How to use the white screen
Press Full-screen white (or click the big preview, or press F) and the page asks the browser for true full screen with the cursor hidden, so the whole display becomes an even white panel. Move the mouse or tap and a small control bar appears at the bottom: arrows step through the other colours, − and + change the brightness in 10% steps, Tone cycles the light colour, the padlock locks touch, and the cross closes it. On a keyboard, ↑ and ↓ change brightness by 5% (hold Shift for 1%), 1–9 jump to a colour and Esc closes.
Everything you choose — colour, brightness, tone, keep-awake, clock and timer — is remembered on this device for next time, and Copy link to this screen gives you an address that opens with the same settings, handy for a bookmark on a tablet you use as a light. Nothing is uploaded; the page works offline once it has loaded.
On iPhone, Safari does not let web pages hide the address bar completely, so the white fills the visible page and the bar stays; scroll it away or rotate to landscape for a cleaner panel. iPads, Android phones and desktop browsers go fully full screen.
What people use a white screen for
| Use | Best settings | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| Video-call light | Warm tone, 60–80%, laptop or second screen behind the camera | A large soft source in front of you fills shadows and catches the eyes; warm stops skin looking blue. |
| Tracing and lightbox | Daylight, 100%, touch lock on | Light from behind thin paper shows the lines; the lock stops the paper or your hand changing the screen. |
| Cleaning the screen | White, then black | Smudges and dust stand out on white; streaks show on black. Switch the display off before wiping. |
| Checking a panel | White, grey and black | Dead pixels show as dark dots on white, uneven backlighting as cloudy patches on grey. |
| Reading or bedside light | Candle, 20–40%, close after 30 minutes | Low, warm light is easier on the eyes at night, and the timer turns it off when you fall asleep. |
| Photo fill light | Daylight or Cool, 100% | Gives product shots and selfies a soft, even highlight. |
For a proper check of faulty pixels, the dead pixel test adds gradients, patterns, marking and a stuck-pixel fixer. If you need the opposite — a screen that looks switched off — use the black screen.
Brightness and colour temperature, explained
A web page cannot change your display's backlight, so the brightness slider works by dimming the colour itself. It does that in linear light — the physical amount of light — and then converts back to screen values, which is why 50% here looks about half as bright, whereas simply halving the RGB numbers would give a muddy grey that looks far darker than half. For the dimmest possible light, lower the display's own brightness as well; for the brightest, turn it up and leave the slider at 100%.
The tone buttons act like a gel over a lamp. Daylight is the screen's native white (about 6,500 K on a calibrated display), Cool is roughly 8,000 K and slightly blue, Warm is roughly 4,000 K like a halogen bulb, and Candle is roughly 2,700 K like an old filament bulb. The tone multiplies whatever colour you pick, so a warm grey or a candle-tinted white both work. Night Light, Night Shift and True Tone on your device add their own tint on top, so turn them off if the colour must be exact.
Brightness is also kinder to OLED screens: a full-white OLED draws the most power and gets warm, so running it at 60–70% for a long call is sensible.
Saving a white image, and the limits worth knowing
Download PNG makes a plain image of the exact colour you see — including brightness and tone — at this screen's native resolution (your screen size multiplied by its pixel ratio), HD, Full HD, QHD, 4K, 8K, phone, tablet or any custom size up to 16,384 pixels a side. A single-colour PNG compresses to a few kilobytes even at 8K, so it is ideal as a wallpaper, a video-call background or a white panel you can open from your photos with no connection. Very large sizes can run out of memory on older phones; the page tells you if that happens.
The auto-close timer counts from the wall clock, so it still closes on time if the tab was in the background, and the keep awake option uses the browser's wake lock so the screen does not dim or lock while the light is on. Some browsers release the wake lock when you switch tabs; it is re-requested when you come back. If your screen still turns off, check that battery saver is not overriding it. To see what resolution and scaling your display is actually running at, use what is my screen resolution.
Frequently asked questions
How do I make my screen completely white?
Press Full-screen white, click the preview or press F. The page switches the browser to full screen, hides the cursor and fills the display with white; move the mouse or tap to bring back the controls, and press Esc to close. On iPhone, Safari keeps the address bar visible, so scroll it away or turn the phone sideways.
Can I use a white screen as a light for Zoom or Teams calls?
Yes. Put a laptop, tablet or second monitor showing the white screen just behind or beside your webcam, choose the Warm tone and set brightness to around 60–80%. A large, soft light in front of you fills shadows and gives your eyes a catchlight. Keep the screen awake so it does not dim halfway through the call.
How do I stop the screen changing when I trace on it?
Turn on Lock touch, or press L or tap the padlock while the white screen is showing. Taps, swipes and the paper resting on the glass are then ignored. To unlock, press L again or hold your finger on the screen for two seconds. Turn up your device's own brightness for thicker paper.
Why doesn't 100% look brighter than my normal screen?
Web pages cannot change your display's backlight, so 100% here is the brightest white your current brightness setting allows. Turn your device's brightness up in its settings or quick panel for more light. The slider on this page only dims the colour below that maximum, which is useful at night.
Is a white screen bad for OLED phones or monitors?
Not for normal use. Full white on an OLED draws the most power and warms the panel, so for long sessions lower the brightness a little and let the timer close it when you are done. Burn-in comes from static images with contrasting shapes over many hours; a plain white field wears every pixel evenly.
Can I download a white image in 4K?
Yes. Choose 4K UHD 3840 × 2160 — or HD up to 8K, phone, tablet, your screen's native resolution or a custom size — and press Download PNG. The image matches the colour, brightness and tone you have chosen, and because it is a single colour the file is tiny even at 8K.