6 ms·

I must be in the extreme minority, I always prefer light themes.

foepys 2y ago
Same here. I work in an office with lots of daylight and dark mode makes it actually very hard to see. Also, light theme allows for more distinguishable colors.
dijit 2y ago
I get horrified looks from my dev team when they look at my screen, but I typically use light mode for work, and I find it easier to read by a long shot. For dev work at home, I use darkmode, but I usually work in a less well-lit environment and for less time.
- ImPleadThe5th 2y ago
  Exactly. Light mode for coding in the sun. Dark mode for late night hacking.
tsumnia 2y ago
WIIIIIIIITCH! Just kidding ;D I'm actually studying my students' color theme preferences for lecture slides and I'm seeing that while a majority do prefer dark mode, there is noticeable chunk that still prefer light mode. I think some of it may involve time of viewing, but that is another research question I haven't explored quite yet.
- mmoskal 2y ago
  I think universally light when using a projector! But maybe nowadays it's remote or big LCDs...
- ramon156 2y ago
  I actually went back from dark to light! Feels pretty good
  - genewitch 2y ago
    I find it doesn't matter to me. Dark mode means I'm on a server 9/10 vis a vis code; otherwise I'm in notepad++ which is light mode. I wish the colors on notepad++ were a little darker, and someday I need to figure out why the stock gentoo color scheme looks the best to me, and try and recreate it elsewhere.
- PKop 2y ago
  In the daytime I prefer light mode, and at night I prefer dark mode. I think it's somewhat odd to have a preference inconsistent with the time of day.
  - bdangubic 2y ago
    how long have you been coding? I felt the same in my younger days but discovered over the years that dark mode much more gentle on my eyes.
    - PKop 2y ago
      Over 10 years. I used to be dark mode all the time, but in recent years I feel light mode in daytime is much clearer and doesn't clash with the ambient light which forces my eyes to strain more in daylight.
    - hakunin 2y ago
      Not the author, but I’ve been coding since the 90s and also ended up switching between light and dark depending on the time of day. The trick is to also adjust screen brightness. With light background you can lower overall brightness. With dark background if you’re in a well lit room, you have to increase brightness to the point where bright words on the screen actually shine too strongly in relation to the dark background. So it actually feels gentler when the background is light but screen brightness is dimmer overall.
  - johnm 2y ago
    Indeed this is the way. I also have variants of light and dark for different lighting conditions at night and day (particularly glare).
jisnsm 2y ago
I suffer from astigmatism and dark themes fatigue me a lot.
- david422 2y ago
  Same here, I think that's why I prefer light themes when developing. Although I like my terminals dark for some reason.
- lemper 2y ago
  same, mate. i'm not sure why people question or consider my preference (that actually affects my situation) as an unusual situation. haven't they ever seen a blind with a stick? to be exaggerating.
kleiba 2y ago
We're in the same boat, my eyes actually start hurting when I look at a light-on-dark screen for more than a couple of seconds. I'm just really glad that my web browser has a reader mode, or else there would be quite a few web sites (blogs etc.) that I could not read.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
cosmic_cheese 2y ago
For me my preference toward dark themes increased through the 2000s along with my need for syntax highlighting as I started writing more complex code. With light themes, syntax colors don’t “pop” nearly as well, giving me fewer visual anchors and making my eyes get lost in the code a lot more easily. That said, I’m not fond of super dark or pure black-based themes and prefer those with a 75% gray background (with 100% being black) or thereabouts. With pure black themes the code pops too much and it feels like it’s all vying for my eyes’ attention at once.
- herpdyderp 2y ago
  I've also found that light themes have issues with syntax color "pop". I always make my own!
dusted 2y ago
Yeah, I remember back when I was a cringy teenager and bought into all the propaganda about why darkmode was better for eyes and whatnot, so much stuff.. So I spent 15 years or so with darkmode, untile one day, i read somewhere that the evidence of darkmode being better was not just lacking, but that people read dark letters on a bright background faster and more accurately than the other way around.. Now this is the Internet, with a capital I so I won't back up that claim with any references, and it's not important whether anyone believes that or not, fact is, that day, I thought "hm" and I switched my editor back to light mode and thought "hm, this is fine too" and I kept it long enough that I discovered that I prefer it.. Now, my xterm, I do want white on black, but that's just something about how that bitmap font looks to my eyes, that makes me want it that way. But honestly, I don't get what the big deal is with either preference, it's not a big deal really.. black or white.. it's fine!
