From daylight to bedtime.
Choose separate colours for day, sunset, and bedtime. Set custom wake times by day of the week — your bedtime automatically adjusts to tomorrow morning’s wake.
A little less glare. A little more evening.
Let your screen
follow the sun.
Bright days. Softer evenings. SolarDial gently warms your Mac’s screen as the day winds down, on a schedule that feels like yours.
Free preview · Apple silicon · macOS 14+
First launch & installation notes ↗A little evening reading
OFF THE CLOCKRoom for a
Room for a
slower evening.
SolarDialSettling into the evening
3,400KSunset
Daylight out. Warm light in.Your screen, at your pace.
Illustrative preview · your schedule is customizable
Native macOSNo accountsNo analyticsWorks offline
MADE FOR THE WAY YOU USE YOUR MAC
One small app.
A more comfortable day.
Keep your daytime clarity. Choose the warmth you like after sunset. Let SolarDial take care of the transitions.
A pause where you need it.
A full-screen video can pause warming on that display. Other monitors keep their own warmth. You can also pause for an hour or for a specific app.
Small enough to forget.
A home in your menu bar. Smooth fades. Optional bedtime dimming and a colour you choose for Movie Mode. No account to create or feed to check.
A DAY WITH SOLARDIAL
Warmth that finds
its own time.
Sunset follows your location. Bedtime follows your routine. Explore an example day below.
YOUR SCREEN. YOUR MAC.
A quieter screen.
In every sense.
SolarDial calculates your schedule on your Mac. Your location stays there, too. No app accounts, analytics, or network requests.
Explore the source Location without the detour.
Use macOS Location Services, an automatic time-zone estimate, or choose a time zone manually. Time-zone changes recalculate your schedule in the background.
A schedule you can see.
The daily graph shows what’s coming. Adjust your colours and routine, preview changes, and undo them whenever you need.
Easy to step away.
Pause from the menu or quit to restore normal display colour. Closing Settings leaves SolarDial quietly running.
GET COMFORTABLE
From download
to sundown.
The current preview is for Apple silicon Macs running macOS 14 or later. Intel builds are not included yet.
- 1
Make it at home.
Download and unzip SolarDial. Move SolarDial.app to your Applications folder.
- 2
Give it the screen.
Quit other screen-warming apps and turn off Night Shift to avoid competing colour adjustments.
- 3
Find your rhythm.
Open Settings from the menu bar. Set your wake time (or custom times by day), sleep length, and favourite evening colours.
A few things to know.
Can I customize the colours?
Yes. Day, sunset, and bedtime each have their own colour-temperature setting. Movie Mode has a separate colour and duration. Optional bedtime dimming follows the bedtime transition.
Does it work with external displays?
SolarDial applies colour adjustments per display and supports per-display full-screen pauses. Bedtime dimming also works through display colour tables, so it doesn’t require an external monitor’s brightness controls.
Do I need to share my location?
No. If you skip Location Services, SolarDial uses an automatic time-zone estimate. You can also choose a time zone manually from a list of regions and cities. The app never sends your location over the network.
Is SolarDial affiliated with f.lux?
No. SolarDial is an independently implemented app inspired by the idea of adapting screen colour to the day. It is not made or endorsed by f.lux.
What happens when I quit?
Normal display colour is restored. Closing the Settings window keeps SolarDial running in the menu bar; choose Quit SolarDial to stop it.
SMALL APP. INDEPENDENTLY MADE.
A little support
goes a long way.
SolarDial is free to use. If it makes your evenings a little nicer, a donation helps support the time that goes into making it.
Donate to support SolarDial Optional, always. Secure checkout hosted by Stripe.