Colors can be set and saved using the loader.conf(5) file. To change a default color, add a line in the following format: kern.vt.color.colornum.rgb="colorspec", where:

The vidcontrol(1) utility allows you to configure colors interactively. Use the show option to display the list of available colors:

To set the foreground color, use vidcontrol color. For example, to set the text color to green:

To set both foreground and background colors, use vidcontrol foreground background. For example, to set blue text on a green background:

Configurations made with man:vidcontrol are not persistent across shutdown. To make the settings permanent, add the following line to rc.conf(5): allscreens_flags="-c foreground background".

The utilities vidfont(1) and vidcontrol(1) can load a font from /usr/share/vt/fonts/. To list the currently available fonts:

Usually a file name has the format <name>-<width>x<height>, where:

vidfont(1) provides an interactive menu in a Text User Interface to select a font. Run the following command:

Alternatively, vidcontrol(1) provides a CLI, vidcontrol -f font. Example for spleen-32x64.fnt:

Settings configured with either utility are not preserved after a reboot.

The vtfontcvt(8) utility allows you to convert a font into the .fnt format for use in the Virtual Terminal. The converted font must be copied to /usr/share/vt/fonts/ and selected as previously described.

Launch the Global Theme module:

The window shows the current installed themes. Click on the "Get New…​" icon in the top right corner. A new window will show additional themes available for installation. In the search field at the top right, you can look for new themes to install. You can search for "high contrast" or "Acrilic Dark".

Download from High Contrast Windows 11 Themes:

The example is for NightSky, but of course you can choose whichever theme you prefer.

The theme selection steps (5 and 6) can also be performed using the graphical configuration dialogs in XFCE:

Open the Icons module:

The window displays the currently installed icon themes. To install a new theme, click the Get New…​ icon in the top right corner. A new window will appear, allowing you to browse and install additional icon themes. As a suggestion, you can search for Treepata using the search bar at the top right. Although originally designed for XFCE and later adapted for KDE Plasma, Treepata was created as a high-contrast accessibility theme.

Run the following commands to use the Treepata - High Contrast icons theme with XFCE.

Download Treepata.zip from Treepata - High contrast. Then execute:

The icon theme (step 6 above) can also be set graphically via the Appearance dialog under the Icons tab. To do so, open the dialog and select your preferred icon theme:

darkman(1) is a daemon that automatically manages transitions between dark mode and light mode. It operates primarily in the background, switching the screen’s color scheme based on the local time of the current location. To install, run:

Create the file ~/.config/darkman/config.yaml and write your latitude and longitude. Example:

The utility does not directly change the screen colors; instead, it calls external utilities to perform the color transitions. Add scripts to be executed at sundown by placing them in $XDG_DATA_DIRS/dark-mode.d/ and scripts to be executed at sunrise by placing them in XDG_DATA_DIRS/light-mode.d/. Several example scripts are available in the project repository.

To start darkman manually, run:

The utility also offers some interactive options; for more details refer to the darkman(1) manual page.

The gammastep(1) utility adjusts your screen’s color temperature automatically based on your location. To install, run:

The utility works out of the box without any configuration. Simply start it by running:

KDE allows you to adjust the screen color temperature based on geographic location and local time. Launch the Night Light module:

Enable automatic color adjustment by selecting the desired option from the Switching times drop-down menu.

The redshift(1) utility find your position and sets the color temperature accordingly. To install, execute:

The redshift utility runs without any configuration. To start it, simply execute:

The utility might hang while trying to determine the location or the correct method to set the color. In this case, specify them explicitly using -l latitude:longitude and -m method. The available methods can be listed by running: % redshift -m list.

Example of running redshift with an explicit location and method:

To make this setting permanent, add the following lines to ~/.config/redshift/redshift.conf file:

The sct(1) utility is a simple command-line tool for controlling screen color temperature. It does not update automatically and must be run repeatedly to adjust the temperature over time. To install, execute:

The utility takes temperature values between 1000 and 10000, 6500 is the default. To run sct, type: sct value:

The sctd utility calculates sunrise and sunset times based on latitude and longitude, and adjusts the screen’s color temperature accordingly. To install, run:

To run sctd, specify your location using the --latitude and --longitude options:

To reset the screen color to default, run:

The wlsunset(1) utility is a Day/Night gamma adjustments for Wayland compositors.

