Lighter is a GNOME Shell Extension that improves your videocall lighting at night by adding adjustable white borders around your screen edges. Perfect for laptop users who need extra illumination without external gear.
- Adjustable Thickness: From thin lines to thick light bars.
- Customizable Color: Full RGB color picker support (warm/cool white, or any color).
- Opacity Control: Adjust the brightness to your comfort level.
- Multi-Monitor Support: Show on the primary monitor or all screens.
- Seamless Integration: Native GNOME Shell feel with a toggle in the top bar.
- Convenient Shortcut: Quick access to settings with
Ctrl + Alt + L.
- GNOME Shell 45, 46, or 47
glib2(providesglib-compile-schemas, usually pre-installed on GNOME systems)
On Debian/Ubuntu, ensure the required packages are installed:
sudo apt install gnome-shell-extensions glib-2.0-devOn Fedora:
sudo dnf install gnome-shell gnome-extensions-app glib2-develTo run this extension locally:
Clone this repository and create a symbolic link in the GNOME extensions directory:
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions
ln -s "$(pwd)" ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/lighter@gnome-shell-extensions.ferrete.comThe settings schema must be compiled for the extension to work:
glib-compile-schemas schemas/- X11: Press
Alt + F2, typer, and hitEnter. - Wayland: Log out and log back in, or restart your session.
Once the shell has restarted, enable the extension:
gnome-extensions enable lighter@gnome-shell-extensions.ferrete.comTo configure the borders (thickness, color, etc.), open the preferences window from the GNOME Extensions app or run:
gnome-extensions prefs lighter@gnome-shell-extensions.ferrete.comShortcut: You can also press Ctrl + Alt + L at any time to open the preferences directly.
If the extension shows as ERROR state after code changes, you must restart GNOME Shell (step 3) to reload the updated code. Check logs with:
journalctl /usr/bin/gnome-shell -b | grep -i lighter