---
title: "Using Your Monitor as a Key Light with Bash and a Wallpaper Tool — Nick Janetakis"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/using-your-monitor-as-a-key-light-with-bash-and-a-wallpaper-tool-nick-janetakis-uctgtyd8i
source_url: https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/using-your-monitor-as-a-key-light-with-bash-and-a-wallpaper-tool
type: article
source: "Nick Janetakis"
published: 2026-08-11T10:40:01.911Z
updated: 2026-08-11T10:40:24.324Z
tags: ["linux", "shell", "bash"]
reading_time: 3
upvotes: 1
comments: 0
language: en
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Using Your Monitor as a Key Light with Bash and a Wallpaper Tool — Nick Janetakis

**[Nick Janetakis](https://daily.dev/sources/nickjanetakis)** · 3 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

A practical shell script that uses swaybg (or any wallpaper tool) to turn a monitor into a key light for video calls and recordings. The script sets a solid color wallpaper on a specified monitor and toggles it on/off by tracking state in a file. Supports custom colors and per-output targeting, making it a lightweight alternative to dedicated lighting hardware for Linux desktop users.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/using-your-monitor-as-a-key-light-with-bash-and-a-wallpaper-tool>

## Questions this post answers

### How can I use my monitor as a key light on Linux for video calls?

Set a solid white (or any color) wallpaper on a monitor using a wallpaper tool like swaybg. A small shell script can wrap this: running it once sets the color and turns the light on, running it again with the same color turns it off by restoring the previous wallpaper. The script tracks state in a file and supports per-output targeting via --output and custom colors via --color.

_Linux developers solving webcam lighting on the cheap share setups like this on daily.dev._

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---

Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#shell](https://daily.dev/tags/shell), [#bash](https://daily.dev/tags/bash)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/using-your-monitor-as-a-key-light-with-bash-and-a-wallpaper-tool-nick-janetakis-uctgtyd8i)