We explore the 'HDR glow trick,' which embeds HDR information into specific images to make them appear much brighter than standard white interfaces.
Imagine this: you are scrolling quickly through your social media feed when you spot a logo that shines with an unusual brilliance among countless posts. Emitting a light far more intense than the standard white background around it, the logo seems almost as if it’s popping out of the screen. It isn’t a simple animation, nor is it a gaudy filter designed to trick the eye. How on earth is this possible?
This technique, which has recently become a hot topic among developers, is the ‘HDR glow trick.’ Today, we will explore the principles behind this fascinating technology—a secret hidden in the modern displays we use every day—that makes an ordinary logo glow like magic.
Why is this important?
In the digital world, ‘getting noticed’ is competitive advantage. For companies and individual creators, having your brand logo stand out first in a feed rather than getting lost is a significant edge. Until now, this required the use of flashy animations or excessive filters.
However, the ‘HDR glow trick’ is different. It doesn’t layer on additional effects but instead smartly utilizes the range of colors a display can represent. As a result, it provides a special visual experience only to users with the latest devices that support this technology, without significantly compromising the user experience [Source: The secret of the LinkedIn glow trick].
Understanding it simply: A logo with a hidden secret map
To understand this technology, you first need the concept of ‘HDR.’ High Dynamic Range (HDR) is a technology that expands the range from the darkest to the brightest parts of a screen, expressing colors that are closer to reality.
Simply put, if the photos we usually see are taken with a regular camera, you can think of HDR as a camera that captures bright areas even more vividly and dark areas with greater depth, much like the human eye. By way of analogy, if a regular screen can express brightness from 1 to 10, an HDR screen has a canvas that can express from 1 to 100.
This ‘glow trick’ is like hiding a kind of ‘secret map’ inside an image file. Professionally, this is known as a ‘gain-map’ [Source: How to make logos brighter on HDR screens].
- The transformation of an ordinary JPEG: This gain-map information is embedded into a standard photo file (JPEG or PNG).
- Secret signals: Regular monitors ignore this signal and output it as an ordinary photo. That’s why it doesn’t look broken and appears normal anywhere.
- Response from HDR displays: However, HDR-supported devices like iPhones or the latest MacBook Pros detect this signal. The device decides, ‘Ah, this part needs to shine up to 7.5 times brighter than standard white!’ and pours intense energy only into that section [Source: Introduction to SoVeryBright].
As a result, specific parts of the logo shine brilliantly, as if they were hit by actual light. It creates a visual effect similar to turning on a small flashlight in a dark room.
Current situation
Currently, this technology is primarily used to make ‘logos’ pop. An interesting fact is that this magic does not work on every platform. As far as we have confirmed, some social networks, such as LinkedIn, do not strip away this HDR information, allowing the effect to be experienced vividly in their feeds [Source: Show HN: HDR screen logo].
However, because each platform has different ways of recompressing or processing images, the logo might look plain in some places. Also, keep in mind that you won’t see this ‘glow’ effect at all on older displays that don’t support HDR features.
What happens next?
Technically, this trick utilizes a professional color space called ‘Rec.2020 + PQ(HDR)’ [Source: HDR glow logo GitHub]. As HDR displays become more mainstream in the future, these visual devices will be used more actively in marketing and design.
From a user perspective, we will be able to enjoy clearer and more vivid feeds. However, there are things to be cautious about. If too many places start using this technology to make their screens blindingly bright, it might cause eye fatigue. As always, it is important to use technology appropriately.
MindTickleBytes’ AI Reporter View
It is always wondrous to see how technology creatively breaks through its own limitations. This idea, which converted a display’s brightness capabilities into a marketing tool, demonstrates the cleverness of ‘gain-maps’ that hide information within the image file itself without complex algorithms. Beyond simply brightening a logo, a new chapter in design is opening that contemplates visibility in digital environments.
References
- SoVeryBright - Make your logo brighter than white on HDR screens
-
[Show HN: Make your logo extra bright on HDR screens Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49402521) - HDR image maker: make your logo glow on LinkedIn
- GitHub - lorenjphillips/hdr-white: Show a bright white on HDR …
- GitHub - tatarco/hdr-glow-logo
- Show HN: Make your logo extra bright on HDR screens
- How Superwhite works: rendering images brighter than white
- Why the Wiz logo glows on LinkedIn: the HDR glow trick explained
- Because internet speeds are faster
- Because a display that supports HDR features is required
- Because you have to change browser settings
- By adding animation effects
- By adding gain-map information to the image
- By adjusting transparency
- It is applied identically across all social networks
- It can shine up to 7.5 times brighter than standard white
- It increases the resolution of a photo by 7.5 times