I own an HDR screen to display HDR content *when and where I want it*. It has significant value in photography for example. But I certainly don’t want to be looking at hdr ads.
We gave websites the ability to auto-play audio, then they showed they couldn't be trusted with this privilege and we took it away again. We can do the same with HDR images, gating them behind a "click to view", or "allow this site to display HDR content" (plausibly someone could do this with a browser extension already)
(1) HDR display (e.g. you bought a macbook/iphone) doesn’t mean you want random videos in the instagram feed to be full brightness despite setting your screen brightness to minimum in a dark room and (2) reducing white point just darkens stuff across the display, it doesn’t disable the thing people are complaining about.
I just figured out that low power mode also disables HDR and that’s a one-click toggle.
So to me the user has an off switch and the content creator also gets to express their creative freedom to use the feature or not.
If you don’t want to see HDR content you can do something else with your day. Nobody is holding us hostage to use our phones in a dark room or scroll Instagram.
iOS does not have this switch and it’s a pretty common platform. Low power mode also disables other things. You can of course do what you want with your creative freedom, you’ll just have to live with peoples’ reactions for non-consensually showing them something they passionately do not want to see.
I just disagree with this concept of “non-consent” in this context.
This would be like buying a color TV and getting upset that the commercials don’t remain in black and white, and saying you didn’t consent to that.
But unlike in the color TV analogy we have two methods of disabling (low power mode and reduce white point setting) and we don’t just have 3 TV channels to choose from.
I will definitely concede that the browser and OS should have more controls around this feature.
Nope. It’s like buying a TV that suddenly gives content publishers the ability to show blindingly bright pictures regardless of the device’s brightness setting.
To become more metaphorical again, compare it to suddenly playing a loud, screeching sound or displaying porn or gore. The technology allows you to do it, but it’s offensive and you deserve the resulting anger.
That there is no viable setting to turn it off means there is no basis for consent.
For an authoritative overview of high dynamic range on monitors, I recommend the 137 minute documentary Debunking HDR (Steve Yedlin, 2025) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44248968
I’ve noticed this trend on LinkedIn just recently. Very noticeable at night, obviously, when my screen is naturally more dim. But these logos are like blinding headlights.
I just noticed something similar today as an ad where the green oval button was so bright that the rest of the white screen felt grayish/dull than white. It could not be unnoticed playing on the notion that the eye is attracted to the brightest thing on the screen
I hate gain maps in JPEGs. I noticed that because I insisted on capturing JPEGs and not HEIF on my iPhone, and I found that the iPhone would also show overexposed parts (such as the sky) brighter than plain white. That's how I came to know gain maps. Fortunately on iOS, although I cannot disable the inclusion of gain maps in photos I take with Camera.app, I can stop Photos.app from rendering them: just turn off "View Full HDR" in the settings.
The Metapho app on iOS seems to be a good app to view the gain map itself. I give it no access to my photos and use the share sheet to view gain maps of specific images.
Pretty sure Fifth Star Labs’ Sky Guide iOS icon does this. Not the whole icon, just the stars in it. Hiding the app in a folder helps but I’m looking for a better alternative just because of this.
As a workaround, you can use a home screen shortcut to start the app.
But I agree that app developers shouldn’t do this, or should at least provide an option to turn it off. (Some apps allow customizing the app icon color, so it seems that should be possible.)
That’s a good idea, I haven’t used the shortcuts feature. I think this app also abuses the ability to change the app icon to provide subtle animations - but there’s no option to turn it off or customise.
We found that user engagement was substantially increased by making the home page just rapidly flicker between red and green. Some users stared at it for hours!
I mean, use it responsibly. Of course people won't, it's the internet, but a skilled designer may use it to highlight a word or an accent to draw your eye. It can be tricky in dense interfaces to draw focus to something (little tooltips or big buttons aren't the best answers). This is just another tool in the toolbox.
It’s bad because it dims the entire display. You’re assuming your app is more important than whatever else might be displayed. It can also take a bit for the os to go back to the sdr state. I’ve had a few cases where safari gets stuck in hdr mode and won’t revert u til I force closed.
Dimming the entire display is not how HDR works especially on OLED phone displays.
If you are not outside in bright sunlight it’s almost certain that your screen is not at its highest brightness in the first place.
All HDR is doing is adding more range between the darkest element and the brightest element.
I.e., if you go to this webpage and set your screen brightness to maximum, the HDR effect visibly goes away because you’re already telling your screen to maximize brightness everywhere. Put the screen brightness at 50% and the HDR effect is visible: the bright parts are brighter.
> It’s bad because it dims the entire display. You’re assuming your app is more important than whatever else might be displayed.
What are you talking about? I have a HDR display, in Chrome on Arch the literal only change in the submission's demo is the brightness of that particular element, doesn't change anything else on the screen, sounds like you have a broken HDR implementation.
