Saves your battery. Easy on eyes. Dark theme is just nicer, what am I missing?
Pretty much anytime I have to read some white or light grey text on a dark background it is punishing on my eyes and I end up with light-lines in my vision temporarily after. I’ve given up on entire websites because they only have a dark theme and the simplified read mode doesnt work. On occasion, when I really needed to read a lot of text from somewhere I will copy and paste into a word processor. Light mode, or anything with dark text on light background, doesn’t strain my eyes nearly so much.
Finally someone I can relate to! Every time I said dark themes hurt my eyes all my friends insisted it was the opposite.
Same here. Black text on white background is the best for reading. The only downside is how goddamn bright it is at night in bed. But I should probably sleep at those hours anyway.
saves your battery
Maybe, maybe not. For OLED screens, where the pixels themselves generate the brightness, then an overall darker image will save power. For LCD screens with backlights it’s the opposite: the backlight is always on and the lowest power state of an individual pixel is to let the light pass through unmodified - the part that costs power is turning the pixel 9n so that it blocks the light to make a black dot. So, your statement isn’t true for all (or even most) devices.
Next: I find bright text on a black background to be hardest and most jarring to my vision. Humans have been reading black text on a light medium for millennia; it is natural. Light mode, for me, is easier to read and least tedious for my eyeballs.
I also just think that a light mode look is more polished looking…cleaner.
Dark mode is harder on the eyes and harder to read.
The battery thing is not true most of the time and the rest is subjective.
What’s to say either dark or light is better in all cases all of the time?
Depends on if the display is OLED, right?
Kind of. An LCD display has one backlight which illuminates the entire screen with one brightness. So a black screen and a white screen will use the same amount of electricity if both screens are set to the same brightness, even though to us a white screen looks brighter. Using a dark theme won’t save any electricity, but it won’t use any more either.
Other display types use self illuminating pixels. Like OLEDs and plasma screens. So a screen which is mostly black uses a lot less electricity than a screen which is mostly any other color but black. Using a dark theme would use substantially less electricity.
Even a CRT would use less electricity if you switch to dark theme while still using one, because the cathode ray wouldn’t have to light up the black pixels.
Not entirely true for LCD. Some LCD displays have zones. And each zone with it’s back-light.
If a zone is completely dark (not grey or without even a single white pixel), the back-light will shut off.
However on phones, it is mostly a single zone.
Yeah that’s true. I’m glad that a big portion of all phones being released right now have oled screens, but it makes me miss the high quality ips LCD displays we used to get. Now you have the choice of a really sub par LCD, or an OLED/Super AMOLED display. I looked at the screen on my 2013 Nexus 7 and my Nvidia Shield K1 the other day and they hold up so so so well. It’s a shame I can’t just upgrade the internals. I’d kill for a Shield X1 or whatever chip will be going into the next switch.
Makes a lot of sense, thanks
My (possibly mistaken) understanding is that the vast majority of phones are AMOLED which does not have per pixel illumination. AMOLED is still considered superior because of physical thinness, efficiency, refresh rate, et cetera.
I like my phone to look nice and bright, dark mode just make it look so gloomy and makes me feel depressed.
Edit: Also, normally when you read on paper, its a white sheet and black text, reversing the colors just make it… odd.
Completely agree! Dark mode feels depressing. I actively avoid apps that don’t have a light theme.
This
For me both must coexist. The time light allows me to be able to see the development environment and the elements in situations when there is a lot of light (even if the monitor is anti-glare the light theme is better), while when the light decreases the dark theme does not “shoot a blinding light”.
Basically, light or dark? both.
Dark is not easy for all eyes. https://www.androidauthority.com/dark-mode-1046425/
I just toggle based on time of day / lightness of environment.
I find my eyes are more strained when using light text on dark backgrounds in a light environment (and of course dark text on light backgrounds are a no-go at night). The only exception to this is my phone, where the battery gains from oled makes dark mode the only option for me. I hope Kbin gets a nice light mode toggle that can follow the system theme in the future.Albeit dark themes are more beautiful, in a light environment during daylight, a light background with dark fonts is easier on your eyes.
Light theme in the day, dark theme at night. Switched automatically by sunset/sunrise time.
I never understood the cult mentality about it, it’s obviously better to automatically switch depending on light conditions around you.
I like dark themes, but not black themes. Give me a dark grey, dark blue/navy, dark purple, but black screen and white text is way too aggressive on the eyes.
Also, what happened that we only really get a “dark or light” theme these days if we beg the Tech overlords?
Back in the olden days of Windows 3.1, 95, etc, we could them the shit balls out of our computers. Suddenly 10000 years later, we have to beg Apple or some developer to give us pre-made themes? Sad.
Give me Hot Dog Stand or give me death!
I’m just annoyed about the lack of consistency in what products do and do not support a dark mode, especially when other products in the same suite do.
I’m limited to using MS Office at work and love that Word, Outlook, OneNote and Drive all have dark themes and a quick toggle button to check accessibility/accommodate light-lovers if I’m screen sharing… But why was Excel left out ☹️? And a bunch of other apps, like Planner and Forms.
It’s not even that. Applications should ask the desktop environment to present information, and not need to know about your colour choices. There’s no reason to have separate “modes” in different applications.
not a huge fan of dark mode on Office, something about the white background of the a spreadsheet or word doc contrasting on the dark ribbon and menus and stuff - too harsh for me.
I personally belong to the dark theme cult, but this spring we had to rent a flat for a while where ambient light conditions were just horrible. For the first time in my life I just HAD to use light themes everywhere because dark themes would just make my eyes hurt after a while. So maybe people who prefer light themes just spend most of their time somewhere with dim uneven lights?
I live in Australia, very sunny most of the year. Light theme feels like I’m shining a flashlight into my eyes even during the day. I just don’t understand light theme.
for the normies
I’m fairly normal, I think. Is it possible that some people just don’t know there is a better option? My partner had no idea and I had to set her phone on dark theme after she saw mine.
Depends on your device
My 5 year old laptop’s screen is so dim that on bright days you fully can’t see dark mode, but my phone and monitor work just fine on dark mode on all but the brightest days
True, I was thinking about phones only. Honestly I can’t imagine using Office in dark theme, but even my computer is set to dark themes wherever possible.
This does sound like me. I don’t use screens I bright light and prefer dark themes.
I primarily use dark themes but I do switch to light themes from time to time. To see better, give my eyes a break, or when in a dark room for too long are some examples. Also some apps just don’t play nice in dark themes.
while I would say I belong to the dark-theme cult, there are some applications/websites that I cannot get used to them in dark mode. Like github or slack for example in which everything else than they light theme looks strange in my eyes.
Here to agree. I use dark thème when it gets to night. Shifting automatically for sunrise and sunset, but when reading long strings of text. That’s a no-go, I have to shift into light mode for that exact same reason
