iOS 7.1 - Darkened Lock and Home Screen Images

[ryans20]

After making the iOS 7.1 updated, I noticed that the background image I have for my lock and home screen is shaded to be more dark at the top of the screen.

Any ideas on how to change this so the background images show normally? I don't like the dark shading at all.

TIA

 

[gewawd]

After making the iOS 7.1 updated, I noticed that the background image I have for my lock and home screen is shaded to be more dark at the top of the screen.

Any ideas on how to change this so the background images show normally? I don't like the dark shading at all.

TIA

Hi, ryans20.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this as well. I believe this isn't a bug, but a feature of iOS 7.1. This "feature" is best seen on an iPad since it's more obvious. This dark shading of the wallpapers only appears to be visible on non-Apple wallpapers.

Unfortunately, not many may have noticed this, so that leaves to with just darkened custom wallpapers for now.

 

[ryans20]

Hi, ryans20.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this as well. I believe this isn't a bug, but a feature of iOS 7.1. This "feature" is best seen on an iPad since it's more obvious. This dark shading of the wallpapers only appears to be visible on non-Apple wallpapers.

Unfortunately, not many may have noticed this, so that leaves to with just darkened custom wallpapers for now.

Thanks for replying, gewawd. I'm glad I wasn't the only one who's noticed, although it's unfortunate that this is a standard feature now.

It looks like the wallpaper is in a closet with a bulb burned out.

 

[heyjessej]

I contacted Apple and they didn't seem to be aware until I mentioned. I'll be talking to Phone Support soon about it. It's incredibly annoying, I don't understand how they let that happen/thought it might be a good idea. I really hope they fix it soon. It looks so stupid.

Feel free to acknowledge or ignore Taylor Lautner, I don't care haha.

Before:

After:

At first I thought it might of had been a glitch with the new wallpaper option, but nope, it's in the OS.

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

I believe this was intentional, to help users see the white text on the icons better. Could be wrong, though. Don't notice much of a difference.

If it's also on the lock screen (can someone check), it might be a glitch...

 

[danielceleste]

I believe this was intentional, to help users see the white text on the icons better.

Pretty sure it's supposed to do that.

 

[Tyler23]

I believe this was intentional, to help users see the white text on the icons better. Could be wrong, though. Don't notice much of a difference.

If it's also on the lock screen (can someone check), it might be a glitch...

It's on the lock screen, but it's not a glitch.

Actually, on the lock screen is where it DOES make sense (although I don't like it). If you have a light background, it makes seeing the time and date on the lockscreen very difficult, which is where darkening the upper part of the screen makes sense.

On the home page, it does not really make sense.

 

[heyjessej]

I believe this was intentional, to help users see the white text on the icons better. Could be wrong, though. Don't notice much of a difference.

If it's also on the lock screen (can someone check), it might be a glitch...

It's definitely a noticeable difference. Here's another example I showed earlier to Apple support.

Before:

After:

They definitely need to fix that, it's an eye sore. Or make it optional if it helps some people see better, but it shouldn't be a mandatory thing.

 

[C DM]

Are any accessibility options enabled that might cause this somehow? Perhaps might be worth trying to toggle them (if any) and perhaps even restart the phone and try again to see if that makes any difference?

 

[Bacong]

I've yet to find a wallpaper I think looks good with iOS 7. The white icon text ruins everything. Just bring the drop shadows back.

 

[Tyler23]

Are any accessibility options enabled that might cause this somehow? Perhaps might be worth trying to toggle them (if any) and perhaps even restart the phone and try again to see if that makes any difference?

It's nothing to do with Accessibility. And this has been around since the first beta of iOS 7.1.

 

[Vanilla35]

I've yet to find a wallpaper I think looks good with iOS 7. The white icon text ruins everything. Just bring the drop shadows back.

Yeah with iOS 7 the ever changing dock really messes things up too. Any dark wallpaper now looks awful due to the grey (but never black) dock. The only way it works is if you have an off-color wallpaper where it makes the dock change to a similar color to the wallpaper. Although that's hard to find. I'd say probably 15% of wallpapers actually look good now.

 

[ryans20]

I thought it may be an accessibility option at first as well, but no luck.

I have a painting with a light background as my phone background, so it does make the date and time easier to see on the lock screen, but it essentially ruins the painting and the numbers were never that difficult to see to begin with.

As shown before, if you have a portrait, it's just as bad with family's/friends faces shadowed.

 

[ryans20]

The shading actually changes when one is setting the background based on the color of the background, but it doesn't transfer over to when one actually sets the image. Very strange.

 

[joejoejoe]

After making the iOS 7.1 updated, I noticed that the background image I have for my lock and home screen is shaded to be more dark at the top of the screen.

Any ideas on how to change this so the background images show normally? I don't like the dark shading at all.

