GeezerVison

This is a maintenance update addressing compatibility issues with macOS 27 Golden Gate and macOS 26 Tahoe, helping keep our beloved MonitorControl going in its original glory.

It is for those who have grown attached to MonitorControl just the way it is, and still prefer its simple, familiar way of doing things over some of the fancier alternatives out there.

What's Changed

• Restored the traditional OSD for macOS 26 and macOS 27.
• Fixed app Settings appearing on every interaction with the macOS 27 Siri app.
• Fixed custom keyboard shortcut recording issues on macOS 27.
• Various minor bug fixes.

If you need more features please consider switching to BetterDisplay.

This update contains some minor fixes and changes to the previous app version which introduced macOS Sequoia compatibility and included some other changes.

For more features please consider switching to BetterDisplay.

Due to a change in app signature, if you are still running v4.2.0, auto-update will not work. You need to download and install this version manually.

What's Changed

• Fixed: "Dead pixel(s)" at the left bottom of the external screen appears when app is running - @waydabber
• Fixed: App menu in the menu bar is showing icons when text is selected — and vice versa - @waydabber
• Fixed: Menu Bar Panel overflowing in Spanish - @waydabber
• Renamed all occurenses of Preferences to Settings + update to the latest version of sindresorhus/Settings - @waydabber

Contributors

This MonitorControl version provides macOS Sequoia compatibility and various localization updates.

Please note that due to a change in signatures the v4.2.0 app version does not upgrade to this version - you need to download and install this version manually. You might need to configure Accessibility Permissions again for native keyboard control to work properly.

For more features and better compatibility with Sequoia consider switching to BetterDisplay.

What's Changed

• Fixed: App crashes on macOS 15.0 Sequoia - @waydabber
• Fixed: Dock is frozen after quitting the app in Sequoia - @waydabber
• Fixed: Volume control not available when the display is in HDR mode in Sequoia - @waydabber
• Fixed: Custom keyboard shortcuts don't work in Sequoia - @waydabber
• Added the Portuguese translation - @eduardosantoshf
• Added Hindi translation - @patiljignesh
• Added Japanese translation - @shsw228- Updated Russian translation - @ghostiam
• Added Slovak translation - @Svec-Tomas
• Updated French translation - @botho
• Updated Spanish translation - @stonkol
• Updated Chinese (Taiwan) translation - @stonkol
• Updated Turkish translation - @Zaryob

Contributors

What's Changed

Improvements

• DDC support for high-end M2 (Pro/Max/Ultra) systems by @waydabber, maker of BetterDisplay in #1404
• Fixed "Possible memory leak in Arm64ddc? #1087" by @waydabber, maker of BetterDisplay in #1181

Translations & other

• cs_CZ: update Main.strings for 4.1.0 by @isametry in #1085
• Fixed Readme typo by @prabch in #1156
• Fixed typo (cs_cz) by @isametry in #1249
• Fixed typo by @tentena in #1256
• Updated README for Homebrew by @Goooler in #1317
• Fixed typo in Italian translation by @AlexPerathoner in #1325
• Updated Korean translation by @zzulu in #1358
• String changed, since it changed in System Settings by @Herrner in #1353
• Fixed typo in README by @Gelbotron in #1375
• Updated Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese translations by @wjy2311077 in #1417
• Updated Simplified Chinese Translations by @Jerry23011 in #1146
• Refined Simplified Chinese localization by @Jerry23011 in #1319
• Russian translation - @sertrsv by @sertrsv in #1075

New Contributors

• @sertrsv made their first contribution in #1075
• @isametry made their first contribution in #1085
• @Jerry23011 made their first contribution in #1146
• @prabch made their first contribution in #1156
• @tentena made their first contribution in #1256
• @Goooler made their first contribution in #1317
• @AlexPerathoner made their first contribution in #1325
• @Herrner made their first contribution in #1353
• @Gelbotron made their first contribution in #1375

Full Changelog: v4.1.0...v4.2.0

Contributors

What's Changed

Improvements

• Updated menu bar icon and its behavior. by @jackhinkle in #880
• Added Onboarding Screen by @the0neyouseek in #906
• Fixed Gamma Activity Enforcer window title typo by @robjwells in #952
• Improved dummy detection for newer versions of BetterDisplay on Apple Silicon by @waydabber in #975

