> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.minimalmacropad.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Light Up Keys and Layers in MinimalPad Studio for Mac
> Give a MinimalPad key its own light, or a layer or app profile its own colour, in MinimalPad Studio for Mac. The pad keeps them, so they work without Studio.
Every key can have a light of its own, on every layer, and every layer except Default can have a colour. Keep Play / Pause orange all the time, colour your Lightroom profile blue, or switch off the keys you don't use on a layer. The pad keeps them, like your keys and the dial, so they work without Studio and on any computer.
## Light a key
Select it in the sidebar: Default, a profile, or a pad layer such as **Connections & LEDs**.
Click it on the drawn pad. To light several keys at once, ⌘-click to add or remove one, ⇧-click to select a run of keys, or press ⌘A for all 16.
In the inspector, click **Light**, beside **Action**. It stays open as you move from key to key. While it's open, the drawn pad shows each key's light round its edge.
Click a tile. The pad changes straight away.
| Tile | What the key shows |
| - | - |
| **Layer** | The layer's colour, or whatever is below it. Every key starts here. |
| **Red** to **White** | One of 13 colours: Red, Orange, Yellow, Lime, Green, Spring, Cyan, Azure, Blue, Violet, Magenta, Rose and White |
| **Custom** | A colour of your own, from a wheel |
| **Off** | No light |
The line under the grid says where **Layer** gets its light from: the layer, a layer below it such as Default, or the pad's own lighting.
There's nothing to save, and ⌘Z takes a change back, however many keys it covered. To start a layer over, click **Clear key lights on this layer** at the bottom of the tab: every key on it goes back to **Layer**.
The dial has no light under it. Selected with keys, it's left out.
## Give a layer a colour
Every layer except Default has **Colour** in the bar above the drawn pad, next to **Dial**. The layer's keys show that colour while the layer is on, apart from keys with a light of their own.
A profile, one of an app's layers if it has [several](/mac/several-layers), or a pad layer such as **Connections & LEDs**.
It's in the bar above the drawn pad.
The pad changes straight away, and ⌘Z takes it back.
| Choice | What the layer shows |
| - | - |
| **Pad lighting** (profiles) | No colour of its own: the pad's own lighting |
| **Same as below** (pad layers) | No colour of its own: whatever is under it, such as the profile you're on |
| **Suggested for this app** (profiles) | The colour Studio suggests for the app |
| One of the 13 colours, or **Off** | That colour, or no light |
| **Restore last colour** (profiles) | The colour the layer had before you chose **Pad lighting** |
| **Custom colour** | A colour of your own |
A profile's colour shows while its app is in front, and an app's layer shows its own while the pad is on it. A pad layer's shows while you hold or switch to it. The square next to each layer in the sidebar, and on each of an app's tabs, shows its colour.
Profiles you made before firmware 0.8.0 keep their colour. Studio moves it onto the pad the first time it meets the new firmware.
## Default's colour is Lights
Default has no **Colour**. Its colour is the pad's own lighting, which also shows under every layer without a colour of its own. Set it with **Lights** in Default's bar: see [Lights](/configure/lights). From any other layer, **Open Lights on Default** at the bottom of the Colour menu takes you there.
## Brightness
A key or layer light has no brightness of its own. Every colour shows at the brightness set in **Lights**, so the dial, the brightness keys and the menu bar slider dim and brighten it too. It fades out with the rest of the pad when the pad is idle, and comes back with your next key press.
If you switched the pad's lights off, no colour shows. A key or layer light never switches them on.
## What each key shows
For each key, the pad goes down this list and stops at the first answer:
1. **The lights are off, or resting.** The key is dark.
2. **You're changing the pad's own lighting.** While **Lights** is open in Studio, and for about 3 seconds after you change the colour, effect or speed with the pad's keys or the dial, every key shows the pad's own lighting, so you see what you change.
3. **The top layer that's on.** The key's own light on that layer, then the layer's colour. **Layer**, **Same as below** and **Pad lighting** pass the question to the layer below.
4. **The pad's own lighting**, when no layer sets a light for the key.
Some examples:
| Set up | What you see |
| - | - |
| Play / Pause orange on Default | Orange on Default, and on every profile set to **Pad lighting**. A profile with a colour of its own covers it, unless you light Play / Pause on that profile too. |
| A Lightroom profile in blue, its first key orange | In Lightroom, the first key is orange and the others are blue |
| **Connections & LEDs** on **Same as below**, held in Lightroom | Lightroom's lights, as before you held it. Press a lighting key and the pad shows its own lighting for about 3 seconds, then Lightroom's again. |
## Without Studio
The pad keeps every light about 2 seconds after your last change. Default's and a pad layer's lights work on any computer, with nothing running. A profile's lights show only while Studio has the pad on that profile, like the profile's keys: quit Studio, or move the pad to another computer, and the pad goes back to Default.
Key and layer lights need MinimalPad firmware **0.8.0 or newer**. On older firmware the Light tab asks you to update, and a profile has **Pad colour** instead of **Colour**: a colour Studio sends with each app switch, with a brightness of its own. Studio for Mac [installs the newer firmware for you](/mac/updates).
This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.