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Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

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Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#511

Post by docuru »

> When I was in the military, a key tactic of camouflage was to never, under any circumstances, expose yourself on a hilltop or similar, where your silhouette could be easily identified. A dark blob on a light background is far easier for the human eye to see, than the reverse.

I don’t think this is a good example. He is missing one important factor, which is lighting.

There is a back-light on screen, which make light colors pop out of the dark background.

While at night, since it’s in a low-light environment, our eyes can’t really see the colors.

I’m done reading!

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#512

Post by docuru »

docuru wrote: post #511

> When I was in the military, a key tactic of camouflage was to never, under any circumstances, expose yourself on a hilltop or similar, where your silhouette could be easily identified. A dark blob on a light background is far easier for the human eye to see, than the reverse. I don’t think this is a good example. He is missing one important factor, which is lighting. There is a back-light on screen, which make ligh…

P/s: If the writer compare light mode as a dark blob on a light background, dark mode should be showing a phone with light screen at night. It is pretty easy to see too

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#513

Post by coffeeling »

jodrellblank wrote: post #68
floatrock wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...buried 2 or 3 menu layers deep, using a magic sequence of three buttons to handle all the up-down/left-right multi-level hierarchical menu navigation complexities. One of Apple's biggest innovations imho was to make brightness +/- two of the default keyboard buttons. Every keyboard should replace their F-keys with brightness by default (seriously, who uses F-keys? It's wasted real estate.) TV's should do this too.…

> " One of Apple's biggest innovations imho was to make brightness +/- two of the default keyboard buttons " Microsoft copied this with the Surface Book (at least). And in typical Microsoft style, the dedicated brightness buttons control the brightness of the keyboard internal LEDs. Changing Windows' screen brightness is one of the metakeys + del/backspace, not indicated on them.

I just got a new Surface tablet, and the tablet cover keyboard's brightness buttons definitely control the screen, not the keyboard lighting.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#514

Post by neuralRiot »

dr_zoidberg wrote: post #483
taneq wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's actually a pretty fair point. What I like may not be measurably easier for me.

I'm gonna lean in to your side. I've noticed ever since switching to a dark theme in my code editor that at the end of the day my eyes feel less tired. BUT (and big one) on the glossy screen of my phone, dark mode feels more straining to the eyes... How can this be so? My notebook has a matte screen and barely reflects ambient light(s) back at me. I say barely to avoid saying "none" because surely someone will nitpic…

I use the pc mostly for music making and video/ photo edit, when i do so i like to work in an almost completely dark rook just some indirect lights, all the software i use has dark grey backgrounds by default, if i need to check something quickly on the internet the browser opens with a blank page (then it switches to dark or theme), that feels in my eyes like being in the nuclear test field.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#515

Post by dr_zoidberg »

neuralRiot wrote: post #514
dr_zoidberg wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm gonna lean in to your side. I've noticed ever since switching to a dark theme in my code editor that at the end of the day my eyes feel less tired. BUT (and big one) on the glossy screen of my phone, dark mode feels more straining to the eyes... How can this be so? My notebook has a matte screen and barely reflects ambient light(s) back at me. I say barely to avoid saying "none" because surely someone will nitpic…

I use the pc mostly for music making and video/ photo edit, when i do so i like to work in an almost completely dark rook just some indirect lights, all the software i use has dark grey backgrounds by default, if i need to check something quickly on the internet the browser opens with a blank page (then it switches to dark or theme), that feels in my eyes like being in the nuclear test field.

Pretty much the classic "waking up late night, oh my [relative/so/person you care about] texted me at night, let see what--MY EYES!" -- but on PC

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#516

Post by jackson1442 »

robotmay wrote: post #197

Dark modes are a choice. Light modes are a choice. Everyone is free to choose what they like, so trying to influence people one way or another, or criticising their choice, is unproductive. I live in Wales, a country where our default weather is "meh". I live on the dark side of a mountain. I work in a room with no external windows. Yes I use dark modes, and if you used light mode in my office I'd think you were a fu…

> Dark modes are a choice. Light modes are a choice

Though I generally prefer dark modes myself, something like this article might inform a developer as to which mode they will develop first and which they will set as a default.

Anecdotally, I prefer light-themed marketing landings with dark-themed application environments.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#517

Post by StillBored »

necovek wrote: post #255
nitrogen wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Emissive displays don't react to incident light in the same way as paper, even if they try. And they've been trying for a long time -- my grandmother had a TV from the 1970s with an ambient light sensor that would match the ambient color temperature.

They are always set too bright. I always wondered why are they simply not adaptive: you turn it on, and then set the brightness that you find comfortable. Then it adjust the brightness as ambient light changes by extrapolating from your chosen point. Better systems could let you calibrate multiple points, so they would interpolate instead if extrapolate, but even a single point calibration would be amazing. FWIW, I'v…

"FWIW, I've tried dark mode and have to enlarge font sizes to read stuff compared to using very dim setting on my screens and light mode."

I think the article mentions this indirectly, but then attributes it. Your pupils are going to adjust to the amount of light entering them a lot (most?). This means like a camera, a smaller hole will be less sensitive to focal problems.

So, unless you perfectly compensated for the amount of light coming from your display its likely the brighter backgrounds were dumping more light, reducing your pupils and making things clearer.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#518

Post by binrec »

onli wrote: post #340
taneq wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it? I mean, serious question - aren't they they same thing? What IS our subjective experience if not our conscious estimation of how we experienced the thing? Is it possible to think you're enjoying something when really you're not, and if so then what the heck does that even mean?

You can enjoy what you want. The article we are discussing has measurable claims: 1. Easier to read 2. Eye Strain 3. Battery savings Your subjective "studies" about that are irrelevant if you put them in contrast to proper scientific studies for those things - if you don't measure them properly. And that's not how you feel about it. That's what I was saying. And it does not matter for that whether you like dark or br…

Easier to read for whom?

I have pretty bad eye floaters, and they're more visible in bright light. Having crud bouncing around my entire field of vision does not make for an easy or strain-free reading experience, so I enable dark mode whenever it's an option. I found checking Zulip at work pretty unpleasant until I realized I could enable dark mode.

If you're running a scientific study and basing your conclusions on the average of all participants, you might not pick up on things like that. And if you're running a scientific study on people with normal vision, a sufficiently strict definition of "normal vision" guarantees that you won't pick up on that, although the studies in question probably didn't use so strict a definition.

Even if dark mode is "scientifically worse" for most people, whatever that means, it's a useful accommodation. In fact, the Nielsen Norman Group article that this post links to argue against dark mode recommends dark mode as an accommodation for people with vision impairments.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#519

Post by sukilot »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #484
taneq wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not saying you didn't change your assessment after new sensory input (which is fine), but did you truly, honestly, change how much you were enjoying the /exact same physical sensations/ based on how much your partner thought you should be enjoying them?

I changed because I attended to what I was eating, and it wasn't very good.

Or you changed because you were attending to what your wife was saying.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#520

Post by Poyeyo »

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…

> the color schemes for syntax highlight are subjectively less pleasing

I fixed that particular issue by making my own color schemes.

I am probably the only user, but this is OK.

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