Build related changes

• Use absolute paths for system framework references by @DimitarNestorov in #1012
• Fixed build scripts for m1 mac by @the0neyouseek in #1037
• Added check for M1 Pro/Max Macbook Pro HDMI by @the0neyouseek in #904

Translations

• Added missing Hungarian translations and fixed some typos by @fejese in #905
• Added Portuguese (Brazil) translation by @gpnunes75 and @waydabber in #840
• Added Hungarian translations for onboarding + some minor translation fixes by @waydabber in #918
• German translations update by @jajoho in #935
• German translations for onboarding by @jajoho in #940
• Added Czech translation by @isametry and @waydabber in #959
• Updated Chinese translations by @wjy2311077 in #1034
• Updated Taiwan Chinese translations by @kahotheo in #982 and #983
• Added Polish translations by @Zbynius and @waydabber in #1027
• Improve Taiwan TC translations by @jrthsr700tmax in #1025
• Updated Dutch translations by @JoniVR in #1039

New Contributors

• @fejese made their first contribution in #905
• @jackhinkle made their first contribution in #880
• @robjwells made their first contribution in #952
• @kahotheo made their first contribution in #983
• @jrthsr700tmax made their first contribution in #1025
• @DimitarNestorov made their first contribution in #1012
• @wjy2311077 made their first contribution in #1034

Full Changelog: v4.0.2...v4.1.0

Contributors

This is a service release with some minor changes.

Improvements

• Settings are now saved for virtual displays (Sidecar, DisplayLink etc.) as well.
• Shorter wake wait times, removed "locked control" OSD sign.
• Spanish translation - thanks to @OliverCG

Fixes

• Menuless operation's Quit button location now matches the corresponding info text.

Notes

• If you discover any problem, feel free to open an issue!
• If you want to help translating, see #637
• Thanks to everyone who helps make MonitorControl better!

Contributors

This is a service release to address some issues that came up after releasing v4.0.0

Improvements

• Smoother sliders (asynchronous thread-safe debouncing DDC write)
• Improved support for BetterDummy
• Better support for common physical dummies identifying as 28E850
• Inert dummy menu sliders are now hidden
• Improved support for non-gamma->non-gamma mirroring scenarios
• Add command + w key equivalent to "Preferences..." - thanks to @Takuro-Ito
• Compiled to run on macOS 10.14 Mojave as well (use "as is", not supported by the dev team)

Fixes

• Display properties reset turns off hardware DDC
• Brief black screen upon changing space when using shade dimming
• Text wrap problems on some languages
• Issues with Italian and German translations - thanks to @jajoho and @marcofucito

Notes

• If you discover issues, feel free to open an issue!
• If you want to help translating, see #637
• Thanks to everyone who helps make MonitorControl better!

