Dark Themes
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Nostalgia... I was a ZX Spectrum kid.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Dark themes for Visual Studio and other dev environments become more and more popular. There must be some good reasons for it. I thought that was hard to read. I still prefer the traditional light theme with a white background.
TOMZ_KV
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I hate them for that - CP included. There are third party browser add-ons that can create dark themes but: 1) They suck if the original fonts are not black and the background is not white; 2) I don't trust a third party free add on that accesses the HTML I'm viewing and modifies it on the fly. Dark themes should be an accessibility feature on par with screen readers compatibility.
GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
[Dark Reader - Chrome Web Store](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dark-reader/eimadpbcbfnmbkopoojfekhnkhdbieeh?hl=en) Does a pretty good job on a lot of sites :)
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Been using the dark theme for a long time now, I can't imagine going back to the light one, it's a bit hard on the eyes now. Besides, light attracts bugs :P
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Dark themes for Visual Studio and other dev environments become more and more popular. There must be some good reasons for it. I thought that was hard to read. I still prefer the traditional light theme with a white background.
TOMZ_KV
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dandy72 wrote:
All dark mode does for me is make the dust more visible when it's bright and sunny.
That makes me swear a lot.
dandy72 wrote:
I'm not seeing the "fuzzier screen" and "focusing issues" you're talking about.
If I lower the brightness too much I start seeing as when reading in low light, so the strain from the light is reduced but I have to strain to focus, If I don't lower it enough it's useless - I spent 7 years stuck with VisualStudio 6 and tried every possible combination. The relief I feel when moving to a bright white tanning lamp like CP to my dark themed VS feels like entering an air conditioned room in a hot summer day. I love my e-reader because it has a grayish backgorund that doesn't reflect light, with the bare minumum of backlight (about 2-3%) it's perfect. I also moved Acrobat Reader to a grayish background and it helps a lot. I also have a lazy eye so all the strain is concentrated to the good eye, which makes me fairly sensitive. When I transitioned to photocromic lenses my everyday life improved dramatically.
GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
Maybe I've lucked out with the monitors I've been buying over the decades. Or maybe if you saw, in person, what I'm looking at, you'd immediately see the same problem, and I'm just not seeing it because I don't know any better, so to speak. And because I keep the brightness so low, I have a hard time with apps that are in dark mode...so maybe the solution for me is to increase the brightness back to "normal" levels so dark mode is readable again, and leave it at that. But, until I decide my current setup is no longer working for me, I'm happy not spending the time fiddling with settings until I find some alternative.
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Maybe I've lucked out with the monitors I've been buying over the decades. Or maybe if you saw, in person, what I'm looking at, you'd immediately see the same problem, and I'm just not seeing it because I don't know any better, so to speak. And because I keep the brightness so low, I have a hard time with apps that are in dark mode...so maybe the solution for me is to increase the brightness back to "normal" levels so dark mode is readable again, and leave it at that. But, until I decide my current setup is no longer working for me, I'm happy not spending the time fiddling with settings until I find some alternative.
Comfort is king. Once you find your sweet spot, effing around with settings can only worsen the experience.
GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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Dark themes for Visual Studio and other dev environments become more and more popular. There must be some good reasons for it. I thought that was hard to read. I still prefer the traditional light theme with a white background.
TOMZ_KV
As with most things, the answer is "it depends" I find light-on-dark easier to read most of the time, but have recently written a small systray app to switch the overall windows theme between light and dark (and much of my software follows) so that when I'm working outside (which I've started doing because the weather is quite pleasant), I switch to a light theme, to be able to see what's on my screen more effectively. There are some points to ponder in this discussion though, including plain-old-preference and light sensitivity (I find bright colors on the screen to be rather harsh - even light outside can be a little much sometimes, but I feel like I adjust to it better once I'm actually out there - so perhaps it's more of a contrast issue)
------------------------------------------------ If you say that getting the money is the most important thing You will spend your life completely wasting your time You will be doing things you don't like doing In order to go on living That is, to go on doing things you don't like doing Which is stupid. - Alan Watts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gXTZM\_uPMY
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Just glad we don't use CRTs anymore. The blue background of the Turbo Pascal IDE couldn't have been great for my eyes.
