Geek Posted February 6, 2012 Posted February 6, 2012 <div class="KonaBody"><p><img src="http://osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/isolator-blur.jpg" alt="Isolator blur effect" title="isolator-blur" width="620" height="349" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-26907" /></p> <p>It’s easy to be distracted by other open applications and windows while using a computer, and sometimes even the best of us need a bit of help to focus. Lion’s <a href="http://osxdaily.com/2011/08/10/full-screen-keyboard-shortcut-mac-os-x/">full screen mode</a> can be helpful, but when that’s not enough or when you need access to other windows and apps, then Isolator is your friend. </p> <p>Isolator is a free application that provides an easy way to focus on a single application at a time by applying various filters to everything in the background, these are fully customizable and even if you aren’t interested in the focus and productivity side of things, can make for a nice way to customize the appearance of Mac OS X.</p> <ul> <li><a href="http://willmore.eu/software/isolator/">Download Isolator for free from willmore.eu</a></li> </ul> <p>You can choose to tint the background, blur it, use a bloom effect, turn it into crystals, or make the background black and white while everything else is colorful. Both the tint opacity and filter strength are adjustable by a slider, leading to plenty of customization options. Screenshots and a video of some of these effects and filters are shown below. <span id="more-26906"></span></p> <p>As you can see in the video, some of the effects develop a slight lag: <iframe width="620" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6nbVR-1v9cE?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> <p>Tinted with no blur: <img src="http://osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/focus-app-isolator.jpg" alt="Focus App iSolator" title="focus-app-isolator" width="620" height="349" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-26910" /></p> <p>Opacity with black & white desaturate: <img src="http://osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/focus-black-white.jpg" alt="Black and white focus" title="focus-black-white" width="620" height="349" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-26912" /></p> <p>100% opacity and black background: <img src="http://osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/focus-black.jpg" alt="Black Isolator" title="focus-black" width="620" height="349" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-26911" /></p> <p>Tinted with blur: <img src="http://osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/isolator-blur.jpg" alt="Isolator blur effect" title="isolator-blur" width="620" height="349" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-26907" /></p> <p>Crystalize effect and tinted background: <img src="http://osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/focus-crystalize.jpg" alt="Crystalize background" title="focus-crystalize" width="620" height="349" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-26913" /></p> <p>There are tons of other potential effects, and the tint color can be adjusted to anything as well. The more complicated the filter, the more demanding it will be on CPU and system resources when switching between apps, so keep that in mind if you have a slower Mac. Sticking to no effect but with a tint is very fast however and didn’t seem to have any negative effect on performance.</p> <p>If you’d rather not download another app, another option would be to enable <a href="http://osxdaily.com/2010/06/07/enable-single-application-mode-in-mac-os-x/">Single Application Mode</a> in Mac OS X, which automatically hides any app other than the one currently in use.</p> </div> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/QKTm_j83B9ixsHndnoGsmx5qZJ0/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/QKTm_j83B9ixsHndnoGsmx5qZJ0/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/QKTm_j83B9ixsHndnoGsmx5qZJ0/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/QKTm_j83B9ixsHndnoGsmx5qZJ0/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=_6zRWEXikXs:6sJdverynTk:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=_6zRWEXikXs:6sJdverynTk:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?i=_6zRWEXikXs:6sJdverynTk:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=_6zRWEXikXs:6sJdverynTk:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?i=_6zRWEXikXs:6sJdverynTk:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=_6zRWEXikXs:6sJdverynTk:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=_6zRWEXikXs:6sJdverynTk:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/osxdaily/~4/_6zRWEXikXs" height="1" width="1"/> View the full article
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