Contributors

Enhancements

• Automatic & manual updates through the app, no more manual downloads 🎉
• Moved 'Show advanced settings' under 'Displays'
• Added proper support for controlling Apple displays.
• Added option to show/hide brightness slider.
• Added option to show brightness slider for internal display and apple displays (enabled by default).
• Replication of built-in and Apple display brightness to corresponding brightness slider.
• Added suffix to similarly named displays for better differentiation.
• Option to disable slider snapping for finer control + disable slider snapping by default.
• Added option to show slider tick marks for better accuracy.
• Added option to use window focus instead of mouse to determine which display to control.
• control + command + brightness now controls external displays only (control + Brightness continues to control internal display only)
• Added separate tab for menu options.
• Added option to restore last saved values upon startup.
• Added option for audio device name matching for display volume control selection.
• Separated option to change all screens for brightness and volume.
• Added option for keyboard fine scale for brightness.
• Added option for keyboard fine scale for volume.
• Added version check upon startup for mandatory preferences reset upon downgrade or incompatible previous version + notification about this.
• Added implementation for command + f1 macOS shortcut to enable/disable mirroring.
• Added safer 'Assume last saved settings are valid' option as default instead of startup DDC read (or restore).
• Streamlined preference panes, 'Show advanced settings' now affect all tabs. This leads to a better and safer first timer experience (especially because of the influx of many new features).
• Added a Quit button to Preferences if menu is hidden (it was not passible to quit the application until this time in this mode only by re-enabling the menu).
• Lowered default first-run volume DDC default from 75% to 15% if read is not possible or disabled to prevent unexpectedly loud sound.
• Added slider skew setting on a per control basis to have the ability to manipulate DDC slider balance and OSD scale if display control is not linear.
• Added the ability to set min. and max. DDC bounds on a per display, per control basis.
• Audio device name override option for a display (manually assign a specific audio device to a display).
• Advanced setting to invert DDC control range (some displays have the scale reversed).
• Advanced setting to remap DDC control code (some displays have contrast and brightness mixed up).
• Ability to mark a DDC control as available or unavailable in advanced settings under Displays.
• Ability to automatically hide menu icon if there is no slider present in the menu.
• Option to show slider percentage for more precision.
• Option to set combined or separate OSD scale when combined hardware+software brightness is used.
• Apple like smooth brightness change (both for software, hardware, mixed and DisplayServices).
• Added support for DisplayLink, AirPlay, Sidecar, screen sharing etc. using window shades (this is an inferior technique to the existing software implementation - gamma control - but still better than nothing). Disabled for any kind of mirroring setups. ¹
• Brightness change synchronisation from Built-In and Apple displays to other displays. This makes Touch Bar, Ambient light sensor, Control Center and System Preferences induced changes affect all displays. Synchronisation uses a sophisticated indirect delta method + the user can intervene and adjust individual screen brightness at any time to easily compensate mismatching native brightness levels.
• Preferences pane tab selector has a simpler look on Catalina.
• All menu sliders are now scrollable using a magic mouse/trackpad swipes or mouse wheel.
• Added option for menu to show only items that are relevant to display which shows the menu currently.
• Added option to enable combined sliders (note: this option combined with enabled Apple/built-in display syncing and enabled 'change all' keyboard settings finally provides full synchronised control of all displays).
• Combined sliders can now display multiple displays when keyboard and brightness syncing is not enabled. ¹
• Redesigned sliders to look like Big Sur/Monterey Control Center's sliders. ¹
• Quit and Preferences... are now icons for a much cleaner look. ¹
• Added option to change additional menu options style or hide them. ¹
• Multiple displays are now in nice Big Sur styled blocks - no more ugly separators. ¹
• Added customisable gamma/ddc switchover point for combined brightness in the advanced section of Displays.
• Added comma separated list for control code override to enable edge cases like controlling Brightness and Contrast at the same time (use VCP list entry 10, 12 for that)
• Contrast can now be controlled from keyboard via control + option + command + brightness up/down.
• Custom keyboard shortcuts for brightness, contrast, volume and mute
• Added Internet Access Policy
• Added advanced option to enable zero brightness with software dimming.
• Added command + q shortcut in menu when it is in standard text mode.
• Rearranged Preferences to fit better on smaller screens in Advanced mode
• Alert when repeated interference is detected with applications.
• Added 'Avoid gamma table manipulation' option for peaceful coexistence with f.lux.

Other under the hood changes and bug fixes

• Standardised internal scale among various displays and DDC ranges for ranged controls.
• Uses the new internal scale for combined hardware-software brightness mode.
• Improved settings reset functionality for virtual and Apple displays.
• Migrated scales to internal float representation to prevent loss of fine detail on transformations.
• Fixed double sound when muting multiple external displays at the same time.
• Multiple attempts to write last DDC brightness and contrast settings after wake when 'Apply last saved settings' is enabled to make sure that slow displays are handled well
• Fixed lack of initial volume configuration if slider is not shown in menu.
• Fixed wrong settings being applied to a display when replaced on Apple Silicon (UserDefaults preferences are now tied to specific display strings instead of CGDirectDisplayID - which is no longer semi-unique on arm64).
• A lot of refactoring, streamlining and general optimisations.

Thanks to all our translators

• Chinese - thanks to @dev-coco, @anmoliyang
• Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan) - thanks to @stiiveo, @dororojames, @kix99aug
• Dutch - thanks to @JoniVR
• French - thanks to @the0neyouseek
• German - thanks to @jajoho, @curana
• Hungarian - thanks to @waydabber
• Italian - thanks to @picov
• Korean - thanks to @zzulu
• Turkish - thanks to @mennan, @ozkanozcan

Notes

• If you discover issues, feel free to open an issue!
• If you want to help translating, see #637
• Special thanks to @waydabber on another fantastic job on this release!
• Thanks to everyone who helps make MonitorControl better!

