This program helps you adjust the color and brightness of your screen on Linux, making it more comfortable to look at — especially at night.
It’s like adding a “warm light filter” (similar to your phone’s night mode that diminishes the blue light) to reduce eye strain and make late-night screen time easier on your eyes.
xsct_gui is a graphical interface for xsct, a small command-line tool that changes your screen’s color temperature using xrandr.
- 🔆 Adjusts screen color: Make your screen more orange (warm) or more white (cool).
- 💡 Controls brightness: Make the screen dimmer or brighter.
- 🖱️ All through a simple, easy-to-use interface with sliders.
✅ Perfect for nighttime use, studying, or working on your computer.
💡 Try to match your screen color to the lighting in your room — and avoid blue-heavy lights at night!
You’ll need a Linux system using the X11 Window Manager (not Wayland).
As of 2025, these desktop environments still support X11 sessions:
- GNOME
- KDE
- Linux Mint
- XFCE
- LXQt
- LXDE
- openbox, fluxbox, jwm, and other X11 window managers
❗ This tool won’t work on Wayland. Make sure you log in using an X11 session.
Before using xsct_gui, make sure you have these installed (open a terminal and run):
sudo apt install python3 python3-tk xsct python3-pil.imagetk python3-cairosvgThe following is a table with the description of each one
| Program | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Python 3 | The programming language the GUI is written in. |
Tkinter (python3-tk) |
Creates the window and buttons (GUI toolkit). |
Pillow (python3-pil.imagetk) |
Displays the colorful gradient bars. |
CairoSVG (python3-cairosvg) |
Allows the program to show SVG icons (like the app icon). |
| xsct | The actual tool that changes your screen color. |
| Papirus Icon Theme | Provides a nice app icon. |
📝 If you're using Debian 11 (bullseye) or Debian 10 (buster),
xsctisn't available. You'll need to compile it manually (see instructions at the end).
If you're using Ubuntu and its flavors that support X11 logins, those packages are available in the repositories:
- https://packages.ubuntu.com/xsct Since Noble (24.04LTS)
- https://packages.ubuntu.com/papirus-icon-theme Since Jammy (22.04LTS)
- https://packages.ubuntu.com/python3 Since Jammy (22.04LTS)
- https://packages.ubuntu.com/python3-tk Since Jammy (22.04LTS)
- https://packages.ubuntu.com/python3-pil.imagetk Since jammy (22.04LTS)
- https://packages.ubuntu.com/python3-cairosvg Since jammy (22.04LTS)
📌 Note: Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, so these packages may have those names there as well.
If you're using Debian and its derivatives like MX Linux, antiX, etc., where you can log in with X11, those packages are available in the repositories:
- https://packages.debian.org/xsct since Debian 12
- https://packages.debian.org/papirus-icon-theme since Debian 10
- https://packages.debian.org/python3 since Debian 10
- https://packages.debian.org/python3-tk since Debian 10
- https://packages.debian.org/python3-pil.imagetk Since Debian 10
- https://packages.debian.org/python3-cairosvg Since Debian 10
📌 Note: MX Linux 23, antiX 23, and others are based on Debian 12
First, you need to have the program in a folder on your Linux computer
Go to the website:
https://github.com/wachin/xsct_gui
click on the arrow-like dropdown in Code:
<> Code ▼
and click on:
Download ZIP
extract it, and inside the folder you'll find the Launcher.sh file
or you can clone it:
1.- Since we already have git installed, open a terminal in a folder where you have Linux programs:
git clone https://github.com/wachin/xsct_gui and enter there with:
cd xsct_gui Make sure the Launcher.sh script is executable. In the file manager, right-click on it and in the "Permissions" tab make sure it "is executable"
Double-click the Launcher.sh script and click Run
👉 A window will open with two controls:
💡 On some Linux you can right click on the
xsct_gui.pyfile and open it with python.
1.- Open a terminal
2.- Go to the folder where the xsct_gui.py file is located, or open a terminal there from your file manager
3.- Run the program with this command:
python3 xsct_gui.py👉 A window will open with two controls
- Left (2000K): Warm, orange tone → best for nighttime.
- Right (6500K): Cool, white-blue tone → best for daytime.
📌 Move the slider to choose your preferred color.
- Left (0.200): Very dim → great for dark rooms.
- Right (1.000): Full brightness → best in bright environments.
📌 Adjust the slider to set your desired brightness.
✅ Yes! As soon as you move a slider, the change takes effect immediately.
You can also click the "About..." button to see information about the program.
| Situation | Recommended Settings |
|---|---|
| 🌙 Night or dark room | 3000K – 4000K temperature, 0.700 – 0.800 brightness |
| ☀️ Daytime or bright room | 5500K – 6500K temperature, 1.000 brightness |
| 👀 Eyes feel tired | Try warmer color and lower brightness |
🔍 Experiment! Find the combo that feels best for your eyes and room lighting.
Absolutely! The program is written in Python, so you can open xsct_gui.py in any text editor (like Geany, Thonny, or Mousepad) to:
- Change colors
- Edit labels
- Add new features
📚 Great for learning Tkinter GUI programming in Python!
- 🐍 GUI Source Code: https://github.com/wachin/xsct_gui
- ⚙️ xsct (command-line tool): https://github.com/faf0/sct
Created by Washington Indacochea Delgado License: GNU GPL3 (free and open source)
✨ Thank you for using xsct_gui!
May your screen always be easy on the eyes. 👀💙
- On older Debian versions (like Buster or Bullseye),
xsctisn’t available. You’ll need to compile it manually:
# Install build dependencies
sudo apt install libx11-dev libxrandr-dev
# Clone and compile xsct
git clone https://github.com/faf0/sct
cd sct
make
sudo make installThen install the GUI dependencies:
sudo apt install python3 python3-tk python3-pil.imagetk python3-cairosvgNow run:
python3 xsct_gui.py✅ You're all set!
Now go ahead and try changing your screen color — especially at night! 🌈🖥️
Enjoy a more comfortable computing experience!
🙏 God bless you all.