- maksimur 2y ago
  I use light mode during the day and dark mode from dusk till dawn. I do this because I find it more comfortable, not because I'm told by someone or a study that it's better.
  - dusted 2y ago
    that's fair, the study didn't convince me it was better, it just prompted me to switch back to white, because, actually, I don't know, and then I found that _if_ it made any difference, it was probably positive, but, even though I sit at the screen from dusk till dawn, I find no difference in how pleasant light or dark mode it, it just makes so little difference to me that I don't care :)
wincy 2y ago
I changed my home office to my “luminarium” where I’m using about 700W of LED bulbs to get my lux to around 10,000. It’s a necessity that I use light mode, it’s impossible to see dark mode. Also it effectively cured my SAD.
- wyre 2y ago
  700 real watts or equivalent watts?
  - illusive4080 2y ago
    700 real watts of LED has got to be intense. Also your room would be very hot.
    - Scene_Cast2 2y ago
      I routinely run 350 real watts, and go up to 1400 when I really need light. Helps with heating, but doesn't get all that hot.
      - chmod775 2y ago
        1400 Watt of LEDs is the kind of lighting you'll find atop a tall pole in a sports stadium. That's ~200,000 lumen, or about 10x as much as you'd need to light a large room really brightly. If you put that next to a skylight, it would make the sun look dim. It's certainly not impossible, but that's a lot for a single point light source. What are your rooms like? Do you live in a castle?
        Scene_Cast2 2y ago
        I have 2x SmallRig RC 350D [1] and Godox M600bi [2]. These are medium-spec videography lights that draw their rated power from the wall. Lux @ 3m is noticeably (10x) dimmer than the sun. I have tripped my breaker when running the setup, so I run from two outlets on two breakers. For my current (quite large) room, I'd love to upgrade to the 5000W lights (Nanlux Evoke 5000B or the Aputure STORM XT52), but electrical wiring would be a hassle. For a standard room, I find 700W to be sufficient. I also backed this project - https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/brighter-the-world-s-brightest-floor-lamp https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/brighter-the-world-s-brig... - been following them since their Show HN. [1] https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1729860-REG/smallrig_3960_rc350d_cob_daylight_led.html https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1729860-REG/smallrig_... [2] https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1715199-REG/godox_knowled_m600bi_led_monolight.html https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1715199-REG/godox_kno...
guestbest 2y ago
I’m actually moving to an extreme because of the busy colors on the screen attracting distractions, high contrast white on windows with Color Filters on grayscale. It’s like reading a newspaper. Now I just need to increase the window frame borders for the touch screen and it looks like eink
immibis 2y ago
In my opinion, dark themes are for when your monitor's brightness is set too high.
- jdyer9 2y ago
  I always struggled with loving dark mode, but I usually keep my brightness as low as tolerable without straining, and your comment made me wonder if it's related I do like dark mode if I'm working in a super dark room though
  - immibis 2y ago
    That's exactly why. A lot of monitors don't go dim enough for darker environments, so we make them even dimmer by showing a mostly black picture.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
tabony 2y ago
Dark mode is difficult to read for me.
winocm 2y ago
You’re not alone. I do the same, but often I keep the text editor in dark mode but the rest of the system on light mode to help provide contrast.
weebao 2y ago
I love how this went viral because of this thread lol. I do know some friends who prefer light mode too, so maybe an opposite effect of forcing your light-mode-fan opponent to code in dark mode? Dunno lol

Same here. I work in an office with lots of daylight and dark mode makes it actually very hard to see. Also, light theme allows for more distinguishable colors.

dijit 2y ago

I get horrified looks from my dev team when they look at my screen, but I typically use light mode for work, and I find it easier to read by a long shot. For dev work at home, I use darkmode, but I usually work in a less well-lit environment and for less time.