Contributors

Full v4.0.0 Release Candidate release notes

Enhancements

• Automatic & manual updates through the app, no more manual downloads 🎉
• Added proper support for controlling Apple displays.
• Added option to show/hide brightness slider.
• Added option to show brightness slider for internal display and apple displays (enabled by default).
• Replication of built-in and Apple display brightness to corresponding brightness slider.
• Added suffix to similarly named displays for better differentiation.
• Option to disable slider snapping for finer control + disable slider snapping by default.
• Added option to show slider tick marks for better accuracy.
• Added option to use window focus instead of mouse to determine which display to control.
• control + command + brightness now controls external displays only (control + Brightness continues to control internal display only)
• Added separate tab for menu options.
• Added option to restore last saved values upon startup.
• Added option for audio device name matching for display volume control selection.
• Separated option to change all screens for brightness and volume.
• Added option for keyboard fine scale for brightness.
• Added option for keyboard fine scale for volume.
• Added version check upon startup for mandatory preferences reset upon downgrade or incompatible previous version + notification about this.
• Added implementation for command + f1 macOS shortcut to enable/disable mirroring.
• Added safer 'Assume last saved settings are valid' option as default instead of startup DDC read (or restore).
• Streamlined preference panes, 'Show advanced settings' now affect all tabs. This leads to a better and safer first timer experience (especially because of the influx of many new features).
• Added a Quit button to Preferences if menu is hidden (it was not passible to quit the application until this time in this mode only by re-enabling the menu).
• Lowered default first-run volume DDC default from 75% to 15% if read is not possible or disabled to prevent unexpectedly loud sound.
• Added slider skew setting on a per control basis to have the ability to manipulate DDC slider balance and OSD scale if display control is not linear.
• Added the ability to set min. and max. DDC bounds on a per display, per control basis.
• Audio device name override option for a display (manually assign a specific audio device to a display).
• Advanced setting to invert DDC control range (some displays have the scale reversed).
• Advanced setting to remap DDC control code (some displays have contrast and brightness mixed up).
• Ability to mark a DDC control as available or unavailable in advanced settings under Displays.
• Ability to automatically hide menu icon if there is no slider present in the menu.
• Option to show slider percentage for more precision.
• Option to set combined or separate OSD scale when combined hardware+software brightness is used.
• Apple like smooth brightness change (both for software, hardware, mixed and DisplayServices).
• Added support for DisplayLink, AirPlay, Sidecar, screen sharing etc. using window shades (this is an inferior technique to the existing software implementation - gamma control - but still better than nothing). Disabled for any kind of mirroring setups. ¹
• Brightness change synchronisation from Built-In and Apple displays to other displays. This makes Touch Bar, Ambient light sensor, Control Center and System Preferences induced changes affect all displays. Synchronisation uses a sophisticated indirect delta method + the user can intervene and adjust individual screen brightness at any time to easily compensate mismatching native brightness levels.
• Preferences pane tab selector has a simpler look on Catalina.
• All menu sliders are now scrollable using a magic mouse/trackpad swipes or mouse wheel.
• Added option for menu to show only items that are relevant to display which shows the menu currently.
• Added option to enable combined sliders (note: this option combined with enabled Apple/built-in display syncing and enabled 'change all' keyboard settings finally provides full synchronised control of all displays).
• Combined sliders can now display multiple displays when keyboard and brightness syncing is not enabled. ¹
• Redesigned sliders to look like Big Sur/Monterey Control Center's sliders. ¹
• Quit and Preferences... are now icons for a much cleaner look. ¹
• Added option to change additional menu options style or hide them. ¹
• Multiple displays are now in nice Big Sur styled blocks - no more ugly separators. ¹
• Added customisable gamma/ddc switchover point for combined brightness in the advanced section of Displays.
• Added comma separated list for control code override to enable edge cases like controlling Brightness and Contrast at the same time (use VCP list entry 10, 12 for that)
• Contrast can now be controlled from keyboard via control + option + command + brightness up/down.
• Custom keyboard shortcuts for brightness, contrast, volume and mute
• Added Internet Access Policy
• Added advanced option to enable zero brightness with software dimming.
• Added command + q shortcut in menu when it is in standard text mode.
• Rearranged Preferences to fit better on smaller screens in Advanced mode
• Alert when repeated interference is detected with applications.
• Added 'Avoid gamma table manipulation' option for peaceful coexistence with f.lux.

