I developed eye floaters in one of my eyes and that made Light Mode almost unbearable to use. Some people might not like Dark Mode, but it's also an accessibility feature that helps not only people with certain common eye conditions, but others like migraine sufferers.
Surely this isn't a highly subjective topic that is going to result in people hugely advocating for one or the other purely based on their own anecdotes. Right?
Putting the sarcasm aside, my personal experience with dark mode is that I do find it more pleasant in general to work with. However, in a lot of cases it does make reading text more difficult which mostly seems to come down to the wrong contrast ratios being used between the text and background.
Which brings me on a bit of a tangent, I feel like the web in general has gotten less readable. But this is more to do with font choices, line length and a whole host of other things independent of the dark/light mode.
>I feel like the web in general has gotten less readable. But this is more to do with font choices, line length and a whole host of other things independent of the dark/light mode.
A few years ago I unticked the setting in Firefox that said "Allow websites to choose their own fonts instead of the ones above" and never looked back.
It's absolutely fantastic how every site now has the same font of my own choosing, it's so legible and clear. Very occasionally a site breaks because it uses icon fonts or they've made their design absolutely pixel perfect, but that's a trade-off I can deal with.
>Surely this isn't a highly subjective topic that is going to result in people hugely advocating for one or the other purely based on their own anecdotes. Right?
No, it's not. Eye physiology is not a la cart.
Individual preference and placebo effects can be, sure. But whether it's good or bad for your eyes is not subjective. Big Mac combos are "subjective" too when it comes to taste, but not subjective when they are compared to a healthy balanced meal.
It kind of is though. I generally prefer dark mode but when there's enough ambient light, I can deal with light mode just fine.
When I'm in a darker environment, light mode (even at very low brightness) is too bright, to the point where sometimes I can't even look at the screen.
A screen that I can't look at is, by definition, less readable than one that I can.
The point though is that while one might "love it" and dark mode might feel like "laser into the eyes" to them, it can also mean reduced eyesight and increased vision problems mid/long term - not "subjectively", but objectively.
To make an analogy, excercize also feels like an exhausting experience for many people, and they "love" and prefer lounging on a couch, but long term they'd live more and be healthier if they did it more of the former and less of the latter.
> it can also mean reduced eyesight and increased vision problems mid/long term
[Citation needed]
The article mentions several studies, including short-term discomfort from digital eye strain associated with excessive screen use (regardless of color theme) and improved reading accuracy with light themes, but I don't see anything associating dark themes with long-term vision issues.
I love it so much that I've been using it since my Atari 600 XL and Commodore 64 days.
At times it's been complicated: I remember the early IntelliJ IDEs had no dark-mode but you could configure one yourself (and it was lots of work). Or Windows: the rare time when I worked on Windows I couldn't get a dark mode to work but I remember I could "dim" the laser white background into a light grey and Word would show a slightly grey background.
Linux / Emacs: zero issue configuring these with dark modes of course.
As an anecdote at 51 y/o I need, at long last, to go see an ophthalmologist to measure my now failing eyes.
But spending most of my life from 11 y/o to 51 y/o in front of computer screen, I'd say all these decades without glasses was a good run.
I do design work, in addition to building stuff. I need to see colors "as-is" (to the degree that's ever a thing) fairly often. 5/100 brightness wouldn't be great, and even syntax-highlighting gets murky at low brightness, I'm guessing?
Is there anything visible at that point. There always seems to be someone advocating impractical solutions simply because they believe these solutions work for them personally.
Dark mode has basically become unusable for me as I've aged and my vision has gotten worse due to uncorrectable/partially correctable astigmatism. Black text on white-ish backgrounds is far more readable, whereas white text on black background makes each character act like its own little point light and cause all kinds of eye strain
I have the same problem but its not actually the text that matters but the bright background will constrict your pupils, reducing the amount of lens they use, which reduces the distortion. If I'm in a bright room the mode doesn't matter, but if I'm in a dark room I have to blast the background to constrict those pupils to get a clear image.
Dark mode, light mode ... Just switch on the light in the room and stop looking into light source while sitting in the dark. That's why your eyes hurt, when your irises need to constantly expand and contract. Dark mode is reducing amount of light coming through but does not solve the root cause of no background light.
Am I the only one that uses light mode at day and dark mode at night? I see this topic light vs dark so often and wonder why nobody mentions that approach..
I have a shortcut in my vim which just toggles my light/dark themes and I use it regularly.
I thought that’s what everyone did! Apple OSs have a setting to do this at sunset/sunrise or at certain times. I have mine go dark at 10pm and light at 10am.
