Doodim: A Free Menu Extra for Dimming Your OS X Desktop Background

With all the hoopla surrounding the admittedly cool “lightbox” DHTML effect this year, I was surprised to run across this little jewel from 4 years ago. From the same author of other great apps like the Subversion client SvnX and the indescribable Backdrop Folders freeware comes Doodim, which runs as a menubar extra. With it, you can choose to dim everything but the frontmost app, either Dark, Darker, or Black. As the website admits, there are a few glitches that make you click Doodim off now and then, but all in all it’s a very useful way of cutting down distractions while you work.