TIA

It's a feature so that you can see the text of the clock more easily. Some wallpapers can make it impossible to see. If you take your wallpaper into iphoto and darken it slightly it will remove the shading at the top. sometime you can play with resizing the wlalpaper and the sahding will automatically go away while you resize depending on the colors behind the clock text. you can play with it in settings to see if that works, otherwise you'd have to darken the wallpaper (or brighten it a lot till the text turns black) in a third party app, or use a different wallpaper.

 

[ryans20]

I see that and was able to change it on the lock screen, but not on the home screen.

I find it bizarre they shaded the background with the apps since it has nothing to do with making the clock easier to read.

 

[MAvery]

This is interesting. I didn't notice the color change until now. It does make the clock more visible which I like.

 

[Paddle1]

I contacted Apple and they didn't seem to be aware until I mentioned. I'll be talking to Phone Support soon about it. It's incredibly annoying, I don't understand how they let that happen/thought it might be a good idea. I really hope they fix it soon. It looks so stupid.

Feel free to acknowledge or ignore Taylor Lautner, I don't care haha.

Before:
Image

After:
Image

At first I thought it might of had been a glitch with the new wallpaper option, but nope, it's in the OS.

The background is aligned differently in those pictures.

 

[jrswizzle]

I don't notice a difference.....maybe its my wallpaper but I don't see what people are talking about....

Tried a white wallpaper as well and still can't see any shadow. I'm on an iPhone 5S.

 

[Agent-P]

I'm still looking for a fix for this. Anyone know of any Cydia tweaks that'll work?

 

[oomgomfg]

There is a method to remove the shadow gradient entirely if you have access to the device's file system.

1. Go through the file system on the device and navigate to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SpringboardFoundation.framework
2. Look for "wallpaper-gradient-top-black-568h@2x~iphone.png" and "wallpaper-gradient-bottom-black-568h@2x~iphone.png"
3. Rename (preferably) or delete the image files as needed, if you're only trying to remove the top gradient then changing the "top" file will be enough

Doing this will also remove the shading in your lock screen, making the clock much less readable if you're using a bright background. This is easily remedied by going through photoshop and adding the "neutral density" gradient onto the background image.

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/c...weak_to_remove_the_wallpaper_gradient/cfs8sac

 

[Apple blogger]

Thanks for replying, gewawd. I'm glad I wasn't the only one who's noticed, although it's unfortunate that this is a standard feature now.

It looks like the wallpaper is in a closet with a bulb burned out.

It happens with apple wallpapers also.. The one which has 2 iPads like wallpaper .. Try that.. It's a feature used, when the top of the screen has a light back ground and the bottom has a dark background and since it cannot completely shift to black color, instead it gives a shadow and keeping the white text.. Sometimes it's not so visible, but mostly it ruins the wallpaper

 

[Agent-P]

There is a method to remove the shadow gradient entirely if you have access to the device's file system.

1. Go through the file system on the device and navigate to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SpringboardFoundation.framework
2. Look for "wallpaper-gradient-top-black-568h@2x~iphone.png" and "wallpaper-gradient-bottom-black-568h@2x~iphone.png"
3. Rename (preferably) or delete the image files as needed, if you're only trying to remove the top gradient then changing the "top" file will be enough

Doing this will also remove the shading in your lock screen, making the clock much less readable if you're using a bright background. This is easily remedied by going through photoshop and adding the "neutral density" gradient onto the background image.

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/c...weak_to_remove_the_wallpaper_gradient/cfs8sac

I'll give this a try. Thanks for the tip.


And just in case anyone is curious, I found a Cydia tweak called Wallpaper+ that's supposed to fix this issue, but it didn't work on 7.1.2 for my iPhone. It might work on 7.0.x if anyone still has that installed.

 

[qb55]

There is a method to remove the shadow gradient entirely if you have access to the device's file system.

1. Go through the file system on the device and navigate to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SpringboardFoundation.framework
2. Look for "wallpaper-gradient-top-black-568h@2x~iphone.png" and "wallpaper-gradient-bottom-black-568h@2x~iphone.png"
3. Rename (preferably) or delete the image files as needed, if you're only trying to remove the top gradient then changing the "top" file will be enough

Doing this will also remove the shading in your lock screen, making the clock much less readable if you're using a bright background. This is easily remedied by going through photoshop and adding the "neutral density" gradient onto the background image.

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/c...weak_to_remove_the_wallpaper_gradient/cfs8sac

Thanks, it worked perfectly. I changed "top" to "only".

----------

Changing the file worked. Using iPhone 5 on iOS 7.1.2, jailbreak Pangu.

 

[fogs]

If you have Winterboard installed, you can also download (from Cydia) and select a tweak called "No Wallpaper Gradient iOS 7"

I just did this and it worked for me, in case you don't want to pay for iFile, or don't really know how to use it.