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Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

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Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#301

Post by stordoff »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #84

>Is Dark Mode Such A Good Idea? Yes. >Many people quote light mode as being a contributory factor to eye strain. Based on the reading I’ve done, this doesn’t appear to be true. I'll test that now. - Blindy migraine mode: Hurts. - Dark mode: Doesn't hurt. - Different result ever? No. The above is from the undisputed, worldwide expert on what I feel.

Coming at this from a slightly different angle, I have recurrent headaches (present at some level most of the time, and severe for a few hours a most days). When I'm feeling OK, light mode and dark mode are basically equivalent - I _prefer_ light mode, but dark mode isn't a hindrance. When I have a severe headache, light mode is fine, whereas in dark mode I find myself losing my place often, and it's vaguely unpleasant to read in a somewhat undescribable way that just makes me want to look away. It's akin to the text being slightly blurred, even though visually it looks fine.

The only conclusion I can can draw from this is that it's going to differ for difference people, and options are good.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#302

Post by waheoo »

bonoboTP wrote: post #261
cnity wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are good points but miss an essential part of the story: reflected light almost by definition matches the brightness of the surrounding environment, meaning that the periphery is roughly the same brightness and white balance as the reading medium. If I look at my laptop on full brightness in a nearly pitch black room, it is far less comfortable to read than if I turned on a lamp. So there are two solutions to t…

Yes, it probably correlates with ambient light. I like light mode but I also like to open the blinds, turn on the lamps etc, as opposed to the stereotypical dark basement hacking with a hoodie on. Dark mode is also very often buggy, clumsy, the color schemes for syntax highlight are subjectively less pleasing, it feels gloomier, less cheerful, I see more distracting dust on the screen, smudges etc. Yeah I could also…

I use gruvbox, light when there is a lot of light around (e.g. im outside) and dark mode when im indoors.

There is more to this than all the biological talk too.

I use it as a context switch and prefer to review code in light mode, while i prefer to write code in dark mode.

Either it helps with the context switching or reading is just easier in light mode, while writing is easier in dark mode because its easier focus in on what im writing.

I think given a lot of people prefer dark mode for various things, people should assume they lack all the information for making bold claims based on biological studies alone.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#303

Post by pacoverdi »

Reasons I use dark mode after decades of using light mode:

1. eye floaters: I keep noticing them with light backgrounds 2. poor office environment: with too much sunlight entering the windows, I have to boost screen brightness, which nukes my retina unless I use dark mode 3. poor screen: I have a Samsung UHD screen in which it is almost impossible to lower the brightness, dark mode is a relief

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#305

Post by bovermyer »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #241

Wait. So. "Multiple studies show that light mode is better" trumps my actual experience, with my eyeballs, in my office environment? No. No it doesn't. 1. I don't have that much faith in scientists. Someone trying to p-hack their way to a publishable result that's sensational enough to advance their career is not going to produce good advice for me. 2. Even if they were perfect scientists, they're not using my eyebal…

By the same token, I hate dark mode and prefer light mode. My experience resonates with this article, but it's not because of this article.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#306

Post by daveed »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #241

Wait. So. "Multiple studies show that light mode is better" trumps my actual experience, with my eyeballs, in my office environment? No. No it doesn't. 1. I don't have that much faith in scientists. Someone trying to p-hack their way to a publishable result that's sensational enough to advance their career is not going to produce good advice for me. 2. Even if they were perfect scientists, they're not using my eyebal…

Wait. So. Multiple studies showing that the earth is round trumps my actual experience, with my eyeballs, outside?

At least read the studies talk about and their setups, otherwise this kind of sentiment is what also gives us all sorts of out-there beliefs.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#307

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

I don't use it in my development environment. I tried it for a while, but didn't like it. Totally unscientific, visceral reaction, but there you go.

My preference is dark text on a parchment (off-white) background. Sort of like HN.

I've "trained" myself to weather uncomfortable stuff many times (for example, the keyboard that I'm using to write this very post is new, and I keep hitting wrong keys. That will stop, soon), so it wasn't just "old boomer no likee dark."

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#308

Post by bgeeek »

Maybe, maybe not. The thing that I prefer is choice, let people decide for themselves.

I prefer the option of having dark/dim modes when I have a migraine (yes, I shouldn't be using a computer then but sometimes you need to).

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#309

Post by Terretta »

dirkt wrote: post #274
squarefoot wrote: post #85

"Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?" Yes, it is. One thing is reading a newspaper in which text amounts to a good percentage of the available area, and the rest reflects ambient light, and a whole different thing is a screen with some text in the middle and the free area emitting white light right to my eyes, de facto saturating them. I would never read a white text on black paper newspaper, neither in the dark nor in th…

I am old enough to have written programs when "dark mode" was the default (black background and green or amber text, 40 columns, 80 columns if you were lucky), and I can tell you that light mode is much easier on my eyes. Black text (real black, not this fancy grey web designers seem to prefer) and white background on a properly adjusted monitor where the white doesn't blind you is my go-to since monitors became good…

By contrast, I am old enough to have written programs when "dark mode" was the default (black background and green or amber text, 40 columns, 80 columns if you were lucky), and I can tell you that dark mode is much easier on my eyes.

Convinced?

// Was and remain in the amber camp.

/// See also: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/dark-mode/

”... we strongly recommend that designers allow users to switch to dark mode if they want to — for three reasons: (1) there may be long-term effects associated with light mode; (2) some people with visual impairments will do better with dark mode; and (3) some users simply like dark mode better.”

And from a StackOverflow discussion:

Visual fatigue research: Unfortunately I could not find very much research which measured computer screen visual fatigue in comparison to black-on-white text as opposed to white-on-black. The only piece I could find was a short reference in "Reading text from computer screens" by Mills and Weldon (1987) from the journal ACM Computing Surveys. Section 4.1 of that paper, titled "polarity", goes over important works at the time, including this piece:

”In contrast to the results in these studies, Cushman [1986] found that subjects who read continuous text from positive contrast (light character) VDTs reported less visual fatigue (as measured on a subjective rating scale) than those who read from negative contrast (dark character) VDTs.”

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#310

Post by athenot »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #241

Wait. So. "Multiple studies show that light mode is better" trumps my actual experience, with my eyeballs, in my office environment? No. No it doesn't. 1. I don't have that much faith in scientists. Someone trying to p-hack their way to a publishable result that's sensational enough to advance their career is not going to produce good advice for me. 2. Even if they were perfect scientists, they're not using my eyebal…

Dark mode has 2 main advantages:

- Better rendering of hues. This comes in nice for things like syntax coloring, or photo editing. The eye is evaluating a color next to the absence of light, instead of next to washed out light.

- Less eye strain when ambient light is insufficient. Ideally the brightness of the screen should be within the same range of brighness as the surroundings.

In my home office, I have about 20,000 lumens of light shining in a relatively small space, at a temperature of 5000K. In other words, it's a sunny day in my office regardless of the weather or the time of day. A quick and easy way to figure out if you have enough light (or too much) is to step back and point your cell phone camera at your workspace. Take a photo without HDR mode. Can you make out details of what's on your screen AND its surroundings? For most people, the screen will be washed out because the ambient light is way underpowered. Dark mode is a good response to that situation.

With quality and variable lighting, you can have the best setup: use light mode during the day; switch to dark mode when it suits you, whether it be for a task that works better in that mode or for evening time when you prefer to start sending a signal of sleepiness to your body.

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