Do You Really Need Dark Mode? | Hacker News Reader

Do You Really Need Dark Mode?

wired.com

I live in a tropical jungle and, at night time, dark themes significantly reduces the number of insects attracted by the light emitted from the screen. Using a light theme app is like sitting under a flashlight which attracts all insects. A dark theme makes it possible for me to sit outside on my balcony at night time. So yes, I really need dark mode.

If I could go back in time and kill one person to change the course of history, it would be whomever was responsible for popularizing bright backgrounds on emissive displays (ie full on).

For programming, it's not about how well you can perceive text, but about keeping your brain from entering the "I'm outside, let's perform physical activity" mode. Similarly, everyone wants to avoid this mode at night (eg Redshift).

Even visual art apps, which benefit from a well-defined whitepoint, default to a neutral grey rather than blinding white. If you enjoy flooding your eyes with light, you can always mount a spot light or even a strobe light above your monitor.

A lot of people actually prefer reading black text on white background because paper works like that. Personally I do too. For writing prose and reading articles or blogs I prefer a light (but not pure white) background and black text. If you want the same legibility with white on black text you need to make the text bolder but this is rarely done.

For coding I always use light text on dark background because dark background makes the syntax coloring more useful as more colors are available.

All good and impartial points. Another is that dark background and light text leads to distracting retinal afterimages. But it can be mitigated by understating the contrast: making the black dark gray and the colors muted

I've always been accustomed to black text on white. If I switch to black background, the text is blurry and I either need to put on my glasses or physically move my face closer to the screen. In regular life, all lights at nighttime have huge 'auras' or glows, this is kind of what happens with dark modes as well.

But this is not how paper works! Paper reflects existing light, and thus automatically matches the general brightness/whitepoint of the ambient illumination. Whereas a monitor is often the brightest thing in your field of view. If laptops with epaper displays ever become a thing, programmers will likely prefer those black-on-white.

If someone earnestly prefers bright backgrounds, I'm not going to say they're wrong. But it feels like much of the "preference" here is due to deprecating dark backgrounds as "weird" plus then pure momentum, and articles like this one don't help.

> dark mode is often billed as an accessibility feature—but the research hasn't been entirely conclusive. Mayr calls it an “open research question.”

It is absolutely an accessibility feature. It is critical for some types of vision impairments, and is also preferred by many people with dyslexia who are distracted by "white rivers" that appear in standard text (especially when formatted justified).

Calling this an "open research question" does a disservice to people who unquestionably benefit from and rely on dark modes.

Did these studies compare OLED dark mode vs traditional dark mode?

I find OLED dark mode to be the best because there is quite literally no light coming from a large section of my screen.

In the summer, working late into the night, I feel most comfortable with my windows open and to avoid attracting insects, I set macOS to invert colors and also have Flux running. The effect is a red on black screen. My syntax color scheme is always set to black/grays, so that simply changes to different shades of red.

Flux, which is usually stylized as f.lux, is a third party application that automatically tints your screen amber at evening. Some people use it to be able to fall asleep more easily after work.

Unfortunately Flux on iOS requires a jailbroken device and Apple decided to switch off Flux’s built-in pendant called Night Shift when colors are inverted. So I’m looking forward that Dark Mode works with Night Shift to give me that submarine mode on iOS.

For Linux users, redshift/gtk-redshift does the same thing and is OSS, used it for years with no issues.

Yes. As a programmer, the ability to comfortably code at 2pm or 2am is important. The article mentioned this, but most coders I know don't use dark mode for some perceived mental boost.

They're not wrong, the blue light is effectively a stimulant that will help keep you alert and awake.

Dark mode looks better most of the time and if done right doesn't make coding/reading/navigating/etc. significantly more difficult.

After having used macOS Mojave in dark mode for many months, on a whim I went back to light mode on my iMac.

It's like somebody just shined a flashlight right into my retinas.

Flipped back to dark mode in mere seconds. So yes, we really do need dark mode. :)

I like dark mode at night, but during the day I find that it makes my phone (iphone 7 plus) too reflective. I end up having to angle the phone in strange ways to be able to see what's on the screen.

This question makes me angry. It's like Microsoft removing UI color customization from their office apps. Since when does someone else know what's comfortable for my eyes?

It's news to me that dark mode is coming to ios. That's really exciting! I think dark mode uis draw you in less and become less of a distraction than light mode uis

Yes

I didn't read the article. Does it mention less power consumption?

Yes. Dark mode saves power for OLED screens but not for backlit LCD screens.

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