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Comment by DustinCalim | Hacker News Reader

I don't agree with Hedonism being the driving force behind dark websites. I prefer dark(and spend all day coding with a dark background) because it's easier on my eyes... The idea behind skeuomorphism in webpages mimicking paper has proven itself when the print industry attempted to carry their print practices over to the web and failed. The internet is still very young; I think what we will find over time as more and more people spend more and more time on computers is a departure from paperesque websites to a more functional design that is dark and physiologically friendly(easy on your eyes).

Interestingly enough, the website in the link looks awesome using the Hacker Vision Chrome extension I use which is designed to do just that - it applies a dark theme to all websites so the bright white backgrounds don't destroy your eyes.

Download Hacker Vision at: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-vision/fomm...

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This seems very unnatural. Step outside on a sunny day and tell me we're not built (as a species) to function optimally in bright light.

I'd even go so far as to say that several hundred thousand years of evolution would back me up. Otherwise, why can't we see perfectly in the dark?

EDIT: typo.

It's not so much that most of our field of vision should be light or dark as that we have a bias for light=detail/important, dark=background/unimportant.

This has a slightly perverse effect when a computer monitor is placed in a real environment; looking around my environment (sitting in my cubicle at work) my laptop draws my attention like little else because it's so damn bright.

Maybe websites bias towards light backgrounds because it discourages users from getting up and doing something other than browsing.

We aren't equipped to see perfectly in light or dark, we have a range. Everyday is sunny here and people wear sunglasses. I'm not disagreeing with you though - I think the difference is that monitors are backlit and things in nature that create light you tend to not look directly at for 8 hours a day.

I have to wonder if the average user of a light-on-dark color scheme simply has their monitor's brightness turned up too high.

I have my brightness turned down pretty low on every display I own, to the point that even a pure white screen can bearably be looked at. I prefer dark-on-light color schemes because I can turn my monitor's brightness down even lower with them, and I don't have to adjust my eyes or monitor when visiting web sites (most of which are dark-on-light). Why bother fighting the entire web with custom CSS to match your text editor when you can make the defaults comfortable to look at?

I didn't know about this extension so thank you! If it does Solarized Dark then I'm sold: I'm not a fan when it is too dark, but it's definitely better than the white backgrounds I often see.

Next step: move away from the big paragraphs in small writing... or maybe it's just that I need glasses :)

Works better than other alternatives I've tried! Thank you so much!

Easy solution for Firefox:

http://superuser.com/a/181293

Love that extension, thanks!

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