Dark mode hurts my eyes and reliably gives me a headache. I can’t understand why anyone prefers to read white text on a dark field.
And dark mode users can’t understand how anyone could prefer light mode, so there you go.
Wholeheartedly agree.
We’ve been reading dark text on white paper for centuries, and now- people are saying that anyone that enjoys “day mode” is crazy.
So much so, that I once posted a screenshot of an issue I was having on my screen- and everyone jumped my ass because I was not using night mode.
My question was never answered.
EDIT: check the replies to this comment and you’ll see exactly what I mean. SO much butthurt!
Paper uses pigments, it just reflects the ambient light. Screens however actively emit light.
Let’s compare screens to sky. What is easier for your eyes, to stare at a flying airplane during daylight, or to watch stars at night?
Irrelevant. We are accustomed to dark text against light backgrounds. The is no argument here.
If we’re talking adaptation, then ‘centuries’ is fairly irrelevant given how long our generations are…
Also, hasn’t it really only been a small number of centuries where reading has become a regular and critical function for the majority of the population?
Combine that with the fact that it’s long been easier/cheaper to make a uniformly light-coloured ‘paper’ and dark ink, than the reverse.
Using our history of dark-text might just be allowing the technology of the times to drive the future.
A more interesting comparison might be that we started with dark displays and light text (amber and green-screens) and moved to white displays with dark text later on.
Was that change due to a desire to mimic the paper medium?
Was it down to the quality of displays at the time (light bleed on CRTs might have driven this flip from dark to light once uniformity and brightness reached useful levels)?
Or was it because more people prefer dark text over light?
Regardless I’d like to finish by virtually girding my loins, brandishing my digital spear, and warning everyone that they’ll have to pry dark-mode from my cold-dead hands.
Paper doesn’t emit light. It’s not even similar, let alone the same thing.
I use an ereader with black on white, but the lack of an option to use dark mode on a screen guarantees I never consider touch your app again. It’s eye cancer.
It’s literally 100% exclusively about where the light is coming from.
Combined, those articles link to one actual bit of research where they tested in a dark room with participants 6 fucking feet away from a 24 inch dim screen. That’s not even sort of representative of the real world.
But… all of those have to do with light (and are mostly clickbaity articles that do admit in the body of the thing that dark mode does reduce eye strain, limit battery drain on most handheld devices and lower the impact of blue light). When your big argument against dark mode is “well, it’s less eye-searingly uncomfortably, so it may induce you to use an application too much” I think us dark mode defenders can rest our case.
Try a black background on an OLED screen and you’ll probably understand.
I remember reading a while ago that there are people who stand up before wiping, and people who wipe before they stand up, and neither camp can fathom how the other does it. This is giving me that same energy.
This is in fact an unpopular opinion. You heathen.
Joking aside, when I was first learning HTML my teacher always hated when students inverted the colors to make a “darkmode” because she said it gave people headaches. So I guess it’s a thing.
Depending on how old you are, your vision also naturally dims as you age. This is also why stuff designed by older people is often blindingly bright to young people and vice versa. I’m willing to bet that if a survey was done it would show that the popularity of darkmode drops sharply as users age.
I’m 53 and I can’t stand non dark mode. So either I’m an outlier or your theory is wrong.
