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Keyboard Backlight Limiter icon

Keyboard Backlight Limiter for Mac

Menu bar app that caps keyboard backlight brightness and controls when it turns on via the ambient light sensor.

By dmartoon. Free and open source, MIT licence.

Get it with OpenDMG View source on GitHub

Keyboard Backlight Limiter at a glance

Version
1.2.0
Released
29 August 2026
Download size
1.5 MB
Works on
Apple silicon and Intel
Licence
MIT
Category
Windows and Keyboard
Developer
dmartoon
GitHub stars
11

About Keyboard Backlight Limiter

Simple macOS app that lets you set ambient light sensitivity and cap the brightness of your MacBook keyboard backlight.

Screenshots

Keyboard Backlight Limiter screenshot 1

How to install Keyboard Backlight Limiter on a Mac

  1. Get OpenDMG. It is a free app store for open source Mac apps. Download OpenDMG.
  2. Search for Keyboard Backlight Limiter and press Get. OpenDMG downloads version 1.2.0 from dmartoon's own GitHub release.
  3. Open it. The download is checked against its SHA-256 fingerprint and its signature is checked on your Mac before it lands in Applications.

Updates to Keyboard Backlight Limiter show up in OpenDMG and install with one button. No account is needed.

Prefer to do it by hand? The developer's file is on GitHub: DimKeys-1.2.0.dmg (1.5 MB).

What is new in Keyboard Backlight Limiter 1.2.0

Keyboard Backlight Limiter is now Dim Keys. Same app, same settings — the name is what changed.

**Your settings carry over untouched.** The brightness ceiling, the ambient sensitivity and Launch at login all belong to the app's identity rather than to its name, and that has not moved.

**Dragging the new app in does not replace the old one.** A renamed app lands beside its predecessor in Applications rather than on top of it, and both copies drive the same keyboard backlight — so left alone they work against each other. If the old copy is still your login item, the one that wins on the next boot is the one you are no longer looking at.

**Dim Keys offers to clean that up the first time you open it.** It quits the old app, moves it to the Trash — not a permanent delete — and re-points Launch at login at the new app for you. Prefer to handle it yourself? Choose *Not Now* and drag the old app to the Trash; the offer will not come back. Fresh installs never see any of this.

**If you are updating from a notification, the banner will still say "Keyboard Backlight Limiter".** It is posted by the copy already on your Mac, which predates the rename. The download is called `DimKeys-1.2.0.dmg` and it is the right one.
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