the application an icon will appear on the panel which also indicates that the Redshift is running on the system.

Now they must click on it and check the Autostart option so that the application runs automatically every time you start the system.

It is extremely necessary that we have an active Internet connection for the correct functioning of Redshift since it requires your geolocation.

RedShift has not configured my geolocation.

This problem is usually something common to the words of its developer since, by default the application does not generate a configuration file even when it is run for the first time.

If this happens to you, don't worry You can edit or create the application file in your personal folder.

Only We must open a terminal and place ourselves in the /.config directory, for this we can execute:

cd ~/.config

And we are going to create the redshift.conf file inside the folder, for this you can do it with this command:

nano redshift.conf

And finally, they should only add the following lines in case they do not have the file:

[redshift]
; Set the day and night screen temperatures
temp-day=5500
temp-night=3700
; enabling smooth transition
transition=1
adjustment-method=randr
; Now specify the location manually
location-provider=manual
[manual]
; use the Internet to get your latitudes and longitudes
; below is the latitude and longitude for Delhi
lat=tuscoordenadas
lon=tuscoordenada

Where you can use the following page to obtain your coordinates and add them to the file, the link is this.