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Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

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Re: Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

#181

Post by inciampati »

erisinger wrote: post #87
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've noticed that most techies do prefer dark mode, and I also recall reading that techies are disproportionately night owls - I wonder if there's a correlation there. If I may be mildly unflattering for a moment, I think it's just a trendiness thing. Dark Mode looks more like a terminal and signals "I'm a real big-boy hackerman" or something. If someone has real data showing it actually causes less eyestrain or so…

Came here to say a variation of this. Dark mode is "cool" right now because it's still a relatively new thing. In five years when everything is dark mode by default this same poll would yield a totally different, maybe even inverse, result.

Maybe people who spend most of their working lives alone, staring at screens, are picking dark mode because it's comfortable, not cool. There is no one around to impress. It's ok if you don't get it, but that doesn't mean it's just a fad.

It's cool to be comfortable, and now easier. OLED screens invert the default behavior of a screen from light to dark. It'd be absurd to fight the comfort that this can provide.

Re: Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

#182

Post by antonyh »

Dark mode turns laptops into mirrors, especially if they are glossy. Any office that has overhead tube lights is a poor match for dark mode apps. I even go with light terminal schemes in this case, and I have a strong preference towards dark console apps.

It's even worse with laptops where screens are angled slightly towards the ceiling.

Same goes with IDEs - I use dark in the evening, when there's low light, and light schemes in offices - just to reduce contrast between screen and rest of world, and to eliminate mirror effects on the display.

Mobile apps however, light mode all the way! I just turn the brightness down. Glowing text is painful on small screens.

Re: Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

#183

Post by Izkata »

crazygringo wrote: post #107

Dark mode is great when you're using a screen casually close to bedtime and don't want a painful bright light. It's also great when you're doing image or video editing and need to be able to see full contrast in the dark areas, without being overwhemlmed by bright light surrounding. But it's objectively far worse if you're reading significant amounts of text, for the simple optical reason that light bleeds inside of…

> But with white-on-black, letterforms glow with blurry edges and connect into each other. Not on the screen, but on your retina. The same way streetlamps at night appear to have a halo. Words take more effort to read.

I, uh, don't see a halo. Never have. I see streaks/starbursts, kinda like this quora post [0], except I've seen streetlights like that my whole life (so I don't think it's an eye problem like they suggest). Maybe that influences why I find dark mode easier on the eyes? No blurring, but it's also not sharp enough to cause the starburst.

[0] https://www.quora.com/What-are-those-peripheral-rays-of-ligh...

Re: Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

#184

Post by inciampati »

lostlogin wrote: post #109
codetrotter wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What we really really need is cheap, high resolution, fast refresh eInk displays. I’m talking 27 inch, 4K resolution, color (even just 4096 colors might be enough for a lot of software development work) monitors running at 60Hz or higher, with eInk technology and backlight that can be dialed all the way from full brightness to no backlight at all, which should be sold at a price somewhere between the same and 2x to 3…

Laptop in the sun outside. It’s the dream.

I used to use my OLPC xo-1 this way. It was a dream.

E-ink screens can make dark mode irrelevant. But the market for them hasn't been built, and the tech isn't effective at fast refresh. Yet.

Re: Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

#186

Post by inciampati »

JohnFen wrote: post #120
__s wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a night owl. I prefer dark mode. It matters when you're staring at a screen for more than 12 hours a day

> It matters when you're staring at a screen for more than 12 hours a day I stare at a screen for more than 12 hours most days, but I strongly prefer light mode over dark, so I'm not sure the amount of screen time is what makes the difference.

People are different. Some can't handle the light. Some can't see as well in the dark.

As one of the former, I find I am also very sensitive to light at night. Seeing a bright light within an hour or two of bedtime will push the point when I fall asleep back significantly.

Re: Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

#187

Post by rsynnott »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #65
whack wrote: post #10

It seems that their data is mostly coming from their own user base (the discord data is biased as they admitted), which is mostly comprised of programmers and other techies. I don't know how far this generalizes to the rest of society. I personally like dark mode during night time, but almost always prefer light mode by default. There's just something about dark mode that is... gloomy and depressing. It feels like an…

> I've noticed that most techies do prefer dark mode, and I also recall reading that techies are disproportionately night owls - I wonder if there's a correlation there. If I may be mildly unflattering for a moment, I think it's just a trendiness thing. Dark Mode looks more like a terminal and signals "I'm a real big-boy hackerman" or something. If someone has real data showing it actually causes less eyestrain or so…

> Dark Mode looks more like a terminal and signals "I'm a real big-boy hackerman" or something.

I suspect this is a big part of it. The interesting thing is, terminal emulators flipped to light backgrounds when it became practical (for instance, see the Solaris X11 one, or, later, Apple's one). The reversion to white on dark was a later thing.

I'm inclined to blame Microsoft; their Windows terminal emulator never went dark on light (though, interestingly, their bundled telnet and modem clients did). I think they were afraid of breaking DOS software that made assumptions about the black background.

Re: Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

#188

Post by fhennig »

unglaublich wrote: post #164

After trying both light and dark themed interfaces for a few years, I concluded that for me there's only one setup that works: light theme with low brightness (monitor setting) and 'flux'/'night light'. That way, my monitor looks just like everything else in my office, like reading a newspaper. That's one of the many ergonomic improvements that help me stay alive.

Yes, I think that's the sanest choice. Also doesn't require a lot of theming (and some applications don't have themes) or other weird stuff (inverting colors on pdfs?).

Also reducing the backlight saves battery.

But I still think that a little bit more low-contrast would be nice.

Re: Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

#190

Post by yorwba »

sm4rk0 wrote: post #177
yorwba wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I usually have my phone at 0% brightness, but that I can still see something is a clear indication it's not actually 0%. The screen is still too bright for me if it's the only light source. Same for audio; I basically only switch between mute and minimum volume because everything above is too loud for me. I hate that there's no way to acess more fine-grained levels below the arbitrarily imposed minimum. I realize mos…

If you're on Android, you can use Dimmer to go below minimum brightness: https://f-droid.org/app/giraffine.dimmer

Thanks for the recommendation. Seems like it renders a partially transparent overlay to simulate a lower brightness setting. The notification bar remains unaffected, but I guess it's better than nothing.
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