Dark Themes
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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.
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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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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
From the other direction, unless I'm in a room with closed blackout curtains and no other sources of light what would kill my eyes is the brightness **difference** between a darkmode screen and the wall behind it.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius
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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
I had (I've since had curative surgery) cataracts and a white background drowned out the text, especially because the text color was not full black, but a softer, grayish black. Dark themes allowed me to read the text. It's as simple as that. Windows "Ease of Access" settings were fine up to a point. I found the "High contrast" settings ultimately unhelpful. The worst problem I had was with web pages. Browsers try to help but they can only go so far. Web apps such as JIRA, Confluence, etc., had no dark or high contrast mode. Before the surgery it was very fatiguing. At the end of the day I was usually wiped out.
Cheers, Mike Fidler "I intend to live forever - so far, so good." Steven Wright "I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met." Also Steven Wright "I'm addicted to placebos. I could quit, but it wouldn't matter." Steven Wright yet again.
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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
The pixels of an OLED screen only draw power when they are illuminated. Dark themes save energy, which is important for portable computers and phones. As people get used to dark themes on their phones, they are going to bring that preference across to computers. Where is my OLED laptop?!! I'm totally in the white-background-causes-eyestrain camp. You can turn the brightness of your monitor down to the point where black text on white background is tolerable, but then images look dark and lack detail. A dark theme makes just the text darker.
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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
The dark themes saved my eye sight. I was going blind from white backgrounds, too much LED light. I almost didn't pass my DMV eye sight test. I went black theme on everything, and my eyesight came back within a couple of weeks. Sort of like the old days or monochrome monitors with green text.
If it ain't broke don't fix it Discover my world at jkirkerx.com
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Reducing the brightness on my monitors to 50% at the very most (some to 25%) have caused me zero problems and I've been set up like this for decades. I can spend 16 hours a day in front of a monitor and I can't say eye strain is any issue. I'll be hurting after a 16-hour marathon, but from everywhere else. I'm not seeing the "fuzzier screen" and "focusing issues" you're talking about. All dark mode does for me is make the dust more visible when it's bright and sunny. Of course YMMV and that's fine.
Yup! Brightness at 25% on my ultrawide monitor and zero eye fatigue. I much prefer dark characters on a white page.
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A white background is better for my eyes these days. Bright-colored text and graphics (not images) moving on a black screen causes me headaches.
Kind Regards Just yesterday I set the text background to a yellow color similar to here I find it rather soothing after long use of Blue Theme in Visual Studio I also have difficulty tolerating dark theme though it appears impressive - _Cheerio_ My sympathies to the SPAM moderator