Which colour scheme is better?

Related: high- versus low-contrast. Most colour schemes are low-contrast, and I haven’t the foggiest idea why, because I’ve always hated that, and find it makes no sense whatsoever (zero) as a decision.

I used to use molokai (dark, fairly high contrast); a few years ago I decided to build a new minimal, light, high contrast one from scratch, which I called “bland”, inspired by the printed code of yesteryear. Paired with Triplicate, the only true serif monospace font that I can think of (I have a vague feeling I found one other once, but can’t think what it was). Black text, white background, keywords bold, comments italic, that was it. I tried that for a few days and decided I liked it, but did want strings and comments distinguished, so I made strings red, comments green, numbers blue. Over time then I’ve added a small number of other cases for specific languages and constructs, but it’s stayed very minimal compared with what almost everyone’s doing.

Well, I deliberately tried it for a couple of weeks, then went back to molokai for a week before I broke and went back to bland because I found it just so much better.

It’s what I use in code blocks on my website, though with light grey backgrounds rather than white. See https://chrismorgan.info/blog/rust-fizzbuzz/ for an example.

It was a couple of years before I even bothered to make a dark variant of the theme, for the occasional low-light situation where dark actually works better, and because I wanted to have a dark mode on my website. I almost never use bland-dark.

I think it's just an individual thing, and we should all respect that.

There is a litany of posts and opinions of people who say their eyes hurt with a light color scheme, or it produces spots in their vision, or it hurts their concentration etc. I have no reason not to believe them. Many people prefer to even show their code in a dark scheme on websites. Furthermore, many people don't care but think dark is cooler.

On the other hand, I know that for myself, coding in a dark scheme is rather painful, especially if the background is very dark (as opposed to some gray). It makes it very hard to concentrate and I experience this on all of my displays. I do not have scientific evidence for any of that, nor do I really care to produce it. However, I look at code every day, so I know what works for me. The same will be true for other people here.

I think developers should treat it as an accessibility issue. Apps should have a dark mode, since many people clearly need it. Apps should also have a light mode, since people like me need it.

So, I have used both routinely, and don't really care too much one way or the other. I use dark more often, but if for whatever reason I'm in an editor that is light-themed (which happens not uncommonly), it's not worth any of my time to switch. So I don't have strong emotions on this.

However, I do notice that "because science says so" is becoming a more and more common "you are not allowed to argue with my conclusions" kind of add-on to any assertion. It is an oddly religious, faith-like use of the word "science".

I think the point that's missing is reflective vs. transmitive surfaces -- that brain is used to processing not the latter, but the former -- where reflected light is related to, and less than, ambient light. If we were using hi-res color e-ink displays, I think he'd be right about eye-strain. However, using a light scheme with mostly text, you have a huge rectangle of LED (most of the time) white light blaring at you, which itself causes eyestrain.

White text on black background is hard to read, at least for me as I get a halo effect around text edges due to my astigmatism. However, that is an extreme colour scheme. A more balanced colour scheme like monokai is much better and gives better contrast than a light colour scheme for syntax highlighting, and reduces my eye strain as the monitor isn’t emitting as much white light. I also suffer from floaters, as others here seem too as well, and the main way to make them less distracting / hide them is to use dark colour schemes.

My work office, back when I had to go into the office, used overhead LED ‘energy efficient’ lights that were far too bright and had a colour temperature that was too white. They then painted the office walls white, I thought I was entering limbo every morning.

I think the key takeaway is that it all comes down to personal taste, and there is no universal colour scheme or brightness level that everyone is comfortable with.

Unscientifically, I can attest to light schemes being easier for me to handle than dark ones. Of course, I adjust my overall monitor brightness according to the ambient light (so do not use full brightness in the evening).

I'm astonished (dismayed?) by how many people give presentations or record otherwise very useful videos with dark mode content. That content is unviewable when the ambient light of the viewer's surroundings is high (such as daylight, or especially when outside). A great presentation is diminished in worth if it can only be consumed in less than all circumstances.

As an aside, it is important to control the ambient light if possible, especially where "daylight" (high K) LED lights are concerned. Not only does the high volume of blue rays take a toll on your eyes, but it also impacts melatonin production. And of course it means you likewise have to have your display brighter.

