Change display colors on iPhone to make it easier to see what’s onscreen

To make it easier to see what’s on your iPhone screen, you can invert display colors, make transparent items solid, and modify how colors appear with color filters.

Tip: Quickly set brightness with the slider in Control Center.

Invert colors

Make the background dark so text and content stand out. This can be especially useful in apps and websites that don’t support Dark Mode.

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size.
Turn on one of the following:
- Smart Invert: Reverse colors everywhere except images.
- Classic Invert: Reverse all the colors onscreen.

Differentiate or tone down colors

You can apply a filter to view the entire screen in grayscale, adjust colors for color vision deficiencies, or tint the screen a color of your choosing.

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size.
Tap Color Filters, turn on Color Filters, then tap a color filter to apply it.
You can drag any slider that appears to adjust the intensity or hue. The pencils reflect how the filter affects a range of colors.
Note: Color filters can change the look of images and videos.

Turn on Reduce White Point to tone down the intensity of bright colors.

To have screen colors become warmer as it gets dark out, use Night Shift. Night Shift automatically removes inverted colors and color filter effects (except grayscale).

You can also use the Magnifier app to capture an image of nearby text or objects and apply a color filter to it. See Customize controls in Magnifier.

Smooth display dimming

Your iPhone controls brightness using a technique called pulse width modulation (PWM), which for some people can make the display appear to flicker when dim. You can turn on Display Pulse Smoothing to create a smoother dimming experience at low brightness levels.

Note: Disabling PWM may affect low brightness display performance under certain conditions. Display Pulse Smoothing is available on iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air.

Go to the Settings app on your iPhone.
Tap Accessibility, then tap Display & Text Size.
Turn on Display Pulse Smoothing (PWM).

Make transparent items solid

Some backgrounds appear transparent or blurred by default. You can make these transparent backgrounds opaque by giving them a solid color. In this way you simplify those parts of your screen and make them easier to see.

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size.
Turn on Reduce Transparency.

Differentiate without color

Some screen items rely on color to convey information. You can replace these with alternative ways to tell them apart, like shapes or text.

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size.
Turn on Differentiate Without Color.

Use symbols for on/off switches

Switches turn green when they are on. You can also have switches use a vertical line to indicate when they’re on and a circle to indicate when they’re off.

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size.
Turn on On/Off Labels.

To apply these settings to only the contents of the zoom window, see Zoom in on the iPhone screen.

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iPhone User Guide