[nagromme]

This is a way to make your backlit keys come on at full brightness from the very start, which makes good sense to me:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...30526100608901

Is this safe to do in 10.3 Panther?

TIA

[nagromme]

Someone I sent this hack to tried it in Panther (15") and lost all keyboard brightness. Even after changing the plist back, the keys were dark.

I assume either the hack ONLY works on 17" models, or ONLY works pre-Panther... or that his problem was simply coinicidence. Maybe he had the key lighting problem others have reported in Panther, and it just happened to kick in at the time he applied the hack?

I won't apply the hack on my 15" with Panther unless others have been successful. Better dim keys than no light at all.

[RayX]

Actually dim keys would probably be worse.

I've noticed on a 17" if the keys are dim in low light, you cannot read the keys because the letters become the same colour as the keys themselves. If the key lights are off, you can see the dark letters on the light coloured keys.

Of course this is only a problem in low light environments, so I guess the KB backlight is only really useful when it's *really* dark, and having the keys at full brightness.

KB backlight should be on or off only...

[MickS]

Originally posted by RayX:

KB backlight should be on or off only...

Going by your logic LCD backlight should be on or off only too. What I would say is that you should be able to have the backlight not adjust based on the ambient light, instead have the backlight function keys work like the volume/mute ones.

I use my laptop in a number of dim light environments and I don't like the full brightness in the dark, likewise I dim the screen too.

[nagromme]

Adjustable brightness is no bad thing. It's just that Apple has it BACKWARDS.

Right now, the keys get brighter as the light gets dimmer--as though you are losing the help of the room light, and need the internal light to fill in.

But that makes no sense: the internal light does the OPPOSITE of the room light. Room light illuminates the silver key backgrounds, while the internal light illuminates the actual characters!

So having the characters start out half-way lit because room light is "helping" to show them is wrong. In fact, room light plus half-backlighting can make the characters practically vanish. So the keys should come on at FULL brightness in a dim room, and only fade (if at all) when the room is dark enough that the silver background isn't interfering. Then the keys would always be readable. (Personally, I'd be happy to see the keys stay fully bright: unlike the LCD, they aren't really bright enough to be blinding in a dark room.)

Hopefully a software fix will change Apple's backwards behavior... but meanwhile, does the above hack work in Panther?

PS.... http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/

[RayX]

Originally posted by MickS:
Going by your logic LCD backlight should be on or off only too. What I would say is that you should be able to have the backlight not adjust based on the ambient light, instead have the backlight function keys work like the volume/mute ones.

I use my laptop in a number of dim light environments and I don't like the full brightness in the dark, likewise I dim the screen too.

Er, no.

The LCD screen can be read at any brightness in any light condition (except maybe direct sunlight), which is good to adjust to a comfortable level, or let it automatically change the level. So that would be bad to have on or off only. This is not the case with the KB backlight.

My point was, when the KB backlight comes on automatically, it's usually not really dark enough, and makes the keys unreadable because it uses a low level for the KB backlight. For the KB backlight to be effective, it has to pretty much dark in the room, and the KB backlight set to full brightness.

The keys can be read even when there is not much light, without the KB backlight, because they screen lights up the keyboard anyway. So unless it's pitch dark, there is not much need for the KB backlight, and the lower levels of KB backlight.