> Using a dark colour scheme to write code requires more eye processing power than using a light colour scheme. Sure the difference seems negligible, it's only a few milliseconds. Actually, it's a few milliseconds every time you "rescan" your screen; that's between 10 or 50 times a second, depending on what research you want to believe.

Why is it assumed that this delay is a bad thing or necessarily increases cognitive load? It seems to me like it could just as easily be a positive.

Reading faster doesn't indicate higher reading comprehension. There's a substantial amount of cognitive load in reading "flat" text and constructing the whatever structured representation exists in one's mind. Slightly delayed reading speed could help rather than hinder comprehension and higher-level semantic processing.

Articles like this are pointless. What kind of actual research has been done? What actual understanding of both the Pulfrich effect and how our brains process visual imagery does the author have apart from having read a couple articles online? None you say? Well. I’m going to continue using a dark color scheme to code as I have for years. Because it works better for me.

I have bad floaters in my vision and dark color schemes are the only ones that let me get work done without problems. I consider a light/dark toggle to be a worthwhile accessibility feature. Indeed, I'm using a Stylus script to make HN gray on black.

Just because it doesn’t look like this has been mentioned already. I’m not sure that the time it takes to process and recognize a character in milliseconds is the primary bottleneck to understanding code. It is merely assumption, but I assume that code comprehension is far more difficult and slower for most than standard reading. There can be a significant mental burden when working out all of the fine details of how the code will operate, especially if written by someone else. It can be even more difficult when the code isn’t intention revealing.

On another note, there are the often cited user studies that show that interfaces that are purely more aesthetically pleasing tend to be used more efficiently vs the exact same interfaces with “uglier” presentation. So a color scheme that is most aesthetically pleasing to each user might provide a subconscious boost in wielding their editor and its features.

As a third and less related thought, I think we could make much bigger strides in understanding code by creating better tools, better static analysis, better IDEs, etcetera. This is just my opinion but I would guess that additional tooling to help you discover and analyze the behavior, relationships, and history of the code you’re reading could yield better results than the 15ms character recognition optimization. I would also guess that for most, far more time could be saved speeding up builds and tests. That’s not to say that it’s not worthwhile to optimize character recognition speed. But I would guess that character recognition speed is not the main processing time in the mental “stack” when reading code.

That's a pretty interesting post. I'd never heard of the Pulfrich Effect.

For myself, I prefer an "off-white" theme, with a light parchment background. The old Xcode "Sunset" theme used to be my go-to. They have removed that, now, so I modified the Classic (Light) theme to have a parchment background, and that does me fine.

I find it kind of amusing how much some folks use choices of editor/theme as a "value judgment" on our skillset.

People do what's comfortable, and what helps them to work more efficiently. In some cases, it's all CLI, in a spartan black and white screen, for others, it's Romper Room GUI. Whatever helps us to work more effectively. Even if it's a "placebo effect," if it helps me to be more productive, it helps me to be more productive.

There's a number of singers that perform barefoot, and are highly skilled (Google "Rhiannon Giddens" I saw a video where she sang at the White House, and wore a really long dress). Basquiat would often paint in Armani suits (and barefoot).

Every now and then, I'll try something new. I'll usually give it several days, before making a decision. Sometimes, I adopt it.

It took me months to become effective at a standing desk. It was an issue of health, for me, so I powered through all the awkwardness.

Why do people feel they have to shove their opinions down peoples throats like this?

Is the fact that some people like dark colour schemes really that threatening?

> I wanna do the same with you: try it for one week, and let me know whether you're switching back to a dark theme or not.

So, I tried light themes predominantly from about 1995-2015, after using dark themes predominantly from 1985-1995, and before using dark themes predominantly from 2015-present.

But, sure, a week will make a difference.

This is a pretty sloppy just-so-story for the author's preferences.

Mentions the Pulfrich effect, but this is for lateral movements with stationary vision. Author then leaps into a discussion about how this happens every time you "rescan" without giving a single line of evidence that this happens.

This is especially dubious given Saccadic Masking[0] meaning there's no perceived visual input while the eyes are in motion. How exactly are we being slowed by the Pulfrich Effect during reading if motion ("lateral motion" required to satisfy the conditions of the effect) is blocked by the brain?

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccadic_masking

I use dark colour schemes when programming because otherwise I get distracted by my floaters. That overrides any other theoretical justification to me.