Other under the hood changes and bug fixes

• Standardised internal scale among various displays and DDC ranges for ranged controls.
• Uses the new internal scale for combined hardware-software brightness mode.
• Migrated scales to internal float representation to prevent loss of fine detail on transformations.
• Fixed double sound when muting multiple external displays at the same time.
• Fixed lack of initial volume configuration if slider is not shown in menu.
• Fixed wrong settings being applied to a display when replaced on Apple Silicon (UserDefaults preferences are now tied to specific display strings instead of CGDirectDisplayID - which is no longer semi-unique on arm64).
• A lot of refactoring, streamlining and general optimisations.

Thanks to all our translators

• Chinese - thanks to @dev-coco, @anmoliyang
• Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan) - thanks to @stiiveo, @dororojames
• Dutch - thanks to @JoniVR
• French - thanks to @the0neyouseek
• German - thanks to @jajoho, @curana
• Hungarian - thanks to @waydabber
• Italian - thanks to @picov
• Korean - thanks to @zzulu
• Turkish - thanks to @mennan, @ozkanozcan

Notes

• This is a release candidate. If you encounter any issues, you can try the last stable release v3.1.1 or last beta release v4.0.0-beta2.
• If you discover issues, make sure to report them in the linked release discussion.
• If you want to help translating, see #637
• Thanks to everyone who helps make MonitorControl better!

Contributors

The new v4.0.0 version is already available as Release Candidate. We encourage you to try the new version instead of the beta version and give your feedback! You should download this older beta version only if you have issues with the Release Candidate!

Changes compared to v4.0.0-beta1:

Enhancements

• Added Internet Access Policy
• Don't relinquish control over brightness keys with no external display connected if fine brightness OSD scale is active
• Changed icon order in menu (when icon mode is enabled)
• Gear shape icon is used for preferences + stands a little bit apart to help user focus.
• Changed default to a minimum software dimming of 15% for safety reasons.
• Added advanced option to enable zero brightness with software dimming.
• Added 'Avoid gamma table manipulation' option for coexistence with f.lux.
• Set relevant options to disabled when keyboard control is disabled.
• Added Command + Q shortcut in menu when it is in standard text mode (not icon mode).
• Made preferences more spacious + more room for verbose languages

Updated translations:

• English - base language
• Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan) - thanks to @stiiveo, @dororojames
• Dutch - thanks to @JoniVR
• French - thanks to @the0neyouseek
• German - thanks to @jajoho
• Hungarian - thanks to @waydabber
• Italian - thanks to @picov
• Korean - thanks to @zzulu
• Turkish - thanks to @mennan

Under the hood changes & fixes

• Register DDC command touched status. When write on startup enabled, apply only touched command values.
• Reorganised PrefKey list to be less confusing.
• Disengage custom shortcut keyboard after 100 key repeat to prevent possibly endless loop if keyUp event never arrives due to any circumstance.
• Fixed text for external display brightness control keyboard shortcut.
• Fix cumulative darkening bug upon toggling 'Disable dimming as fallback'.
• Make sure that key repeat speed for custom shortcuts do not go below a certain threshold.
• Fixes text clipping issues for various languages
• Added beta channel update backend
• Fixed layout issue at brightness custom shortcuts.
• Fixed custom key shortcuts going runaway when menu was opened during a key repeat streak.

Known issues

• Some preference panes may not fit to low resolution screens (1280x800 or less) in Advanced mode.

Notes

• This is a beta release. If you encounter any issues, you can try the last stable release v3.1.1 or the previous beta.
• If you are new to v4.0.0, please take a look at the changelog of v4.0.0-beta1 for the list of major new features!
• If you discover issues, make sure to report them in the linked release discussion or in a new issue.
• If you want to help translating, see #637
• Thanks to everyone who helps make MonitorControl better!

Contributors