There’s a comp sci student I try to help but his entire ide is in light mode. He uses a macbook with full brightness on and it physically hurts my eyes. I use a Thinkpad with half brightness, night mode on, and dark mode everything.
Maybe his eyes are bad. I have astigmatism and especially the combination light text on dark background at low brightness is hard to read for me, because the letters “bleed out” (think like streetlights through a foggy window).
Interesting, I have minor astigmatism and have the opposite problem, a light background blurs the text for me while a dark background and white text is nice and crisp for me.
Astigmatism definitely has different orientations (a 360 degree angle figure) but it affects the direction the blurriness goes. Not the amount of it.
I also have it but not super bad. For me it’s still much better to have a little blurriness at night than burning my eyes out on a white background (thanks google for popularising the “white on light grey on white” design mantra)
They can and do. That’s what the optometrist is checking when they flip the little lenses around and rotate them and it’s obvious it wasn’t to change the focus. It doesn’t get more/less clear unless you have astigmatism when they’re flipping those ones (at least in the same way).
This is why I don’t care for monitor and tv reviews. The reviewers are like “you guys this shit has 2000 nits peak brightness!” and I’m just over here thinking that I wouldn’t use even a 5th of that peak.
From an objective point of view, if your phone has an OLED screen, it uses less energy to emit less light. So in that case, dark mode can matter in that it’ll save battery life.
That said, I’m seeing a lot of aesthetical defense.
It’s just easier to read light on dark, for so many. According to this, I should find light mode more accessible; but for myself and my legally blind friend, we find light on dark much easier to read and navigate.
Not all dark modes are created equal. Some dark modes use a color theme that is illegible for people with color blindness. Many dark modes don’t have enough contrast for the legally blind. Now, properly well designed dark themes with accessibility in mind will be more readable. But for some people with certain forms of blindness, black letters over white are more readable than what some apps and webpages implement as a dark mode.
Not OP, but if you want to peek at what the law considers decent design for this stuff, look up WCAG and AMA requirements on contrast. Not only will you have a better idea of what’s legible for folks, but you’ll be able to tell when a business or website isn’t following accessibility laws (they only HAVE to follow them if they’re government related sites or public services though, iirc)!
I can’t handle dark mode on most screens especially in daytime. It strains my eyes trying to read light text in dark background, even more so when there’s ambient light. I prefer a solarised light mode for IDEs, with anything else I make do. I’ve spent hours trying to find a usable dark theme for VS Code, and I’ve always ended up going back to light.
It depends on the context, but I often prefer light mode with screen brightness set to very low. Easy on the eyes. Never experience the shock of going from a dark page to a bright page. Bonus is that battery is rarely an issue for me (usually 80% remaining on normal days).
I have a theory that people who complain about light mode haven’t figured it’s possible to just reduce the screen brightness.
Lol seriously though, I’ve had so many people look at my phone and are like “JESUS YOU USE LIGHT MODE”
Like it fucking matters what I use lol
There’s a comp sci student I try to help but his entire ide is in light mode. He uses a macbook with full brightness on and it physically hurts my eyes. I use a Thinkpad with half brightness, night mode on, and dark mode everything.
Maybe his eyes are bad. I have astigmatism and especially the combination light text on dark background at low brightness is hard to read for me, because the letters “bleed out” (think like streetlights through a foggy window).
Interesting, I have minor astigmatism and have the opposite problem, a light background blurs the text for me while a dark background and white text is nice and crisp for me.
Maybe astigmatism can have different orientations, it’s a wrongly shaped lense, after all. And there are many false shapes for that.
Astigmatism definitely has different orientations (a 360 degree angle figure) but it affects the direction the blurriness goes. Not the amount of it.
I also have it but not super bad. For me it’s still much better to have a little blurriness at night than burning my eyes out on a white background (thanks google for popularising the “white on light grey on white” design mantra)
They can and do. That’s what the optometrist is checking when they flip the little lenses around and rotate them and it’s obvious it wasn’t to change the focus. It doesn’t get more/less clear unless you have astigmatism when they’re flipping those ones (at least in the same way).
I’ve liked light mode on a few things in the past, but dark mode feels so much easier on the eyes.
Could this be me…?
Yes but people say this to me about my phone
That’s me: I use a MBP, light mode (#ffffff) everything + Lunar for “overdriving” the XDR display brightness. Dunno why but I like it
This is why I don’t care for monitor and tv reviews. The reviewers are like “you guys this shit has 2000 nits peak brightness!” and I’m just over here thinking that I wouldn’t use even a 5th of that peak.
JESUS YOU USE LIGHT MODE
Yes, my child.
From an objective point of view, if your phone has an OLED screen, it uses less energy to emit less light. So in that case, dark mode can matter in that it’ll save battery life.
That said, I’m seeing a lot of aesthetical defense.
It also makes it harder to read the screen when its bright outside
How would dark mode fans know what’s it like outside
Alternatively, just find some frickin shade.
Why would I look for shade when I can see my screen on light mode just fine
How many puppy stragglings are you up to this year, buddy?
It’s just easier to read light on dark, for so many. According to this, I should find light mode more accessible; but for myself and my legally blind friend, we find light on dark much easier to read and navigate.
Not all dark modes are created equal. Some dark modes use a color theme that is illegible for people with color blindness. Many dark modes don’t have enough contrast for the legally blind. Now, properly well designed dark themes with accessibility in mind will be more readable. But for some people with certain forms of blindness, black letters over white are more readable than what some apps and webpages implement as a dark mode.
That’s fascinating! Where can I learn more about this?
Not OP, but if you want to peek at what the law considers decent design for this stuff, look up WCAG and AMA requirements on contrast. Not only will you have a better idea of what’s legible for folks, but you’ll be able to tell when a business or website isn’t following accessibility laws (they only HAVE to follow them if they’re government related sites or public services though, iirc)!
Thank you so much! I’ve astigmatism, and dark mode is definitely more easy to read, for me!
Automatic dark mode/night shift is the way to go, change my mind.
I can’t handle dark mode on most screens especially in daytime. It strains my eyes trying to read light text in dark background, even more so when there’s ambient light. I prefer a solarised light mode for IDEs, with anything else I make do. I’ve spent hours trying to find a usable dark theme for VS Code, and I’ve always ended up going back to light.
I only like dark themes, but on a phone they suck in the sun, so from time to time I switch it up just to see.
It depends on the context, but I often prefer light mode with screen brightness set to very low. Easy on the eyes. Never experience the shock of going from a dark page to a bright page. Bonus is that battery is rarely an issue for me (usually 80% remaining on normal days).
I have a theory that people who complain about light mode haven’t figured it’s possible to just reduce the screen brightness.
I like bright white text on a black background