ImPleadThe5th 2y ago
Exactly. Light mode for coding in the sun. Dark mode for late night hacking.

tsumnia 2y ago

WIIIIIIIITCH! Just kidding ;D I'm actually studying my students' color theme preferences for lecture slides and I'm seeing that while a majority do prefer dark mode, there is noticeable chunk that still prefer light mode. I think some of it may involve time of viewing, but that is another research question I haven't explored quite yet.

mmoskal 2y ago
I think universally light when using a projector! But maybe nowadays it's remote or big LCDs...
ramon156 2y ago
I actually went back from dark to light! Feels pretty good
- genewitch 2y ago
  I find it doesn't matter to me. Dark mode means I'm on a server 9/10 vis a vis code; otherwise I'm in notepad++ which is light mode. I wish the colors on notepad++ were a little darker, and someday I need to figure out why the stock gentoo color scheme looks the best to me, and try and recreate it elsewhere.
PKop 2y ago
In the daytime I prefer light mode, and at night I prefer dark mode. I think it's somewhat odd to have a preference inconsistent with the time of day.
- bdangubic 2y ago
  how long have you been coding? I felt the same in my younger days but discovered over the years that dark mode much more gentle on my eyes.
  - PKop 2y ago
    Over 10 years. I used to be dark mode all the time, but in recent years I feel light mode in daytime is much clearer and doesn't clash with the ambient light which forces my eyes to strain more in daylight.
  - hakunin 2y ago
    Not the author, but I’ve been coding since the 90s and also ended up switching between light and dark depending on the time of day. The trick is to also adjust screen brightness. With light background you can lower overall brightness. With dark background if you’re in a well lit room, you have to increase brightness to the point where bright words on the screen actually shine too strongly in relation to the dark background. So it actually feels gentler when the background is light but screen brightness is dimmer overall.
- johnm 2y ago
  Indeed this is the way. I also have variants of light and dark for different lighting conditions at night and day (particularly glare).

jisnsm 2y ago

I suffer from astigmatism and dark themes fatigue me a lot.

david422 2y ago
Same here, I think that's why I prefer light themes when developing. Although I like my terminals dark for some reason.
lemper 2y ago
same, mate. i'm not sure why people question or consider my preference (that actually affects my situation) as an unusual situation. haven't they ever seen a blind with a stick? to be exaggerating.

kleiba 2y ago

We're in the same boat, my eyes actually start hurting when I look at a light-on-dark screen for more than a couple of seconds. I'm just really glad that my web browser has a reader mode, or else there would be quite a few web sites (blogs etc.) that I could not read.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

cosmic_cheese 2y ago

For me my preference toward dark themes increased through the 2000s along with my need for syntax highlighting as I started writing more complex code. With light themes, syntax colors don’t “pop” nearly as well, giving me fewer visual anchors and making my eyes get lost in the code a lot more easily. That said, I’m not fond of super dark or pure black-based themes and prefer those with a 75% gray background (with 100% being black) or thereabouts. With pure black themes the code pops too much and it feels like it’s all vying for my eyes’ attention at once.

herpdyderp 2y ago
I've also found that light themes have issues with syntax color "pop". I always make my own!

