Eye Strain on Lubuntu: Seeking Solutions for Display Comfort

Support and Help
1

Hello everyone,

I’m experiencing significant eye strain when using Lubuntu for more than 30 minutes, which I don’t encounter when using Windows 11 or Ubuntu. I’ve had a long discussion with an AI assistant (Gemini) about this, and we’ve identified several potential reasons and solutions. However, I haven’t had the time to test them all, and I’m hoping the community can provide some guidance or share their experiences.

Here are the main points and suggested solutions from my conversation, which I believe are the most relevant to the issue:

1. Font Rendering Differences:

  • Problem: Lubuntu’s font rendering might appear sharper or more jagged compared to Windows’ ClearType or Ubuntu’s smoother rendering, leading to eye fatigue.
  • Suggested Solution: Install fontconfig-infinality for better font smoothing.
    sudo apt install fontconfig-infinality

2. Lack of Compositor (Causing Screen Tearing & Harsh Motion):

  • Problem: Lubuntu, by default, might not use a compositor, leading to screen tearing, flickering, or rougher window movements and scrolling. This can contribute significantly to eye strain.
  • Suggested Solution: Install and enable Picom (recommended) or Compton.
    sudo apt install picom
picom --config /etc/xdg/picom.conf &
    To make it persistent, add picom & to LXQt Autostart.

3. Color Calibration & Gamma Correction:

  • Problem: Ubuntu and Windows apply different default gamma corrections and color profiles, making their displays appear more balanced. Lubuntu’s colors might be harsher or overly contrasted.
  • Suggested Solution: Manually adjust gamma values and brightness using xrandr.
    xrandr --output HDMI-1 --gamma 1.0:1.0:1.0 --brightness 0.9
    (Remember to replace HDMI-1 with your actual display output name, which you can find by running xrandr without arguments. Adjust gamma values and brightness to your comfort.)

4. High Contrast or Sharp Theme:

  • Problem: Lubuntu’s default theme might have high contrast and hard edges, which can be uncomfortable for the eyes over prolonged use.
  • Suggested Solution: Try switching to a softer, more eye-friendly GTK theme like Arc or Adapta.
    sudo apt install arc-theme adapta-gtk-theme
    Apply these themes using LXAppearance.

5. DPI Scaling & Small Text:

  • Problem: If the default font size or DPI scaling in Lubuntu is too small, you might unconsciously strain your eyes to read text.
  • Suggested Solution: Increase DPI scaling.
    echo "Xft.dpi: 120" >> ~/.Xresources
xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources

6. PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) Frequency:

  • Problem: Some LCD displays use PWM to control brightness, and if the frequency is low, it can cause invisible flickering that leads to eye strain.
  • Suggested Solution: (This is more advanced and requires caution) If you have an Intel GPU, you might be able to adjust PWM frequency using intel_reg_read and intel_reg_write.
    intel_reg_read 0xC6204
intel_reg_write 0xC8254 0x7a107a1
    Please be very careful with these commands as incorrect values can affect display stability. This solution might not be applicable if your monitor doesn’t use PWM or if you have a different GPU.

I’m looking for advice on which of these solutions might be the most impactful, or if anyone has successfully resolved similar eye strain issues on Lubuntu. Any insights, personal experiences, or alternative solutions would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance for your help!

2

I wanted to provide an update based on further testing. I’ve confirmed that the refresh rate on both my Lubuntu setup and Windows 11 is similar: 29.98 Hz. This leads me to believe that the refresh rate itself is not the primary cause of my eye strain.

Regarding blue light filtering, I use “Iris” (https://iristech.co/) on Windows 11 for screen dimming and blue light filtering, but only at night. During the day, I don’t use any blue light filter on Windows, and I still don’t experience eye strain. I’ve tried “Redshift” on Lubuntu, and even with it active during the daytime, I still feel eye strain. Therefore, I’m fairly certain that blue light settings aren’t the main culprit here either.

This brings us back to the other potential issues, especially font rendering, the lack of a compositor, color calibration, and theme choices. I’m keen to hear which of those solutions you think might offer the most significant improvement, or if there are any other aspects I might be overlooking.

Best regards,
Suleymagination

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You don’t actually provide any release details; which is what I’d consider as the starting point, but lxappearance was a LXDE tool, and hasn’t been used/provided in the last 14 releases of Lubuntu; so what are you using??

What was provided seemed to be random gibberish; the only one that is anything close to where I’d go, was item 3 - but I’d use the tool rather than command we provide anyway, but you’ve not said what release you’re using, so your release may require you to manually install it.

FYI: Many of those things could do nothing more than bloat your system anyway; Lubuntu uses LXQt desktop which obviously is a Qt system; changing GTK themes won’t impact your desktop, at best they may help with some GTK apps if you use them… but why you pasted the gibberish I don’t know.

Starting point is obviously what release you’re using, but you didn’t state.

You can change the way your desktop looks by changing colors (temperature, gamma etc) via tools such as redshift we provide; I started using it back in 2015, and am still using the same config today (though I’ve changed it maybe 4 times in the last decade). The wiki I used back in 2015 is Redshift - Community Help Wiki but that is geared for tweaking at terminal.

I’d select themes that I considered help, some have reported benefit using Kvantum Manager, but I can’t provide manual links as I don’t know your specific release anyway.

Is your issue with specific apps? or the whole system, as themes can be complicated, in that the desktop is Qt, but if you’re using GTK apps (coded for GNOME etc) you may want to change some GTK theming, but I will suggest you change Qt & GTK together, as if they’re out of sync that annoys me intentently (what you gibberish seemed to want to do too). You don’t mention apps at all.

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Sorry for my gibberish post. I’m using Lubuntu 24.04.2.

I spent most of my time on Google Chrome, doing research and browsing informations. I also use Google scholar. Then I write on Google docs or libre office. I also use Zotero for reference manager.

Please let me know what information should I provide to solve the eye strain problem.

5

These are just thoughts; so don’ t expect a solution sorry.

Redshift is included with Lubuntu 24.04 LTS; the manifest file shows what is found on ISO, that file is likely of no interest, but its one way I use to remember what was included (24.04 was three releases ago now)

I’d of course change the Lubuntu themes first up, in the manual that will include

Personally I’d likely try to see if I could make a difference using redshift configuration… One reason I like it, is that it works the same regardless of what desktop you use, ie. I use it instead of GNOME Night Light on GNOME, so I’m getting the same settings when using LXQt and Lubuntu, GNOME with Ubuntu Desktop, Xfce with Xubuntu etc… Once I got that file correct; its worked for me on all systems (even non-Ubuntu’s), though when we’re all using Wayland, I may need to switch to something else. Whilst the obvious use of redshift is removing the blue light at night; you can tweak the daylight temp/colors too. Alas I’m far from an expert with it, as I’ve barely had need to change my config in the last decade as already stated.

The only app you mention is google-chrome which is something I don’t use… I do have it installed on this system (Lubuntu questing) and I quickly notice that openbox borders aren’t there (it’s ignoring the desktop setting!), and fonts are tiny and appear different… so that app may need its own tweaking… It does allow me to use the openbox theme when I tell it to I note (in Appearance), but if not already obvious, it’s not a browser that I use, so I won’t be able to help much with it.

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But 24.04 comes with picom. Did you not try it ?

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I doubt such a low refresh rate exists on modern devices. Whats your device model #?

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