4 ms·

> * only situation dark mode is better than light mode is when you're sitting in a dark room with your screen as your only light source,* Also maybe if you set

> * only situation dark mode is better than light mode is when you're sitting in a dark room with your screen as your only light source,* Also maybe if you set your screen brightness inappropriately high.

lukan 2y ago
Or if you are sensitive to light. I feel kind of traumatized for years of forced light mode everywhere. It hurts my eyes. In bright sun when outside, I use light mode. Allmost everywhere else, I won't. So please @everyone thinking like this, don't assume, what is best for me, because your taste is different.
jezek2 2y ago
Yeah, most people use their screens with brightness cranked up and then wonder why they have all sort of problems. The trick is to set a low brightness, in my case it's a little below what you would call comfortable, but that's because you adapt to it in a sec and will be perceived as good. If you can't set it too low on the monitor, set brightness to 0 and lower the contrast. If it's still too bright use also brightness/contrast controls in your GPU settings. It is also needed to adjust the settings during the day. But having a more controlled light in your room is a better option. Once you start getting comments from others that they can't see shit on your screen then you've set the correct level :) Another very often forgotten thing is to set up correct gamma correction! Yes that thing from CRTs is often needed on LCDs too! LCDs can produce quite big contrast which is unpleasant, for example I set mine to 1.3, fixed it nicely for me. One approach to find a good value is to have antialiased text both in white-on-black and black-on-white and switching between these. Once the apparent thickness is the same then you've got the right value. Beware of ClearType settings though, you may need to do the test with a classic antialiasing instead. The result is that you can comfortably use light mode in total dark room without any issues.
- LtWorf 2y ago
  I don't really want to spend 5 minutes every time to open the 25 menus my screen uses to change the brightness.
  - jezek2 2y ago
    Yeah monitor controls can be a problem. You can download an utility to set it from the computer, it's much more comfortable. I'm using one from my monitor vendor, but there are also generic ones. Search for utilities that can set the monitor using DDC (Display Data Channel).
Zak 2y ago
A difficulty is that the appropriate screen brightness varies with the content it's displaying. Going from a low-contrast dark site to a white background is especially jarring.
- jltsiren 2y ago
  Or from text and diagrams (which often contain large single-color areas) to photos and videos. The default HN color scheme looks much brighter than the bright daylight photo I currently have as a desktop background.
- jezek2 2y ago
  With a properly set monitor and gamma setting there is no issue with switching between light and dark mode at all (even in a pitch black room at night). I use it regularly, I prefer light mode but I also use dark mode for stuff like terminals. So I switch a lot between these. I have written another post about how to set the monitor: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42762770 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42762770
  - Zak 2y ago
    Your proposal is to decrease the dynamic range of the display. This will certainly achieve the goal of making switching between light and dark backgrounds more comfortable, but makes it worse for viewing photographs or videos. It's also not ideal when doing any amount of design, as most viewers won't have their screens set up the same way.
    - jezek2 2y ago
      Photographs and videos seems allright to me, maybe I'm just used to it. I like that the dark regions are visible (esp. when IPS LCDs have not that great blacks due to the backlight). I always hated it on CRTs where photographs were too dark, had to use a really big gamma correction on them (2.5), I guess I've got used to it from these times because it was a necessity to be compatible with LCDs. The photos and videos are more dull when compared to a reality, but consistent with other stuff on the screen. I have no problem doing color stuff for things like textures, website design etc. The relative comparison to other material is enough for me. I've been working with graphics designers with calibrated monitors and didn't get any complaints. But I don't do anything that requires working with calibrated monitors, like printing. Though it's hard to tell if it would be an issue. You need to do test prints anyway. You have to use specific named colors (Pantone). Based on that you can just imagine how it would look, no need to have it precisely shown all the time.

lukan 2y ago

Or if you are sensitive to light. I feel kind of traumatized for years of forced light mode everywhere. It hurts my eyes. In bright sun when outside, I use light mode. Allmost everywhere else, I won't. So please @everyone thinking like this, don't assume, what is best for me, because your taste is different.

jezek2 2y ago

Yeah, most people use their screens with brightness cranked up and then wonder why they have all sort of problems. The trick is to set a low brightness, in my case it's a little below what you would call comfortable, but that's because you adapt to it in a sec and will be perceived as good. If you can't set it too low on the monitor, set brightness to 0 and lower the contrast. If it's still too bright use also brightness/contrast controls in your GPU settings. It is also needed to adjust the settings during the day. But having a more controlled light in your room is a better option. Once you start getting comments from others that they can't see shit on your screen then you've set the correct level :) Another very often forgotten thing is to set up correct gamma correction! Yes that thing from CRTs is often needed on LCDs too! LCDs can produce quite big contrast which is unpleasant, for example I set mine to 1.3, fixed it nicely for me. One approach to find a good value is to have antialiased text both in white-on-black and black-on-white and switching between these. Once the apparent thickness is the same then you've got the right value. Beware of ClearType settings though, you may need to do the test with a classic antialiasing instead. The result is that you can comfortably use light mode in total dark room without any issues.

LtWorf 2y ago
I don't really want to spend 5 minutes every time to open the 25 menus my screen uses to change the brightness.
- jezek2 2y ago
  Yeah monitor controls can be a problem. You can download an utility to set it from the computer, it's much more comfortable. I'm using one from my monitor vendor, but there are also generic ones. Search for utilities that can set the monitor using DDC (Display Data Channel).

Zak 2y ago

A difficulty is that the appropriate screen brightness varies with the content it's displaying. Going from a low-contrast dark site to a white background is especially jarring.

jltsiren 2y ago
Or from text and diagrams (which often contain large single-color areas) to photos and videos. The default HN color scheme looks much brighter than the bright daylight photo I currently have as a desktop background.
jezek2 2y ago
With a properly set monitor and gamma setting there is no issue with switching between light and dark mode at all (even in a pitch black room at night). I use it regularly, I prefer light mode but I also use dark mode for stuff like terminals. So I switch a lot between these. I have written another post about how to set the monitor: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42762770 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42762770
- Zak 2y ago
  Your proposal is to decrease the dynamic range of the display. This will certainly achieve the goal of making switching between light and dark backgrounds more comfortable, but makes it worse for viewing photographs or videos. It's also not ideal when doing any amount of design, as most viewers won't have their screens set up the same way.
  - jezek2 2y ago
    Photographs and videos seems allright to me, maybe I'm just used to it. I like that the dark regions are visible (esp. when IPS LCDs have not that great blacks due to the backlight). I always hated it on CRTs where photographs were too dark, had to use a really big gamma correction on them (2.5), I guess I've got used to it from these times because it was a necessity to be compatible with LCDs. The photos and videos are more dull when compared to a reality, but consistent with other stuff on the screen. I have no problem doing color stuff for things like textures, website design etc. The relative comparison to other material is enough for me. I've been working with graphics designers with calibrated monitors and didn't get any complaints. But I don't do anything that requires working with calibrated monitors, like printing. Though it's hard to tell if it would be an issue. You need to do test prints anyway. You have to use specific named colors (Pantone). Based on that you can just imagine how it would look, no need to have it precisely shown all the time.