Setting a grayscale (or monochrome) color scheme with compiz in Unity?

Question

I would like to see everything on my computer screen in grayscale (like say the kindle screen). How do I do this?

is this also available in ubuntu 14.04? I don't have the color filter option in Accessibility nor anywhere else :/ anyone? — , Oct 10 '14 at 19:04
The answer in this post is not anymore valid in Ubuntu 18.04+. Please see https://askubuntu.com/q/1012905/124466 and https://askubuntu.com/questions/1546984/how-to-make-the-screen-grayscale-in-ubuntu-with-desktops-other-than-gnome?noredirect=1&lq=1 — Archisman Panigrahi, May 02 '25 at 23:53

score 15 · Accepted Answer · edited May 04 '25 at 02:13

15

If you are not using Unity, see How do I make my display grayscale in Ubuntu with GNOME desktop? and How to make the screen grayscale in Ubuntu flavors (non-GNOME)?

Compiz has a few filters which supposedly can do what you want.

Install Compiz Config Setting Manager from Ubuntu Software Center or with sudo apt install compizconfig-settings-manager.
Run it and under Accessibility category you'll find Color Filter and Opacity, Brightness and Saturation filters.
There you'll be able to enable them, assign a keyboard shortcut and edit the filters' settings.

Now, I have to admit that I wasn't able to test it since I only have Ubuntu in a virtual box without 3D acceleration, but hopfully it'll give you some pointers.

Also, please don't get too excited modifying Compiz settings - it is quite easy to break Unity by doing so. The filters I mentioned above should be quite safe though.

edited May 04 '25 at 02:13

Archisman Panigrahi

40,026

answered Feb 08 '12 at 07:39

Sergey

44,443

1

I can confirm that the monochrome color filter works nicely. – Chris H Dec 05 '13 at 13:35
I know this is an old answer, but what if when I install it and I only have but a few of the options? I only see "general" in the lefthand menu. – Kard Nails Mar 24 '20 at 08:52
@KardNails You are more likely to get a reply by asking this as a new question. – Daniel Werner Mar 27 '20 at 14:02

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 30 '22 at 13:14

As soon as I personally visited this answer at first in 2022, I would recommend to see this answer, where GNOME bedtime extension is a solution.
Works good for me as it has its own settings and not dangerous (seems like that) at all to crash your system.

Setting a grayscale (or monochrome) color scheme with compiz in Unity?

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