To install, execute:

To start the utility type wlsunset -l latitude -L longitude. Example:

The backlight(8) utility is included with the operating system. It is used to set the brightness of devices located under /dev/backlight/.

The command backlight -f device value sets the brightness of device to value, where value is an integer between 0 (dim) and 100 (bright). If no device is specified, the default device /dev/backlight/backlight0 is considered.

Example for setting the brightness of the default device to 50%:

The acpi_video(4) driver, included with the operating system, uses the ACPI Video Extensions to control display switching and backlight brightness. To load the kernel module, run:

Brightness settings can be configured using sysctl(8). The following parameters are available:

device is a possible display device. Example to set the brightness to 50% for the lcd0 device:

The x11/xbrightness utility can change the brightness via the X Window System.

The xbrightness(1) utility allows to set a value between 0 (darkness) and 65535 (full brightness). Example for setting brightness to 50%:

The x11/xrandr package is an extension of the X11 server that provides the xrandr(1) utility. It allows you to configure various display properties, including brightness. To install execute:

The command xrandr --output monitor --brightness brightness allows you to set the brightness for monitor to a value between 0 and 1.0. To list the available monitors, run:

Example for setting brightness to 50% for HDMI-1:

KDE allows you to filter colors for graphical elements. Launch the Accessibility module:

In the navigation pane, select Color Blindness Correction. Enable the Color blindness correction option, then choose the appropriate color transformation mode from the Mode drop-down menu.

Open the Display Configuration module:

Select the scaling via the Global Scale bar. The change will take effect after a KDE Plasma restart.

To set a custom scaling factor, for example 4, run the following command:

Alternatively, HiDPI scaling can be enabled with a fixed 2x factor using the graphical interface. This option is available in the Appearance dialog, under the Settings tab as Window Scaling. To open the Appearance dialog, execute:

KDE allows selecting a font and its size via the Fonts module. Run:

Click on the Adjust All Fonts…​ button to select the font and its size for all graphical elements. Alternatively, you can choose the font and size for individual elements using the forms below.

At the bottom of the window, you can also select options such as Anti-Aliasing, Sub-pixel Rendering, Hinting, and Force Font DPI. Each option has an icon on the right to open a help dialog.

XFCE allows you to select the font and size for window titles and content text, as well as the font size for icon labels.

Alternatively, you can configure the same settings using the graphical XFCE configuration dialogs.

To select the font for window titles, open the Window Manager dialog:

To choose the font used inside windows, open the Appearance dialog and go to the Fonts tab:

To set the font size for icons, open the Desktop dialog and go to the Desktop Icons tab where you can adjust the icon font size:

The lupe(1) utility is a screen magnifier for the X Window System that updates the magnified area in real time. To install it, run:

By default, lupe magnifies the screen content beneath the mouse pointer within a circular area (25×25 pixels) displayed at the center of the screen. To start lupe, run:

To exit lupe, press the q key.

The kmag(1) utility provides a screen magnifier that displays a zoomed view of the area under the mouse cursor in a dedicated window. The magnifier window includes a menu with various options and settings for customization.

To install kmag, run:

To launch kmag, execute:

The x11/xlupe utility is a screen magnifier for the X Window System that updates the magnified view in real time. To install it, run:

To launch xlupe, execute:

The utility does not include a manual page, but it starts in a graphical window with buttons that allow you to configure its options interactively.

The xmag(1) utility is a basic screen magnifier for the X Window System. Unlike other magnifiers, it does not update the magnified area in real time.

To install it, run:

To install, execute:

To launch xmag, execute:

The xzoom(1) utility is a screen magnifier for the X Window System that updates the magnified view in real time. To install it, run:

To launch xzoom, execute:

Some desktop environments allow you to change the size, color, and other graphical properties of the mouse cursor.

