KDE Plasma 6.2.0 introduces a highly anticipated feature: Per-Monitor Brightness Control. This enhancement allows users to adjust the brightness levels of their monitors individually. This feature is particularly useful for users with multiple monitors, allowing them to customise brightness levels for each screen according to their individual needs and lighting conditions.
Previously, KDE's brightness control was limited to a single global setting, which meant that all connected monitors would share the same brightness level. This new functionality addresses this limitation by providing a dedicated brightness slider for each connected monitor that supports brightness control.
How It Works
The Plasma Brightness widget now displays these individual sliders, giving users granular control over the brightness of each screen.
For those who prefer to adjust all monitor brightness simultaneously, the option remains available through global shortcuts, keyboard keys, or by scrolling over the Brightness widget.
The implementation of Per-Monitor Brightness Control depends on several factors:
- UPower Service: It relies on the UPower service, a system service that provides information about power devices and handles power management, to detect and manage the brightness levels of connected monitors.
- Kernel Support: The kernel must support backlight controls for each monitor to enable brightness adjustment. The specific mechanism for controlling brightness can vary, with laptop displays often using sysfs (BacklightHelper in Powerdevil) and external monitors typically using DDCCI (via tools like ddcutil).
- Hardware Support: The monitors themselves must have the hardware capability to adjust brightness levels.
If a user's keyboard has backlight controls, the UPower service should also be able to detect and manage them. Similar to monitor brightness, keyboard brightness control also depends on kernel support for backlight controls specific to the keyboard.
The interaction between these components enables a more refined and customisable user experience, allowing for optimal screen brightness in multi-monitor setups.
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