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Hacker News needs a Dark Mode

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Hacker News needs a Dark Mode

#51

Post by dunham »

CharlesW wrote: post #24
baq wrote: post #4

Never understood the point of dark modes. Am I too old?

No. The primary benefit of "dark mode" is that it reduces eye strain for folks using their monitor at a brightness set too high for their environment. It can also just look cool, which is fine too. Dark mode myths are summarized here: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/dark-mode-chrome-android-ios...

I could go either way, but switching back and forth is hard on me, so I tend to go light because the web is light. (Also because a lot of dark mode stuff tends to be crazy low contrast.)

I do however use dark mode when reading in bed and wish there was a pdf reader that did it.

Re: Hacker News needs a Dark Mode

#52

Post by basch »

andreynering wrote: post #22

I know you mentioned you don't like extensions, but for those that don't mind Dark Reader is really useful: https://darkreader.org/ I have it setup to enable according to the system. Also, I use the whitelist mode, so I enable on specific websites instead of having it enabled for every one automatically. It's available on mobile via Firefox for Android!

for anyone trying this for a first time, after installing, click the icon, click more, and there are 4 ways to darkmode a site. filter, filter+, static, dynamic. youll find different ones work better for different sites. then go back to the filter tab and modify brightness and contrast. sometimes the filtermode that is not immediately the best looking "works" the best once fixing the contrast.

i prefer hc.yc and hckrnews.com in static.

Re: Hacker News needs a Dark Mode

#53

Post by onetom »

baq wrote: post #4

Never understood the point of dark modes. Am I too old?

the older i was getting the more i noticed that i can read light mode better than dark mode.

one day, when i was about 42 years old, sitting on a ferry on a very sunny day, i could hardly see my MacBook screen. switched to light mode and while the image was still a bit faint, it became totally readable.

I'm not using anything in dark mode ever since.

Re: Hacker News needs a Dark Mode

#55

Post by JohnFen »

kagevf wrote: post #15
baq wrote: post #4

Never understood the point of dark modes. Am I too old?

Maybe not old enough? ;-) I use to prefer light mode exclusively, but my eyes feel more comfortable with dark mode as I get older.

I'm a graybeard, but I find dark modes to be much more difficult to read than light ones. I've never really understood the appeal of dark modes (outside of just aesthetics), but I do understand that they have an appeal to some.

Re: Hacker News needs a Dark Mode

#58

Post by onetom »

what many of those hackers don't realize, it's that their dark mode theme is very hard to read at low brightness levels, so when they switch to some light windows, it pokes their eyes out obviously.

instead of forcing everything to be configured for dark theme, it would be a lot simpler to just drastically lower the brightness at night and keep using light themes.

one trick is to lower the brightness slightly dimmer than comfortable and let your pupils take 2-3 seconds to adapt.

another trick, on iOS/macOS, if you combine this with true tone and night shift, then your eyes will be strained even less!

Re: Hacker News needs a Dark Mode

#60

Post by andreynering »

basch wrote: post #52
andreynering wrote: post #22

I know you mentioned you don't like extensions, but for those that don't mind Dark Reader is really useful: https://darkreader.org/ I have it setup to enable according to the system. Also, I use the whitelist mode, so I enable on specific websites instead of having it enabled for every one automatically. It's available on mobile via Firefox for Android!

for anyone trying this for a first time, after installing, click the icon, click more, and there are 4 ways to darkmode a site. filter, filter+, static, dynamic. youll find different ones work better for different sites. then go back to the filter tab and modify brightness and contrast. sometimes the filtermode that is not immediately the best looking "works" the best once fixing the contrast. i prefer hc.yc and hckr…

Good tips!
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