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Comment by pier25 | Hacker News Reader

> Dark-Mode first because your eyes are worth it

Dark mode is actually worse for your eyes. There are plenty of studies that have shown bright text over dark background is less readable and produces eye strain.

Also reading bright text over black is painful for people with astigmatism.

Obviously people don't like going from dark to bright but that happens precisely because of dark mode being so popular.

At the very least, if you're going to follow the trend of having a dark mode you should provide a light mode (which this site does). Either have some sort of switch or use CSS to determine the OS setting.

I've been using dark mode in my code editors since 2011 or so and went back to light mode recently. I'm certain dark mode was a detriment to my eyes as I've been able to go back to my old glasses too.

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I have recently switched from dark to light as well in my editor and I have noticed it is easier to read darker text over a light background as well. You, or at least I, notice this as well when I turn off Trueq.io's dark mode on the pages with more text like the 'about' page.

You are being down voted, but not countered, so it seems like people are being emotional about this for some reason. Ah well, to each his own.

Just wanting to state that we did not down vote on pier25's comment. Everyone should feel free to use the theming mode he / she likes best.

I don't know if there are any studies about why dark mode is so popular these days, but my guess is because of using screens on poor lit rooms or even in complete darkness.

In those conditions it's super annoying to switch from a dark UI to a bright one which I guess its why light mode gets so much irrational hate.

Obviously users should be able to choose what works best for them.

I'm in my 40s now and I care much more now about my vision. I guess most proponents of dark mode are actually much younger than me.

OLED screens save power if it's darker.

But you could just not use dark mode in your editor right?

I generally wind dark (but not black, more live a navy blue or dark grey or similar) better for stuff with lots of color (e.g. code) but light (but not white - creme like HN or a kindle screen) much better for reading paragraph text.

As you mentioned, we give the possibility to switch to light mode and also save the decision of the user, so it will be persistent to your needs after revisiting TrueQ.

Thx for your feedback regarding the OS setting, we definitely want to implement this. :)

That's great, but you should stop the dark mode evangelization propaganda.

I find that it depends on the environment for me. If I'm in a dark room, I'll use dark mode for most tools. If I'm in a light room, ditto for light mode.

I default to dark on most things though, because I find light theme worse in a dark environment then I find dark theme negative in a bright one.

Also, my terminal will always be dark.

> bright text over dark background is less readable

Doubly so when screen sharing over video chat.

Everyone at work uses low contrast dark mode with microscopic fonts and when you throw in video compression artifacting, it's totally unreadable.

Dark mode first because fashion trends popular among developers for some reason I can't seem to understand.

I have astigmatism and have never experienced this pain.

It's was metaphorical, not literal pain.

> People who have myopia or astigmatism also may experience halation (from the word “halo”). Halation occurs when light spreads past a certain boundary, creating a foggy or blurry appearance. In other words, white letters can appear to bleed into a black background, making it more difficult to read, especially if the print is fine.

https://www.allaboutvision.com/digital-eye-strain/is-dark-mo...

I mean, sure. The inverse (black text bleeding into a white background) is also true. Astigmatism makes it harder to pick out the edges of things which tends to make things seem more blurry.

There are other sentences in that article that are more compelling, mainly that "Halation is more common and more severe when using dark mode." I'd be interested in hearing actual statistics on this. I haven't personally noticed dark mode being any different than light mode.

The article goes on to explain having an updated prescription is the best thing to not have to worry about that.

Same, in fact I get headaches from black text on white. I've only got a minor astigmatism though and only in one eye, so ymmv (3 years ago at last eye check).

> I get headaches from black text on white

On what monitor?

Could it be flickering?

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