display in grayscale

Question

I need to show my desktop in gray-scale mode. On MacOS I can do it in accessibility mode. I tried with compiz config but the color filter was removed from Ubuntu 14.04.

Who can help me?

I use Ubuntu 14.04 with Unity.

Answer 1

Compiz plug-in for Unity

You can use the Opacity, Brightness & Saturation plug-in.

1. Open ccsm Compiz manager

2. Go to Accessibility → Then enable: Opacity, Brightness & Saturation

3. Open it, Go to Saturation tab

4. Add new rule:

   Windows: any Value: 0

I got all windows in grayscale only unity dash & top panel still in color, may be needs a reboot. :) sorry not the time to test that.

VGA Hardware option

It is also possible to get a hardware solution for VGA with just few resistors to make an RGB channels merger/mixer.

For other desktop environment with Ubuntu 18.04+

See:

• Gnome: How do I make my display grayscale in Ubuntu with GNOME desktop?
• Other DE's: How to make the screen grayscale in non-GNOME Ubuntu flavors (KDE, Cinnamon, MATE, XFCE and others)?

Answer 2

I think you can achieve what you want with xcalib If it's not installed:

 sudo apt-get install xcalib

try something like

 xcalib -i -a

 xcalib -invert -alter

 xcalib -co 70 -a

To reset screen

 xcalib -c

For more info about xcalib check out http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/precise/man1/xcalib.1.html

or

xcalib -h

Following link may also help out How can Ubuntu be made grayscale?