dusted 2y ago

Yeah, I remember back when I was a cringy teenager and bought into all the propaganda about why darkmode was better for eyes and whatnot, so much stuff.. So I spent 15 years or so with darkmode, untile one day, i read somewhere that the evidence of darkmode being better was not just lacking, but that people read dark letters on a bright background faster and more accurately than the other way around.. Now this is the Internet, with a capital I so I won't back up that claim with any references, and it's not important whether anyone believes that or not, fact is, that day, I thought "hm" and I switched my editor back to light mode and thought "hm, this is fine too" and I kept it long enough that I discovered that I prefer it.. Now, my xterm, I do want white on black, but that's just something about how that bitmap font looks to my eyes, that makes me want it that way. But honestly, I don't get what the big deal is with either preference, it's not a big deal really.. black or white.. it's fine!

maksimur 2y ago
I use light mode during the day and dark mode from dusk till dawn. I do this because I find it more comfortable, not because I'm told by someone or a study that it's better.
- dusted 2y ago
  that's fair, the study didn't convince me it was better, it just prompted me to switch back to white, because, actually, I don't know, and then I found that _if_ it made any difference, it was probably positive, but, even though I sit at the screen from dusk till dawn, I find no difference in how pleasant light or dark mode it, it just makes so little difference to me that I don't care :)

wincy 2y ago

I changed my home office to my “luminarium” where I’m using about 700W of LED bulbs to get my lux to around 10,000. It’s a necessity that I use light mode, it’s impossible to see dark mode. Also it effectively cured my SAD.

wyre 2y ago
700 real watts or equivalent watts?
- illusive4080 2y ago
  700 real watts of LED has got to be intense. Also your room would be very hot.
  - Scene_Cast2 2y ago
    I routinely run 350 real watts, and go up to 1400 when I really need light. Helps with heating, but doesn't get all that hot.
    - chmod775 2y ago
      1400 Watt of LEDs is the kind of lighting you'll find atop a tall pole in a sports stadium. That's ~200,000 lumen, or about 10x as much as you'd need to light a large room really brightly. If you put that next to a skylight, it would make the sun look dim. It's certainly not impossible, but that's a lot for a single point light source. What are your rooms like? Do you live in a castle?
      - Scene_Cast2 2y ago
        I have 2x SmallRig RC 350D [1] and Godox M600bi [2]. These are medium-spec videography lights that draw their rated power from the wall. Lux @ 3m is noticeably (10x) dimmer than the sun. I have tripped my breaker when running the setup, so I run from two outlets on two breakers. For my current (quite large) room, I'd love to upgrade to the 5000W lights (Nanlux Evoke 5000B or the Aputure STORM XT52), but electrical wiring would be a hassle. For a standard room, I find 700W to be sufficient. I also backed this project - https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/brighter-the-world-s-brightest-floor-lamp https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/brighter-the-world-s-brig... - been following them since their Show HN. [1] https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1729860-REG/smallrig_3960_rc350d_cob_daylight_led.html https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1729860-REG/smallrig_... [2] https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1715199-REG/godox_knowled_m600bi_led_monolight.html https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1715199-REG/godox_kno...

guestbest 2y ago

I’m actually moving to an extreme because of the busy colors on the screen attracting distractions, high contrast white on windows with Color Filters on grayscale. It’s like reading a newspaper. Now I just need to increase the window frame borders for the touch screen and it looks like eink

immibis 2y ago

In my opinion, dark themes are for when your monitor's brightness is set too high.

jdyer9 2y ago
I always struggled with loving dark mode, but I usually keep my brightness as low as tolerable without straining, and your comment made me wonder if it's related I do like dark mode if I'm working in a super dark room though
- immibis 2y ago
  That's exactly why. A lot of monitors don't go dim enough for darker environments, so we make them even dimmer by showing a mostly black picture.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

tabony 2y ago

Dark mode is difficult to read for me.

winocm 2y ago

You’re not alone. I do the same, but often I keep the text editor in dark mode but the rest of the system on light mode to help provide contrast.

weebao 2y ago

I love how this went viral because of this thread lol. I do know some friends who prefer light mode too, so maybe an opposite effect of forcing your light-mode-fan opponent to code in dark mode? Dunno lol