Some desktop environments provide a visul feedback of the mouse pointer’s current position.

Orca is a widely used and well-known open source screen reader. It offers a comprehensive set of features and is available on FreeBSD through the accessibility/orca package.

The accessibility/yasr utility is a lightweight screen reader that operates exclusively in a terminal environment. Yasr requires a speech synthesizer to work. Its default configuration file is set up to use accessibility/eflite.

To install both yasr and eflite, run:

To start the screen reader, execute:

The global configuration file for yasr is located at /usr/local/share/yasr/yasr.conf. To create a user-specific configuration file, copy the global one to your home directory:

For details on configuration options and keyboard shortcuts, refer to yasr(1).

The audio/espeak-ng package provides espeak-ng(1), a multilingual speech synthesizer.

To install, run:

To test, execute the following command:

eSpeak NG is a versatile and feature-rich utility. For more information, consult its manual page, espeak-ng(1), and the official online documentation.

audio/flite is a speech synthesizer that is part of the FestVox project. It is designed as a small and fast alternative to Festival, built using the FestVox suite. To install, run:

To test, execute the following commands:

The project does not provide a manual page. Documentation is available in /usr/local/share/doc/flite/README.md and online.

The audio/festival package provides festival(1), a multilingual speech synthesizer. To install, run:

Festival needs at least one festvox-voice package to generate a synthetic voice. Run the following command to list available voice packages:

Then install a voice package. For example, to install the American English male voice festvox-kal16-1.4.0, run:

To test, execute:

For more information about Festival, consult its manual page, festival(1), and the official online documentation.

The Speech Dispatcher project provides a high-level device independent layer for access to speech synthesis. To install accessibility/speech-dispatcher, run:

To test, execute:

Speech Dispatcher provides two manual pages, spd-say(1) and speech-dispatcher(1), as well as online documentation.

The ed(1) utility is a line-oriented text editor used to create, view, and modify text files. It is included by default in a standard FreeBSD installation. To start the editor, run:

ed is a powerful editor. Refer to its manual page ed(1) for a complete overview of its features and command syntax.

Edbrowse is a text-based browser, editor, IRC chat client, and mail client, specifically designed for screen reader users. Its interface is similar to ed(1), but with extended functionality.

Some web applications can use APIs to send output to audio devices. Refer to Speech Synthesizer to install a utility and the corresponding library.

The Firefox browser can report the error message: You can’t use speech synthesis because the Speech Dispatcher library is missing or other errors. To solve, install Speech Dispatcher.

Avoid using color as the sole means of conveying information. If color must be used, provide a straightforward and well-documented method for configuring color settings. Where possible, ensure support for the $NO_COLOR environment variable to accommodate user preferences.

The graphics/kontrast package provides the Kontrast GUI utility to check if the color combinations are distinct enough to be readable and accessible. To install:

AT-SPI (Assistive Technology Service Provider Interface), accessibility/at-spi2-core, is a framework that establishes a communication channel between applications and assistive technologies. To install, execute:

AT-SPI offers a wide range of features. For more information, refer to the following resources: README, Atk wiki, AT SPI Wiki, and GNOME Accessibility Team Wiki.

accessibility/libqaccessibilityclient establishes a communication channel between applications and assistive technologies. In particular, it provides a bridge between applications built with Qt and the AT-SPI framework previously described. For full documentation, refer to the API Reference and the official repository. To install:

Libraries accessibility/qt5-speech and accessibility/qt6-speech provide access to a Text-To-Speech functionality (specifically to accessibility/speech-dispatcher). Documentation is available at https://doc.qt.io/archives/qt-5.15/qtspeech-index.html and https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/qttexttospeech-index.html. To install, run:

accessibility/speech-dispatcher provides a simple, high level, and device independent layer for access to Speech Synthesizers. To install, run:

For detailed documentation, refer to the official Speech Dispatcher website: https://freebsoft.org/speechd.

devel/liblouis provides an API for translating many languages to and from Braille. To install, execute:

The library provides many features, documented on the liblouis project website.