Profiles & Smart Buttons

June 4, 2026 · View on GitHub

Profiles let you save your current display setup and reapply it in one click. Smart Buttons pin your most-used profiles directly into the Quick Actions section of the panel.

What a profile saves

When you save a profile, Dimly captures:

The brightness level of each connected display
The power state of each display (visible, asleep, or blacked out)
Which displays are connected and their arrangement order
Optionally: whether display tiles are expanded or collapsed in the panel

Saving a profile

Set your displays to the state you want to save (brightness levels, which ones are on or off).
Open the Dimly panel and go to Settings → Profiles.
Click Save Current Setup.
Give the profile a name (or accept the default name).

Profiles appear in the list and can be applied, renamed, overwritten, or deleted at any time.

Applying a profile

Open Settings → Profiles and click Apply next to any profile. Dimly immediately adjusts all displays to match the saved state - brightness, power, and order.

You can also apply profiles directly from the menu bar panel. In the Profiles section of the panel, click a profile name to apply it.

Overwriting a profile

If you've changed your setup and want to update an existing profile:

Set your displays to the new desired state.
Open Settings → Profiles.
Click Overwrite next to the profile you want to update.

Renaming and deleting profiles

Rename: Click the pencil icon or the profile name in Settings → Profiles. Enter the new name and confirm.
Delete: Click Delete next to the profile. This is immediate and cannot be undone.

Reordering profiles

Drag profile cards up or down in Settings → Profiles to reorder them. The order here determines the order profiles appear in the menu bar panel and in the Smart Buttons row.

Smart Buttons

Smart Buttons are quick-access shortcuts that appear below Quick Actions in the panel. Each button applies a profile in one tap.

To add a Smart Button for a profile:

Open Settings → Profiles.
Find the profile you want to pin.
Enable Show as smart button.
Optionally pick a color for the button.

Up to 4 Smart Buttons appear per row in the panel. If you have more than 4, they wrap to additional rows.

To change the button color: Click the color swatch next to the profile in Settings → Profiles, then pick a color from the palette (Sunset, Violet, Mint, Rose, Amber, and more).

Colorless mode: In Settings → Visuals → Smart Buttons, enable Colorless mode to display all smart buttons in a neutral style without individual colors.

Reordering Smart Buttons: Drag the profiles in Settings → Profiles to change their order. Smart Buttons appear in the same order.

Restore tile layout

When you apply a profile, Dimly can also restore the expand/collapse state of each display tile in the panel - so your preferred view is always set up the way you left it.

Enable Restore tile layout in Settings → Profiles → Behavior. With this on, applying a profile will expand or collapse tiles to match how they were when the profile was saved.

Auto-apply on display connect

Dimly can automatically apply a profile when an external display is connected. This is useful for:

A desk setup where you always want the same brightness and power state when you plug in your monitor
A presentation screen that should always start at 100% brightness

To set up auto-apply:

Open Settings → Profiles.
Enable Auto-apply profile when an external display connects.
Choose the Trigger monitor connection - either any external monitor, or a specific display.
Choose the Profile to apply.

Dimly applies the selected profile a moment after the trigger display connects.

Tips

Save a "Night" profile with all brightness levels at 20–30% and apply it in one tap before winding down.
Save a "Presentation" profile with your external monitor at 100% and internal at whatever you prefer.
Save a "Focus" profile with side monitors blacked out and your main monitor at your working brightness.
Use different Smart Button colors to tell profiles apart at a glance.