We haven't had dense interfaces for decades at this point.
Still, even with the best intent what you suggest is still annoying. Okay, you got my attention, i now know what you wanted me to know. Are you going to nag me for all eternity?
This seems like yet another reason to not run HDR. It is kind of annoying even when used responsibly, but now we'll have people using it irresponsibly too.
I’m known for having my brightness down to the minimum at all times. The demo page effect is very pronounced. Effectively, it is ignoring my system level preference which makes me hate it a lot.
Android's HDR brightness slider is low - The single most common "HDR does nothing" report on Android 15/16 devices. Samsung also has Super HDR/Extra brightness / Vision booster toggles under Display. Any of them at the conservative setting would have an effect.
Came here to say this. It just cranks the brightness up for the pixels. But if you are already at 100% there is not much headroom so all the "before and after" for me were pretty hard to differentiate. There was some minor difference if I studied it closely but I'd probably not notice it during normal use it was so slight.
If I went down to say 50% brightness then it was much more pronounced, but who lives their life with their eyes only half open like that?!
> Clearly we need more of it
I do not in fact want sites trying to get around my display preferences to post their visual presence on screen.
Settings > Accessibility > Display Text & Size > Reduce White Point
Ultimately, you choose what websites you go to, just like people who create websites choose how to present them.
I personally don’t consider this anywhere near as problematic as auto-play audio, but I recognize that that’s subjective.
(1) HDR display (e.g. you bought a macbook/iphone) doesn’t mean you want random videos in the instagram feed to be full brightness despite setting your screen brightness to minimum in a dark room and (2) reducing white point just darkens stuff across the display, it doesn’t disable the thing people are complaining about.
So to me the user has an off switch and the content creator also gets to express their creative freedom to use the feature or not.
If you don’t want to see HDR content you can do something else with your day. Nobody is holding us hostage to use our phones in a dark room or scroll Instagram.
This would be like buying a color TV and getting upset that the commercials don’t remain in black and white, and saying you didn’t consent to that.
But unlike in the color TV analogy we have two methods of disabling (low power mode and reduce white point setting) and we don’t just have 3 TV channels to choose from.
I will definitely concede that the browser and OS should have more controls around this feature.
To become more metaphorical again, compare it to suddenly playing a loud, screeching sound or displaying porn or gore. The technology allows you to do it, but it’s offensive and you deserve the resulting anger.
That there is no viable setting to turn it off means there is no basis for consent.
soverybright.com##:style(dynamic-range-limit: standard !important)
linkedin.com##:style(dynamic-range-limit: standard !important)
fwiw it seems like “reduce white point” overrides any of these effects - which is good.
This way we get to skip awareness, interest and desire and get the prospect straight to action.
Immediate irritation and if I could setup an adblock rule to stop it somehow, I would.
The worst cases give me the starting pangs of a headache, and make me adjust my display to account for it.
Can we somehow make it a rule that a website has to ask if they can blind me first?
like something on the line of "if (image small || partially covered || mostly transparent) then don't use HDR"
The Metapho app on iOS seems to be a good app to view the gain map itself. I give it no access to my photos and use the share sheet to view gain maps of specific images.
You know it will be annoying.
https://en.everybodywiki.com/Plonk_(Usenet)
But I agree that app developers shouldn’t do this, or should at least provide an option to turn it off. (Some apps allow customizing the app icon color, so it seems that should be possible.)
chrome://flags/#force-color-profile -> sRGB
If you are not outside in bright sunlight it’s almost certain that your screen is not at its highest brightness in the first place.
All HDR is doing is adding more range between the darkest element and the brightest element.
I.e., if you go to this webpage and set your screen brightness to maximum, the HDR effect visibly goes away because you’re already telling your screen to maximize brightness everywhere. Put the screen brightness at 50% and the HDR effect is visible: the bright parts are brighter.
What are you talking about? I have a HDR display, in Chrome on Arch the literal only change in the submission's demo is the brightness of that particular element, doesn't change anything else on the screen, sounds like you have a broken HDR implementation.
Still, even with the best intent what you suggest is still annoying. Okay, you got my attention, i now know what you wanted me to know. Are you going to nag me for all eternity?
GovTech is still full of them. But B2B/B2C, you're right.
The nagging will continue until morale improves.
A uBlock Origin rule for the whole domain of anybody who does this would be fine too.
Android's HDR brightness slider is low - The single most common "HDR does nothing" report on Android 15/16 devices. Samsung also has Super HDR/Extra brightness / Vision booster toggles under Display. Any of them at the conservative setting would have an effect.
If I went down to say 50% brightness then it was much more pronounced, but who lives their life with their eyes only half open like that?!
…and it’s slop.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vantablack