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Comment by loloquwowndueo | Hacker News Reader

There’s no obvious way to switch to normal (aka “light”) mode. Dark mode is very difficult for some people (me included) to read.

If you must default to dark mode that’s your choice but I’d love to see a light mode toggle somewhere prominent.

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Ideally websites just respect the existing media queries so you don't even have to switch!

Designs can't be easily split into a pure light or dark mode, though. Before light/dark modes were popularized, it was common to have some parts be "dark" and other parts be "light," depending on the design (for example, would the iOS 5 game center be "dark mode"?). Elixir's website uses a mix of light and dark to delineate sections.

One consequence of software recently supporting light and dark schemes is that UI designs end up committing to all white or all dark, rather than tastefully choosing a color scheme that best frames its content in context.

Yeah. You'll notice that there's a mix of light and dark. Some segments are light-on-dark, then it switches to dark-on-light. It appears to me like a "design trend" that's at odds with accessibility. https://www.apple.com does this too.

i along with 99% of people don’t mind it

This, plus there is research that suggests dark mode does not help with retention of information.[1] I have started to slowly transition back to light mode for most of my work applications. (Email, Coding, etc.)

Dark mode feels correct, but it is hostile. Now blue light on the other hand... you should get filters for your monitor/glasses.

[1] https://www.nngroup.com/articles/dark-mode/

Dark mode is great if you want to have many distinct colors on the dark background, like syntax highlighting.

For monochrome, light background and dark text work better.

99% of people? Citation needed.

Why would it be at odds with accessibility? The text contrast is excellent in each section, and the light/dark segments clearly define the border between sections. Forced dark mode can be difficult to read for users with astigmatism, but the font size is large, and the actual documentation sites[0] do have a light/dark switch.

[0]: https://elixir.hexdocs.pm/1.20.2/

I have zero astigmatism and dark mode is hard to read as letters look all blurry.

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