What is a green screen used for?
A green screen turns a display into a flat, even surface of one colour, used for lighting, backdrops, tracing and checking a panel for faults.
Green is the most common chroma key colour, and one reason is that camera sensors sample green more densely than red or blue, which gives compositing software more detail to cut against. A tablet or second monitor showing solid green makes a usable backdrop for small objects and hand shots.
- Chroma key backdrop for product shots, hands and small objects.
- Testing the green channel, which carries most of a display luminance.
- A bright, saturated reference for colour calibration checks.
Light it with a white screen on a second device, and if you want green as a backdrop to keep rather than remove, the mint screen and the olive screen both sit quietly behind a subject.
How do you make your screen green?
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.
Can you use a monitor as a green screen?
For small subjects, yes. A tablet or second monitor showing solid green works as a chroma key backdrop for hands and objects.
It will not work for a whole person, because you cannot get far enough from a screen to light it evenly behind you. For a hand, a product or a small prop it is entirely usable. Keep the subject well away from the screen so its light does not spill green onto the edges, which is the failure that makes keying hard.
Why is green used for chroma key instead of another colour?
Camera sensors sample green more densely than red or blue, so a green backdrop gives compositing software the most detail to cut against.
The original Bayer colour filter patent states that green detail, to which the human visual system is most responsive, is sampled most frequently, and blue least. Green is also far from most skin tones, which matters as much in practice. Blue remains in use where a subject is wearing green.
Is looking at a green screen bad for your eyes?
Not inherently, but a bright screen close to your face for a long stretch causes strain. Lower the brightness and warm the colour temperature.
Digital eye strain comes from reduced blink rate and sustained focus at one distance rather than from the colour itself. Drop the brightness slider to around 60%, warm the temperature past 4000K, and follow 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 green background image?
Open the download panel, choose a format and a size, and the green 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: green-1920x1080.png.
Does the green 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 green?
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 green is #00FF00. 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.