Brightness Addon

Read and set display brightness on supported systems. Combine with Hotkey for keyboard brightness control. Use it for brightness sliders, hotkeys, or ambient-light widgets.

What is Brightness?

The Brightness addon lets you control your screen's brightness from a NovaDesk widget. You can:

• Read the current brightness level as a percentage
• Set the brightness to any percentage from 0% to 100%

WARNING

Brightness control only works on devices with compatible hardware — primarily laptops with built-in displays. Desktop monitors typically do not support software brightness control.

Getting Started

First, load the addon in your script:

import { addon } from "novadesk";

// Load the Brightness addon DLL
const brightness = addon.load("path/to/Brightness.dll");

TIP

Replace "path/to/Brightness.dll" with the actual path to the Brightness.dll file on your system.

Table of Contents

• What is Brightness?
• Getting Started
• Quick Example
• Full Example

Quick Example

Here is a minimal example that reads the current brightness and prints it:

import { addon } from "novadesk";
const brightness = addon.load("path/to/Brightness.dll");

const info = brightness.getValue({ display: 0 });

if (info.supported) {
  console.log("Brightness:", info.percent + "%");
} else {
  console.warn("Brightness control not available on this device");
}

brightness.getValue([options]) #

Brightness

Returns brightness information for a display. Always check the supported property first — if it is false, brightness control is not available on this system and the other fields should be ignored.

The returned object has these properties:

Property	Type	Description
supported	boolean	Whether brightness control is available on this device. Check this first!
current	number	Current raw brightness value (hardware-specific).
min	number	Minimum raw brightness value the hardware supports.
max	number	Maximum raw brightness value the hardware supports.
percent	number	Current brightness as a percentage from 0 to 100. This is the easiest value to use.

PARAMETERS

options object OPTIONAL

Optional config object. Accepts display (number, default 0) for the display index.

RETURNS: object An object describing the current brightness state of the target display.

import { addon } from "novadesk";
const brightness = addon.load("path/to/Brightness.dll");

const info = brightness.getValue({ display: 0 });

if (!info.supported) {
  console.warn("Brightness control not available");
} else {
  console.log("Brightness:", info.percent + "%");
  console.log("Raw range:", info.min, "–", info.max);
}

brightness.setValue(options) #

Brightness

Sets display brightness to the given percentage. Values are automatically clamped to 0–100.

TIP

You can also pass a plain number instead of an object: brightness.setValue(50) sets brightness to 50%.

PARAMETERS

options object

Object with percent (number, required, 0–100) and optionally display (number, default 0).

RETURNS: boolean true if the brightness was set successfully, false otherwise.

import { addon } from "novadesk";
const brightness = addon.load("path/to/Brightness.dll");

// Set primary display to 60%
const ok = brightness.setValue({ percent: 60 });
console.log("Set:", ok);

// Set a specific display
brightness.setValue({ percent: 80, display: 1 });

// You can also pass a number directly
brightness.setValue(50); // Sets to 50%

Full Example

Here is a complete example that creates a simple brightness widget with read and set:

import { addon } from "novadesk";
const brightness = addon.load("path/to/Brightness.dll");

// Read current brightness
const info = brightness.getValue({ display: 0 });

if (info.supported) {
  console.log("Current brightness:", info.percent + "%");

  // Set brightness to 75%
  const ok = brightness.setValue({ percent: 75 });
  console.log("Set brightness to 75%:", ok ? "success" : "failed");

  // Read again to confirm
  const updated = brightness.getValue({ display: 0 });
  console.log("New brightness:", updated.percent + "%");
} else {
  console.log("This device does not support brightness control");
}