Saves your battery. Easy on eyes. Dark theme is just nicer, what am I missing?
Pretty much anytime I have to read some white or light grey text on a dark background it is punishing on my eyes and I end up with light-lines in my vision temporarily after. I’ve given up on entire websites because they only have a dark theme and the simplified read mode doesnt work. On occasion, when I really needed to read a lot of text from somewhere I will copy and paste into a word processor. Light mode, or anything with dark text on light background, doesn’t strain my eyes nearly so much.
Finally someone I can relate to! Every time I said dark themes hurt my eyes all my friends insisted it was the opposite.
Same here. Black text on white background is the best for reading. The only downside is how goddamn bright it is at night in bed. But I should probably sleep at those hours anyway.
I personally belong to the dark theme cult, but this spring we had to rent a flat for a while where ambient light conditions were just horrible. For the first time in my life I just HAD to use light themes everywhere because dark themes would just make my eyes hurt after a while. So maybe people who prefer light themes just spend most of their time somewhere with dim uneven lights?
I live in Australia, very sunny most of the year. Light theme feels like I’m shining a flashlight into my eyes even during the day. I just don’t understand light theme.
Depends on your device
My 5 year old laptop’s screen is so dim that on bright days you fully can’t see dark mode, but my phone and monitor work just fine on dark mode on all but the brightest days
True, I was thinking about phones only. Honestly I can’t imagine using Office in dark theme, but even my computer is set to dark themes wherever possible.
for the normies
I’m fairly normal, I think. Is it possible that some people just don’t know there is a better option? My partner had no idea and I had to set her phone on dark theme after she saw mine.
This does sound like me. I don’t use screens I bright light and prefer dark themes.
Light theme in the day, dark theme at night. Switched automatically by sunset/sunrise time.
I never understood the cult mentality about it, it’s obviously better to automatically switch depending on light conditions around you.
Saves battery only on oled, but that’s a valid point. and easier in eyes is highly debatable! I absolutely prefer light theme at bright environments but dark theme at night.
I get the impression that the preference for dark mode tends to be more common in Millennial/Gen-Z men.
As an older Gen-X, I cannot stand having dark mode on during the day or light mode at night. I use auto whenever it is available. I don’t know why!
My daughter and her female friends do not have dark mode during the day. My younger coworkers often have dark mode at work, but only the male ones.
I’m curious about those who use dark mode all the time: were you born after 1980 and male?
1995/m here and I exclusively use dark mode. Preferably white text on a black background (sometimes called LED dark mode). I’m not sure if your generation + gender theory holds but I will say that the games and software I played growing up used a combination of dark and light for UI and menus.
Interesting point, maybe people with more gaming growing up prefer the dark mode. Much of the gaming era came around after my time!
Nope. I grew up gaming and can’t stand dark modes
Female, born before 1980, prefer dark mode, no wallpaper.
I find that most apple users i know use light and android users tend to use dark. Apple users care less about customisation maybe? I was excited to finally get widgets on my work iPad. I told several apple friends about it and they just looked at me blankly.
Apple devices blend in very well with the environment. They adjust display brightness to the brightness of the environment, and with good precision.
For android I have seen only a few devices that even try to do that. Same for non Apple laptops.
No, I’m 49 and male. I only use light mode if I’m in bright sunlight.
Millennial woman here. Dark mode all day every day, but I’m also able to keep my office fairly dim. Unfortunately the main program I use for work doesn’t have a dark mode option.
Gen X woman here, I started using dark mode a couple of years ago when I was really suffering from Long Covid, and using any kind of screen was a trigger for fatigue so bad I’d need to go lie down and sleep before I collapsed. I read up on managing screen work with fatigue conditions, and dark mode was suggested. As soon as I tried it it was like loads of noise went quiet in my brain, and it just felt calmer. I also suspect I may be autistic and / or ADHD and this may also be a factor. I have to have everything on dark mode now, light mode just feels so shouty and loud.
Yes
Dark is not easy for all eyes. https://www.androidauthority.com/dark-mode-1046425/
The battery thing is not true most of the time and the rest is subjective.
What’s to say either dark or light is better in all cases all of the time?
Depends on if the display is OLED, right?
Kind of. An LCD display has one backlight which illuminates the entire screen with one brightness. So a black screen and a white screen will use the same amount of electricity if both screens are set to the same brightness, even though to us a white screen looks brighter. Using a dark theme won’t save any electricity, but it won’t use any more either.
Other display types use self illuminating pixels. Like OLEDs and plasma screens. So a screen which is mostly black uses a lot less electricity than a screen which is mostly any other color but black. Using a dark theme would use substantially less electricity.
Even a CRT would use less electricity if you switch to dark theme while still using one, because the cathode ray wouldn’t have to light up the black pixels.
Not entirely true for LCD. Some LCD displays have zones. And each zone with it’s back-light.
If a zone is completely dark (not grey or without even a single white pixel), the back-light will shut off.
However on phones, it is mostly a single zone.
Yeah that’s true. I’m glad that a big portion of all phones being released right now have oled screens, but it makes me miss the high quality ips LCD displays we used to get. Now you have the choice of a really sub par LCD, or an OLED/Super AMOLED display. I looked at the screen on my 2013 Nexus 7 and my Nvidia Shield K1 the other day and they hold up so so so well. It’s a shame I can’t just upgrade the internals. I’d kill for a Shield X1 or whatever chip will be going into the next switch.
Makes a lot of sense, thanks
My (possibly mistaken) understanding is that the vast majority of phones are AMOLED which does not have per pixel illumination. AMOLED is still considered superior because of physical thinness, efficiency, refresh rate, et cetera.
I like my phone to look nice and bright, dark mode just make it look so gloomy and makes me feel depressed.
Edit: Also, normally when you read on paper, its a white sheet and black text, reversing the colors just make it… odd.
Completely agree! Dark mode feels depressing. I actively avoid apps that don’t have a light theme.
This
I have astigmatism, so dark mode is harder on the eyes when reading text. So, even though I like the aesthetics of dark mode, I need to use light mode to not put so much strain on my eyes.
Really? I have astigmatism and have the opposite experience. Do you know why it’s more strain?
It has to do with halation. White text on a black background is blurrier than black text on a white background. There’s a nice accessibility description here.
Battery life is rarely a concern for me; with standard use, not charging all day, my phone is still usually above 30% when I go to plug it in before bed, dark theme is most certainly not easier on my eyes when my surroundings are bright.
For me both must coexist. The time light allows me to be able to see the development environment and the elements in situations when there is a lot of light (even if the monitor is anti-glare the light theme is better), while when the light decreases the dark theme does not “shoot a blinding light”.
Basically, light or dark? both.
I don’t know where you’re “getting easier on the eyes”. Light mode makes me feel so much more relaxed
so does dark mode feels opposite for you?
Not the first commenter, but yes. If I look away after looking at a dark/black theme post I see the text in my vision. It feels straining to read like that for prolonged periods of time.
Straining is a great way to put it, yeah.
Also kinda depressing
A lower contrast light theme is better for your eyes in brightly lit spaces. Lower contrast dark theme for dark or dim spaces.
Light theme for the outside boys that touch grass.
On my phone, it changes to light/dark depending on day/night. For my work computer, it’s only light mode. The ambient light in my office is bright enough that it actually makes it hard to read text in dark mode. Light mode seems easier on my eyes
Most comes down to contrast to background.
In daylight and with good displays, light theme is much easier on my eyes than dark theme.
At night, it depends whether the screen can be tuned down enough to fit into the environment, then it doesn’t make much difference.
If dark theme works for you in your setup, enjoy.