My memory of Turbo Pascal was yellow text on a black background, which I quite liked. I set Turbo C up to be the same. I do find dark themes work well for me, though.
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Tomz_KV wrote:
There must be some good reasons for it
23" of pure white light shot straight into my eyes will fatigue my eyesight in less than an hour, causing extreme migraines and a progressive loss of eyesight. Turning down the brightness makes the screen fuzzier and causes focusing issues due to background lighting. No amount of blue light reduction helps shielding from a lamp pointed straight at my face KGB interrogation style. Black/gray background eliminates most of the eye melting effect and allows for very bright characters, increasing contrast and thus visibility.
GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
Are you sitting in a dark environment?
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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Dark themes for Visual Studio and other dev environments become more and more popular. There must be some good reasons for it. I thought that was hard to read. I still prefer the traditional light theme with a white background.
TOMZ_KV
Dark theme for dark environments, light theme for light environments. But you really shouldn't work in a dark environment.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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Ehhh. I don't know what too close is. It's not backlit, it's QLED so it's not as bad as older screens.
Real programmers use butterflies
QLED is backlit. But it uses LEDs for backlight as opposed to vacuum tube lamps.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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Tomz_KV wrote:
There must be some good reasons for it
23" of pure white light shot straight into my eyes will fatigue my eyesight in less than an hour, causing extreme migraines and a progressive loss of eyesight. Turning down the brightness makes the screen fuzzier and causes focusing issues due to background lighting. No amount of blue light reduction helps shielding from a lamp pointed straight at my face KGB interrogation style. Black/gray background eliminates most of the eye melting effect and allows for very bright characters, increasing contrast and thus visibility.
GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
I wish CP had a dark theme
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013 -
Dark themes for Visual Studio and other dev environments become more and more popular. There must be some good reasons for it. I thought that was hard to read. I still prefer the traditional light theme with a white background.
TOMZ_KV
People get older. White light dazzles because when you are no longer young, the vitreous humor of the eye is disorganized and manifests halos in the presence of intense light and filaments that seem to fly. Adopting a dark theme minimizes the effects of an eye that is no longer perfect. The programmers who are no longer very young, those with the experience necessary to manage non-trivial projects, are getting older and older.
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Are you sitting in a dark environment?
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
I am sitting in a way too bright environment. Light on background + light means that everything is washed out and I can't see anything, but with the light of a million Suns carving its path into my brain.
GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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QLED is backlit. But it uses LEDs for backlight as opposed to vacuum tube lamps.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
Oh. I did not know that. I thought LED screens didn't need backlight.
Real programmers use butterflies
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Oh. I did not know that. I thought LED screens didn't need backlight.
Real programmers use butterflies
They need it because LEDs are bright. If you don't backlight the screen you would get bright colors much more aggressive on your eyes and bleeding out in the neighboring dark pixels, creating artifacts and glares on a pixel by pixel basis. So you keep a backlight and lower the intensity of the LEDs. A non backlit LED screen with a dark mode would look like a lot of pinpricks slammed in your eyeballs.
GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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Oh. I did not know that. I thought LED screens didn't need backlight.
Real programmers use butterflies
QLED is still an LCD, but with LED-backlighting. It's marketing. More here: QLED vs. OLED TVs: What's the difference anyway? - CNET[^]
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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They need it because LEDs are bright. If you don't backlight the screen you would get bright colors much more aggressive on your eyes and bleeding out in the neighboring dark pixels, creating artifacts and glares on a pixel by pixel basis. So you keep a backlight and lower the intensity of the LEDs. A non backlit LED screen with a dark mode would look like a lot of pinpricks slammed in your eyeballs.
GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
What?
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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Tomz_KV wrote:
There must be some good reasons for it
23" of pure white light shot straight into my eyes will fatigue my eyesight in less than an hour, causing extreme migraines and a progressive loss of eyesight. Turning down the brightness makes the screen fuzzier and causes focusing issues due to background lighting. No amount of blue light reduction helps shielding from a lamp pointed straight at my face KGB interrogation style. Black/gray background eliminates most of the eye melting effect and allows for very bright characters, increasing contrast and thus visibility.
GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
I have good outcomes with the nightlight feature which knows when the sun will rise and automatically turns it off. It does both reduce brightness and applies a blue light shield. Still, I use dark mode as often as it's offered because it's still better than the night light.