„which swaps the standard white background for black“
I tried, but I just can’t believe anything written after that statement. The default was white (or green or orange) on black.
All these white backgrounds are fairly new - probably there are more years with white than black backgrounds, but that’s not how my old brain think of time.
> I tried, but I just can’t believe anything written after that statement. The default was white (or green or orange) on black.
The vast majority of the world's population have rarely or never used a monochrome computer screen. Even when they were common, the bulk of what people read, _even people who used such monitors_, was black on white - it was paper.
Screens that put out light, I can't handle light mode. On OLED at least, dark mode means the only light entering my eyes is what I'm trying to see. I read a lot. Heaven help you if your "dark mode" is gray background, chaotic evil. I don't really mind any mode on LCD displays, I just generally dislike LCD displays.
You know what I would love, a high refresh rate, high resolution color e-ink or similar. You couldn't sit in the dark to use it, but it would probably be ideal for everything except watching video.
Readit News
Perhaps a light mode is like exercize for the eyes?
And it gets better with a more balanced light around the room as well (since sitting in a darkened room will obviously make a light screen painful).
It shouldn't be brighter than a piece of paper in the same location.
Putting the sarcasm aside, my personal experience with dark mode is that I do find it more pleasant in general to work with. However, in a lot of cases it does make reading text more difficult which mostly seems to come down to the wrong contrast ratios being used between the text and background.
Which brings me on a bit of a tangent, I feel like the web in general has gotten less readable. But this is more to do with font choices, line length and a whole host of other things independent of the dark/light mode.
A few years ago I unticked the setting in Firefox that said "Allow websites to choose their own fonts instead of the ones above" and never looked back.
It's absolutely fantastic how every site now has the same font of my own choosing, it's so legible and clear. Very occasionally a site breaks because it uses icon fonts or they've made their design absolutely pixel perfect, but that's a trade-off I can deal with.
No, it's not. Eye physiology is not a la cart.
Individual preference and placebo effects can be, sure. But whether it's good or bad for your eyes is not subjective. Big Mac combos are "subjective" too when it comes to taste, but not subjective when they are compared to a healthy balanced meal.
When I'm in a darker environment, light mode (even at very low brightness) is too bright, to the point where sometimes I can't even look at the screen.
A screen that I can't look at is, by definition, less readable than one that I can.
Using light mode apps, especially in the evening, is like a laser into my eyes, subjectively.
To make an analogy, excercize also feels like an exhausting experience for many people, and they "love" and prefer lounging on a couch, but long term they'd live more and be healthier if they did it more of the former and less of the latter.
[Citation needed]
The article mentions several studies, including short-term discomfort from digital eye strain associated with excessive screen use (regardless of color theme) and improved reading accuracy with light themes, but I don't see anything associating dark themes with long-term vision issues.
I love it so much that I've been using it since my Atari 600 XL and Commodore 64 days.
At times it's been complicated: I remember the early IntelliJ IDEs had no dark-mode but you could configure one yourself (and it was lots of work). Or Windows: the rare time when I worked on Windows I couldn't get a dark mode to work but I remember I could "dim" the laser white background into a light grey and Word would show a slightly grey background.
Linux / Emacs: zero issue configuring these with dark modes of course.
As an anecdote at 51 y/o I need, at long last, to go see an ophthalmologist to measure my now failing eyes.
But spending most of my life from 11 y/o to 51 y/o in front of computer screen, I'd say all these decades without glasses was a good run.
Deleted Comment
I have it set to 5/100 and there's no problem using light mode all day and night.
I have a shortcut in my vim which just toggles my light/dark themes and I use it regularly.
I tried, but I just can’t believe anything written after that statement. The default was white (or green or orange) on black.
All these white backgrounds are fairly new - probably there are more years with white than black backgrounds, but that’s not how my old brain think of time.
The vast majority of the world's population have rarely or never used a monochrome computer screen. Even when they were common, the bulk of what people read, _even people who used such monitors_, was black on white - it was paper.
In the Unix world it became common with the introduction of the X Window System.
In the personal computer world it also became common with the launch of Microsoft Windows 1.0 and Apple Macintosh.
Mac was always a tiny fraction of the market. No one used Windows 1.0. High end UNIX workstations were extremely rare.
What was common was DOS, the other home micros, and dumb terminals. All black background.
You know what I would love, a high refresh rate, high resolution color e-ink or similar. You couldn't sit in the dark to use it, but it would probably be ideal for everything except watching video.