activate_HDR.applescript

use AppleScript version "2.4" -- Yosemite (10.10) or later
use framework "Foundation"
use framework "AppKit"
use scripting additions

tell application "System Settings"
	activate
	current application's NSWorkspace's sharedWorkspace()'s openURL:(current application's NSURL's URLWithString:"x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.Displays-Settings.extension")
	delay 0.5
	
	tell application "System Events"
		tell process "System Settings"
			key code 48
			key code 48
			key code 48
			key code 123
			delay 0.5
			-- activate hdr on left monitor
			
			set hdr to checkbox 1 of group 3 of scroll area 2 of group 1 of group 2 of splitter group 1 of group 1 of window "Displays" of application process "System Settings" of application "System Events"
			tell hdr
				if value is 0 then click it
			end tell
			
			-- switch to right monitor by key navigation. Actions like "click" are not invocable on the buttons.
			-- hit "tab" (key code 48) three times, it's the only way to be sure ;-)
			
			-- hit "right" to select the right monitor
			key code 124
			delay 0.5
      
      			-- do it again
			set hdr to checkbox 1 of group 3 of scroll area 2 of group 1 of group 2 of splitter group 1 of group 1 of window "Displays" of application process "System Settings" of application "System Events"
			tell hdr
				if value is 0 then click it
			end tell
			
		end tell
	end tell
	quit
end tell

Cool thanks for these. Will look into them. Yeah I want to figure out the exact api call, any idea how to go about finding it?

Yeah I want to figure out the exact api call, any idea how to go about finding it?

Unfortunately not. My best guess would be to attach a debugger to the running System Settings process and look through the call stack when clicking on the HDR toggle. But I've never done such a thing before.

I have this done in Swift here, using the private MonitorPanel.framework: https://github.com/alin23/mac-utils#togglehdr

No need for scripting the UI anymore ^_^

I also provide it as an Apple Shortcut in 🌕 Lunar in case you already have that installed:

@alin23 awesome, thank you! I dumbed down your Swift script even a bit, so that it just activates HDR where applicable in a "fire & forget" fashion. This way, I can directly call it from the Shortcuts app. Works great.

EnableHDR.swift

You could also give a heads up to the displayplacer guys at jakehilborn/displayplacer#27, given that the one thing stopping them from adding HDR support to this tool is lack of a "known" API to control HDR settings.

I have this done in Swift here, using the private MonitorPanel.framework: https://github.com/alin23/mac-utils#togglehdr

No need for scripting the UI anymore ^_^

I also provide it as an Apple Shortcut in 🌕 Lunar in case you already have that installed:

How do I use your program? Do I have to compile it into a program?

If you know how to use the command-line, you can download the compiled binary and just run it:

bin="$HOME/.bin/ToggleHDR"

if [[ ! -d "$HOME/.bin" ]]; then
    mkdir -p -m 0755 "$HOME/.bin"
fi

if [[ ! -f $bin ]]; then
    curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alin23/mac-utils/main/bin/$(basename $bin) -o $bin;
    chmod +x $bin;
fi

$HOME/.bin/ToggleHDR

Which will output something similar to:

ID	UUID                             		HDR Control		Name
1	37D8832A-2D66-02CA-B9F7-8F30A301B230	false     	 	Built-in Liquid Retina XDR Display
2	3B300CA4-8F5F-4E77-A757-CFD72454C30A	true     	 	LG Ultrafine

Usage: $HOME/.bin/ToggleHDR <id-uuid-or-name>

If you're not comfortable with the command-line, I advise downloading Lunar from https://lunar.fyi/ and using the Toggle HDR action through Apple Shortcuts.

Here's an already made shortcut to get started:

Well, the adapted "fire & forget" version would still need to be compiled.

• install Xcode
• clone the repo (git clone [email protected]:skempken/mac-utils.git)
• run make
• find the binary in ./bin/EnableHDR
• create a Shortcut with a single Shell script action, running the binary from the previous step
• profit 😉

@alin23 your program does a toggle, i was wondering if it was possible to a force on, so if it was on, it would be left alone, but if it was off, it would be turned on.. is that possible?

@alin23 your program does a toggle, i was wondering if it was possible to a force on, so if it was on, it would be left alone, but if it was off, it would be turned on.. is that possible?

Yes, I just added that a few minutes ago. You can download the updated binary.

Well, the adapted "fire & forget" version would still need to be compiled.

• install Xcode
• clone the repo (git clone [email protected]:skempken/mac-utils.git)
• run make
• find the binary in ./bin/EnableHDR
• create a Shortcut with a single Shell script action, running the binary from the previous step
• profit 😉

how do i do this, his script requires the uuid of the monitor, so it needs an argument.

@alin23 your program does a toggle, i was wondering if it was possible to a force on, so if it was on, it would be left alone, but if it was off, it would be turned on.. is that possible?

Yes, I just added that a few minutes ago. You can download the updated binary.

Hi, sorry, the ToggleHDR binary still does a toggle action. Not force on.

@alin23 See here for the "fire & forget" mode binary, which just turns on HDR on all applicable monitors, no questions asked: https://github.com/skempken/mac-utils/blob/enableHDR/bin/EnableHDR

@skempken it works perfectly, do you mind sharing the code so that I can just save my UUID into the program and compile it?

@alin23 your program does a toggle, i was wondering if it was possible to a force on, so if it was on, it would be left alone, but if it was off, it would be turned on.. is that possible?

Yes, I just added that a few minutes ago. You can download the updated binary.

Hi, sorry, the ToggleHDR binary still does a toggle action. Not force on.

Most likely you haven't updated the binary. See below how it works:

Running without arguments (shows help)

> ToggleHDR

ID  UUID                                    Supports HDR    HDR Enabled     Name
1   37D8832A-2D66-02CA-B9F7-8F30A301B230    false           false           Built-in Liquid Retina XDR Display
2   3B300CA4-8F5F-4E77-A757-CFD72454C30A    true            false           LG Ultrafine

Usage: ToggleHDR [id/uuid/name/all] [on/off]

Running with the on argument (enables HDR for all displays)

> ToggleHDR on

ID  UUID                                    Supports HDR    HDR Enabled     Name
1   37D8832A-2D66-02CA-B9F7-8F30A301B230    false           false           Built-in Liquid Retina XDR Display
2   3B300CA4-8F5F-4E77-A757-CFD72454C30A    true            true            LG Ultrafine

Enabling HDR for LG Ultrafine [ID: 2]

@skempken it works perfectly, do you mind sharing the code so that I can just save my UUID into the program and compile it?

See this PR alin23/mac-utils#5