For me it depends on the editor. I usually just roll with the default. For Visual Studio and Netbeans I use light themes, but I can't make VSCode to look good with a light theme, it always feels off to me.

The argument about light themes being "blinding at night" I don't buy. If the screen is blinding you, then you should get better lighting in your room, it's not good to work in the dark.

Also, dark themes give me depression. When I open the IDE and it's a dark grayish rectangle I am like "oh no, I have to work with that again".

Some people have photosensitivity. Those with lighter colored eyes tend to have more photosensitivity. I wonder if this affects the preferences one way or another.

There's also plenty of shades between white and black, and maybe there's some kind of sweet spot.

Another issue is that syntax highlighting is easier to notice on dark themes, and differentiating between type annotations and variables and functions and operators probably takes much more brain power than the visual recognition of the text.

My 2 cents: I used to use dark themes for a couple of years only to realize that I had to increase the font in my IDE to almost twice as big as I have it now, after I switched back to light theme. Reading dark text on light background is so much easier to me. However, I also adjust white balance of my display to very warm end of spectrum using “night shift” on Mac even during the day.

A hack for viewing the video showing the Pulfrich effect:

Grab a pair of 3D glasses and point the side with the linear polarizer towards your LCD screen (it is the one that will not let the screen show through if rotated correctly). You can now adjust the brightness of this image by changing the relative angle between glasses and screen to change the intensity of the 3D effect.

I use only dark schemes for programming and is way more relaxing for my eyes.

One of the reasons is that the minimum brightness of my screens are just too bright compared to ambient light at night, and I love my ambient light at night, that is quite bright but illuminates all the room, so I can work on the room, and use things like blackboards or notepads, not just the computer screen.

It hurts my eyes to have white rectangles at the middle of the night so higher than the environment.

Those screens are supposedly high quality and they can be way too bright in order to compete with the sun, but not dim enough for low light places.

Dark themes let you have letters with higher visual contrast as all colors contrast with dark way more than against white.

It is a complex issue with multiple variables, not just one.

BTW I don't see science anywhere in the article. Science needs you testing your hypothesis with actual experiments and collecting data.

Some people may remember: first there were video terminals with light-on-dark to conserve fluorescent layer of CRTs, IBM PC continued the tradition and then Apple Macintosh came out with white background. Apple's argument was that people's eyes were trained for black-on-white print and it was one of the distinctive features of the platform then.

There must be a reason why the print developed as black-on-white, maybe people preferred it this way.

So pick what you prefer: paper-style or CRT-style.

I agree that light schemes are better, although I'm not sold on the reason given in this article. My understanding is that eye strain isn't purely a function of brightness (accumulation of photons), but the focusing effort needed to differentiate glyphs on screen (for which dark glyphs on light reduces eyestrain).

I used dark schemes for years but having switched to a light one in recent months, I don't see myself switching back. This area is mired in dogma unfortunately.

'X is "better", based on "science"'

This theory (it seems to be only a theory) does match my subjective experience. I find it quicker to scan 10s of lines of code to find something with a light theme.

However I find it easier to distinguish individual characters with a dark theme. So when trying to parse something like a line of jsx, it's better.

Overall I prefer (and use) a light theme, but I will admit that dark themes look 1000x cooler.

I dunno. For me, a variety is more important than strictly using light or dark. I tend to switch things up every so often similar to how I might rearrange furniture or bring a new meal into weeknight rotation. Sometimes I just need a change of scenery (in a loose sense of the word).

I do use two different color schemes depending on ambiant light.

Dark background during the night, and light background during the day, in most cases.

As simple as that.

I wish my text editor would switch automatically and I might write a script to do that at some point, but this is a minor annoyance.

Matches my experience. I've never liked the dark themes.

"By only covering one eye with sunglasses, you add a few milliseconds of delay to that one."

A few milliseconds? What are you talking about?

Green text on a black background. Mechanical clicky keyboard. Anything else marks you as a poseur.

Trying to claim light color schemes are scientifically better based solely on the The Pulfrich effect is absurd. The best color scheme for programming is the one you like and can comfortably look at for extended periods of time. Your eyes are different than mine so trying to claim this is a scientific means of determining the best color scheme is about as useful as you telling me what my favourite color is based on 'science'.

I couldn't read the article. The letters were washed out in the glare.

What did it say?