What is a black screen used for?
A black screen turns a display into a flat, even surface of one colour, used for lighting, backdrops, tracing and checking a panel for faults.
On an OLED or AMOLED panel a black screen switches the pixels off entirely, so it draws almost no power and emits no light at all. That makes it draw a fraction of the power a white screen does on the same panel, and it is the only reliable background for spotting a pixel that is stuck bright.
- OLED screens — true black means the pixels are off, so battery drain and burn-in risk both drop.
- Dark rooms — a black screen keeps a laptop or TV available without lighting up the whole room.
- Finding stuck pixels — a bright dot on a black field is unmistakable.
For a file rather than a lit screen, the download page explains the formats and sizes, which work the same for black. In a dark room the navy screen gives the same restfulness while still showing where the panel ends, a mid grey screen is the better field for uniformity faults, and there is a black screen with a clock on it for overnight use.
How do you make your screen black?
Open this page and press Full screen, or press F. The colour fills the display and every other element disappears until you press Escape.
The colour is painted before any script runs, so there is no flash of white before the page settles. On a phone or tablet, add the page to your home screen and it opens straight into the screen with no browser interface at all.
Is a black screen better for an OLED display?
Yes. On OLED each pixel makes its own light, so a black pixel is switched off completely rather than lit and then masked.
LG describes OLED as self-lit pixels that turn on and off to achieve perfect black. An LCD cannot do this: it lights the whole panel from behind and shows black by blocking that light, so the backlight is still running at full power behind a black image.
Does a black screen save battery?
On OLED, meaningfully. On LCD, essentially not at all, because the backlight draws the same power whatever the screen is showing.
Measured power on an OLED panel tracks what is actually lit: one study recorded 3 watts showing black text on a white background against 0.7 watts for white text on black, a fourfold difference on the same display. That gap does not exist on an LCD.
Can a black screen prevent or fix OLED burn-in?
It can rest the panel, but it cannot reverse burn-in that has already happened. Burn-in comes from static bright content over long periods.
LG attributes most burn-in to static images displaying uninterrupted for many hours or days, typically at peak brightness. A black screen puts those pixels at rest, which helps as prevention. Once uneven ageing has occurred it is physical and permanent.
Is looking at a black screen bad for your eyes?
No. A black screen emits very little light, so it is among the easier things to look at for a long stretch at any brightness.
Digital eye strain comes from reduced blink rate and sustained focus at one distance rather than from the colour on screen. The usual advice is the 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
Will my screen go to sleep while this is open?
Not with Keep awake switched on. It holds a browser wake lock, which asks the operating system to keep the display on with no input.
The wake lock is released the moment you leave the page, so it cannot keep your screen on by accident. Browsers also drop the lock whenever the tab is hidden; this page takes it again automatically when you come back.
How do you download a black background image?
Open the download panel, choose a format and a size, and the black image is generated and saved immediately. No watermark, no account.
PNG, JPG and WEBP are available from a single pixel up to 8K (7680 × 4320). PNG files are generated on the server as a one-bit palette image, which is why even an 8K download is only a few kilobytes. Direct links work too: black-1920x1080.png.
Does the black screen work on a phone, tablet or TV?
Yes, on any device with a browser. Add it to your home screen on mobile, or open the link in a TV browser and tap once.
On iOS, Safari does not allow a web page to enter true fullscreen, so the page fills the viewport instead and the result is the same once you add it to your home screen. On a TV, casting the tab also works.
Can you get a screen in an exact shade rather than this black?
Yes. Every hex code has its own page: put the six characters after /screen/ and that link opens the exact shade on any device.
This black is #000000. Any other shade works the same way: put its six characters after /screen/ and that address opens the exact colour. Because the colour travels in the URL, sending someone the link is a reliable way to agree on a shade without screenshots or colour pickers. The named colour screens all have their own pages, and the screensavers, prank screens and display tests live in the full list of screen tools.
Put this screen on your site
The embeddable version is the screen and nothing else, sized to whatever box you give it.