Invert Colors option enabled on Mac
Khamosh Pathak / How-To Geek

If you’re looking at an app or a webpage on your MacBook with a bright background, you might want to invert the colors to make it easier on your eyes. You can do that using a macOS accessibility feature and the new dark mode.

The “Invert Colors” feature can also be helpful for vision-impaired users. The feature flips the screen colors so you have an equally dark background for a previously light color. This works best for black-and-white interface (backgrounds and text), but it can also work for colorful elements.

To enable the feature, click on the Apple button from the menu bar and then click on the “System Preferences” option.

Here, click on the “Accessibility” button.

Now, select the “Display” option from the sidebar.

Click on the “Invert Colors” option.

Instantly, you’ll see that the colors in the interface will flip. The shades of white will turn into the opposite shades of black.

Invert Colors feature shown in action in System Preferences on macOS
Khamosh Pathak / How-To Geek

If you want to invert the colors for the entire interface—including images—click on the checkmark next to the “Classic Invert” option.

For a more subtle option, try using the dark more that’s available in macOS Mojave and higher. It brings a specially-designed dark interface to the Mac.

To try it out, open the “System Preferences” app and go to the “General” section.

Here, in the “Appearance” menu, switch to the “Dark” option.

The entire macOS interface will now shift to dark mode, along with supported apps.

macOS interface in dark mode

The official dark mode looks better than using the Invert Colors feature, but it has one big downside. While the Invert Colors feature will work everywhere, the dark mode feature only works for supported apps (and it doesn’t work on websites by default).

You can do a lot more with the dark mode in macOS. Take a look at our guide to learn more.

RELATED: How to Enable Dark Mode in macOS Mojave

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Khamosh Pathak is a freelance technology writer who specializes in tutorials. His work has also been published on Lifehacker, iPhoneHacks, Zapier's blog, MakeUseOf, and Guiding Tech. Khamosh has nearly a decade of experience writing how-tos, features and technology guides on the internet.
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