It's not even about preferences for me. I can spend all day in light mode without eyestrain, without issue, very comfortably.
If I encounter a page that's dark mode (GUI), after about a minute or so, I start seeing spots before my eyes that stay with me for quite a while.
To wit... I use these two firefox extensions to convert pages from Dark Mode to Light mode. If one fails, the other usually finds success (I think they work in reverse too):
side note: I cannot explain why the terminal (FG/White; BG/Black) feels incredibly comfortable to my eyes. Maybe it's the larger font I use (80 columns = ~2/3rds of my 16" screen width), the right amount of contrast, the fixed spacing...?
Light mode for me. Dark is just weird, IMO. I don't get more eye strain from light like so many other people do. I also don't wear sunglasses when outside, ever. Maybe I've got strong eyes.
After several lifetimes of intentionally exposing myself to black/colored text on white, I switched to dark mode last week and haven't looked back.
With such an extensive time study, highly unlikely to be usurped any time soon, and the result being quite the opposite of what I set out to prove, we can all safely put this debate to rest.
A contributing factor is my keratoconus has had some kind of remission. Which is a good thing. At one point I had so many focal points in both eyes, without corrective lenses and before surgery, more than a dozen overlapping versions of text produced unreadable spaghetti. Unless it was a very tiny font from a distance, and then the glyphs only partially occluded each other, and I could I decode them.
Looking at one of those small bright electronics power LED dots across a dark room, I could see all my focal points in each eye, and focal webs meandering between them.
So I feel quite privileged to be able to use dark mode with unaided eyes now.
The theory is cool, but the ending is the practical part - there are system APIs to tell you which one the user prefers, so you can just make users happy and provide both options.
The fundamental mechanism seems to be that light mode causes pupils to contract by exposing the eye to more light. This decreases spherical aberration and increases depth of field just as using as smaller aperture on a camera lens does.
Staring into a light source that contrasts enough with the ambient light to contract my pupils is uncomfortable. I don't want to do that even if it makes me read faster.
Funny enough, I use HN as a gentler flashlight when I enter my bedroom after my spouse is asleep as it’s one of the few sites/apps that doesn’t have a dark mode.
Letting the use choose is the right answer. I’d go as far as to argue that in some sense, theming is an important accessibility feature because it allows users to adjust UI to meet needs that the developer may not have even known to exist.
It's not even about preferences for me. I can spend all day in light mode without eyestrain, without issue, very comfortably.
If I encounter a page that's dark mode (GUI), after about a minute or so, I start seeing spots before my eyes that stay with me for quite a while.
To wit... I use these two firefox extensions to convert pages from Dark Mode to Light mode. If one fails, the other usually finds success (I think they work in reverse too):
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/site-color-ch...
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/no-color/
side note: I cannot explain why the terminal (FG/White; BG/Black) feels incredibly comfortable to my eyes. Maybe it's the larger font I use (80 columns = ~2/3rds of my 16" screen width), the right amount of contrast, the fixed spacing...?
Light mode for me. Dark is just weird, IMO. I don't get more eye strain from light like so many other people do. I also don't wear sunglasses when outside, ever. Maybe I've got strong eyes.
After several lifetimes of intentionally exposing myself to black/colored text on white, I switched to dark mode last week and haven't looked back.
With such an extensive time study, highly unlikely to be usurped any time soon, and the result being quite the opposite of what I set out to prove, we can all safely put this debate to rest.
A contributing factor is my keratoconus has had some kind of remission. Which is a good thing. At one point I had so many focal points in both eyes, without corrective lenses and before surgery, more than a dozen overlapping versions of text produced unreadable spaghetti. Unless it was a very tiny font from a distance, and then the glyphs only partially occluded each other, and I could I decode them.
Looking at one of those small bright electronics power LED dots across a dark room, I could see all my focal points in each eye, and focal webs meandering between them.
So I feel quite privileged to be able to use dark mode with unaided eyes now.
The theory is cool, but the ending is the practical part - there are system APIs to tell you which one the user prefers, so you can just make users happy and provide both options.
Dark mode after sunset, light mode after sunrise, obviously. Just as nature intended.
I like light mode with lower screen brightness.
Light mode forever
The fundamental mechanism seems to be that light mode causes pupils to contract by exposing the eye to more light. This decreases spherical aberration and increases depth of field just as using as smaller aperture on a camera lens does.
Staring into a light source that contrasts enough with the ambient light to contract my pupils is uncomfortable. I don't want to do that even if it makes me read faster.
why doesn't HN have a dark mode feature?
Funny enough, I use HN as a gentler flashlight when I enter my bedroom after my spouse is asleep as it’s one of the few sites/apps that doesn’t have a dark mode.
orange on black was it in the olden times (except on ASR-33s. q.v. https://www.eetimes.com/feast-your-eyes-on-my-asr-33-teletyp...)
Bloomberg terminals are amber on black.
Dark mode on all LED screens, with blue light filter, at low brightness.
Dark mode at high brightness and light mode at any brightness on LED screens both give me migraines.
That said, light mode on non-emissive (e-ink, actual paper) is find.
day → light mode ⇒ less eye strain
night → dark mode with high brightness ⇒ less eye strain
What's the science behind this?
Trust me bro.
led dark, eink light
Gray Mode, obviously. /s
Seriously, the best UIs let users adjust things to their preferences instead of forcing one or two-polar-opposite choices.
Letting the use choose is the right answer. I’d go as far as to argue that in some sense, theming is an important accessibility feature because it allows users to adjust UI to meet needs that the developer may not have even known to exist.
Dark mode if your screen brightness is way too high. Light mode if it isn't.