What is a gray screen used for?
A gray screen turns a display into a flat, even surface of one colour, used for lighting, backdrops, tracing and checking a panel for faults.
Mid grey is the reference colour of display testing. It is where the dirty screen effect shows up — the faint blotching that makes a panel look smeared during slow camera pans — along with any colour tint that makes one half of the screen warmer than the other. Backlight bleed and clouding are different faults and need a near-black field instead.
- The standard field for checking grey uniformity across a panel.
- Judging a display's own colour tint, left half against right half.
- Spotting the dirty screen effect that only appears at mid tones.
The other two reference fields are the white screen at the top of the range and the lighter silver screen between them.
How do you make your screen gray?
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.
What does a grey screen test show on a monitor?
The dirty screen effect and colour tint. Both are invisible at pure black and pure white and only appear across the middle of the range.
The dirty screen effect is a high-frequency variance in uniformity that shows as darker patches or a dirty centre, most obvious during slow camera pans. Backlight bleed and clouding are separate faults that need a black field instead. Run the uniformity test to check for both.
Is looking at a gray screen bad for your eyes?
No. A gray 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 gray background image?
Open the download panel, choose a format and a size, and the gray 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: gray-1920x1080.png.
Does the gray 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 gray?
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 gray is #808080. 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.