What a yellow screen is good for
- A warm, bright light. Yellow screens give off a sunny glow, handy as a fill light for photos or video when you want warmth without orange.
- Display testing. On a screen, yellow is red and green light at full strength with no blue. If your yellow looks greenish or orange, one of those colours is weaker than it should be, and a dot of a different colour points to a faulty sub-pixel.
- Visibility and signals. Yellow stands out in low light, so a phone showing yellow makes a good attention signal.
- Backgrounds. Bold yellow suits product photos, short videos and slides that need to pop.
How to use it
Press Start yellow screen or click the preview. Lower the brightness with the slider, or with the up and down arrows during full screen. To try a softer lemon or a golden shade, use the colour picker first. Press Esc or double-click to exit.
If you're checking your screen rather than using it as a light, run through all the colours in the dead pixel test too. Different faults show up on different colours.
Yellow as a display check
Because a screen makes yellow by mixing full red and full green, a yellow screen is a quick way to compare those two colours across the whole panel. Look for patches that lean green or orange, especially near the edges, which point to uneven backlighting or colour. On phones with OLED screens, an area that looks slightly different on yellow can be the first sign of screen burn-in from a keyboard or status bar that is always on screen. Try the yellow screen at full brightness in a dim room, then compare with the grey screen, which reveals the same faults in a different way. A little variation is normal; something you notice in everyday use is worth checking with the seller.