[Wowfunhappy]

Do you have the brightness on your monitor set really high or something?

I frequently use macOS on a projector, it doesn't quite fill my wall floor to ceiling but it comes close. I don't use full screen often, but I do it occasionally as a focusing strategy, and it's fine.

[amarant]

Projectors are way easier on the eyes than monitors though.

You're shining a bright light on a wall, which you are looking at.

With a monitor you are shining a bright light at your face, while staring directly at the lightbulb!

[Wowfunhappy]

Doesn't bouncing off the wall just effectively make the "backlight" dimmer? The light reflected off the wall is hitting your face versus the light from the screen hitting your face. It's still light regardless.

If you're using a monitor in the dark the way you use a projector, you should turn the backlight down. If you're using it in a well lit room, the brighter backlight should have less of an effect.

[embedding-shape]

> The light reflected off the wall is hitting your face versus the light from the screen hitting your face. It's still light regardless.

It sounds to me you've never actually looked at a monitor display large swaths of white before, it's brighter than light hitting a wall for sure, even with the brightness down, extra so when the ambient lightning is dark too.

[Wowfunhappy]

I've definitely seen large monitors that are unpleasantly bright in the dark, but I've also seen an overly bright projector that was similarly unpleasant. I genuinely don't understand why changing the backlight wouldn't fix everything. A projector's image isn't diffuse like a lightbulb, if it was you wouldn't see an image.

[amarant]

In principle, it's the same as staring at the moon Vs staring at the sun.

The fact that it's bright outside when the sun is up might help, but it's nowhere near enough to compensate!