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Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

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Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#81

Post by redisman »

floatrock wrote: post #66
Scarbutt wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just change the brightness of the monitor twice a day.

...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.…

It's insane how monitor software hasn't developed an inch from the 90s. How hard can it be to have an open API for the basic controls at least so the OS can adjust them? Everything about my monitor is great - 144hz refresh rate, great viewing angle and colors - except if I want to change any of the physical properties (brightness, contrast) I'm clicking around on a variety of buttons that I can't see like I'm trying to set the clock on my VCR.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#82

Post by novok »

Apple started it to improve battery life for their OLED screen future. Even today there are a bunch of major apps that haven't implemented dark mode yet. You have to start early so devs migrate by the time it's majority.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#83

Post by chipotle_coyote »

Barrin92 wrote: post #22
ritchiea wrote: post #4

Customize your device for your comfort. Even if there are studies that show on average humans retain information better reading in light mode. That's merely the average! Variation is the only certainty in biology. It's good we have options. First I found I read my kindle more than physical books even though I prefer the look and feel of physical books. Then I found I read even more on my ipad with the kindle app show…

>Customize your device for your comfort. I think the better advice is, customize your environment for your comfort. Often the reason why people use dark mode is that they use their devices in badly lit environments . It's not a good idea to stare into a bright monitor in a dark room, and the dark mode is arguably the wrong fix for the problem. Reading in dimly lit rooms is known to cause headaches and eye strain and…

I've always had that same theory -- I generally prefer light mode to dark mode, and I've also always preferred working in well-lit rooms.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#84

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

>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.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#85

Post by squarefoot »

"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 the light, but I surely find dark mode on screens a billion times more readable than traditional light modes. Useable e-paper displays might change that one day, but the technology is still in its infancy.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#86

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

ganzuul wrote: post #70
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.…

Back in the day of CRTs there used to be a dial on monitors to set the brighness. Have you only ever used Apple computers?

Yeah, now the brightness controls are a touch screen themselves.

That’s not even a joke.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#87

Post by raz32dust »

Digging into the referenced source [1]:

> This result seems to suggest that, even though performance in light mode may be better in the short term, there may be a long-term cost associated with it.

So, don't start switching all your terminals and IDEs to light mode just yet. Also, this is just one study. Curious if there are more.

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

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#88

Post by themodelplumber »

aasasd wrote: post #76

Apparently light-on-dark is terrible if the person has astigmatism: the edges get very blurry and doubled. There was an article on HN about this, specifically about keynote slides. Also apparently “in Europe and Asia, astigmatism affects between 30 and 60% of adults” (says Wikipedia). I have it too, and couldn't figure out in the past why text sometimes looks horribly blurry and sometimes doesn't. With this knowledge…

Whoa. I just did a quick test with someone who has astigmatism. We switched between Dark and Light themes in Google Keep. They were pretty surprised and said the difference was noticeable, that letters blurred together more in Dark mode.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#89

Post by wildrhythms »

aasasd wrote: post #76

Apparently light-on-dark is terrible if the person has astigmatism: the edges get very blurry and doubled. There was an article on HN about this, specifically about keynote slides. Also apparently “in Europe and Asia, astigmatism affects between 30 and 60% of adults” (says Wikipedia). I have it too, and couldn't figure out in the past why text sometimes looks horribly blurry and sometimes doesn't. With this knowledge…

Wow, this explains so much. I use a light color scheme (think default Eclipse theme) in my editor, even during late night coding binges, because I can see the text more clearly. I also have an astigmatism. Maybe related, text rendering affects me tremendously as well, like Windows/Linux text rendering forces me to squint even when the text is normal sized; but I don't have to squint on Mac OS.
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