Adjusting frontlight brightness during page updates

Techniques for adjusting a brightness of a front that lights a display of an electronic device in response to determining that the display is going to perform an update. Typically, page updates on certain types of displays, such as electronic paper displays, result in a relatively large but rapid change in brightness. Therefore, by increasing the brightness during the relatively dark portion of the update (e.g., when some, a majority, or all of the pixels are in the black state) and then decreasing the brightness back to its initial state upon completion of the update, the overall brightness perceived by the user remains more uniform. Increasing the uniformity of this perceived brightness in turn decreases the jarring affect of the flashing update and increases the experience of the user.