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>Backlit displays give you eye strain Switching to a black background with white or gray text has pretty much eliminated this for me. Especially if you read at

>Backlit displays give you eye strain Switching to a black background with white or gray text has pretty much eliminated this for me. Especially if you read at night or at least have auto-brightness enabled. The problem I'm seeing is that we're treating digital devices as paper books. We use a bright white background which is shooting a lot of photos into our eyes and wondering why its an uncomfortable experience. I just don't think we've figured out the best way to make this stuff work. I doubt emulating books is the wisest choice here. I also don't see eink as our savior. The text always looked grainy and unfocused to me and the loss of color is inexcusable.

freehunter 12y ago
Do you use an OLED screen by any chance? A lot of Android phones have these, including some of the Samsung Galaxy phones. In OLED, the black pixels actually emit no light. With LCD, black pixels are just colored black, but the backlight is still emitting light. The reason I ask is because in the case of white-on-black with OLED, there actually is significantly less light coming out. With LCD, it's really only the appearance of less light (obviously that's simplified, there are ways to make LCD panels emit less light when it's showing black).
- mortenjorck 12y ago
  With LCD, it's really only the appearance of less light (obviously that's simplified, there are ways to make LCD panels emit less light when it's showing black) Whoa, hold on there. It’s not “the appearance of less light” - it is less light because the backlight is being occluded by the LCD subpixels. The subpixels aren’t perfect at blocking the light, thus the varying grays of LCD blacks versus the pure blacks of OLED, but a black LCD screen is most assuredly emitting (if not producing) less light than a white one.
  - freehunter 12y ago
    Man you even quoted the part where I said "obviously that's simplified". Black OLED pixels emit no light. Black LCD pixels emit > 0 light.

freehunter 12y ago

Do you use an OLED screen by any chance? A lot of Android phones have these, including some of the Samsung Galaxy phones. In OLED, the black pixels actually emit no light. With LCD, black pixels are just colored black, but the backlight is still emitting light. The reason I ask is because in the case of white-on-black with OLED, there actually is significantly less light coming out. With LCD, it's really only the appearance of less light (obviously that's simplified, there are ways to make LCD panels emit less light when it's showing black).

mortenjorck 12y ago
With LCD, it's really only the appearance of less light (obviously that's simplified, there are ways to make LCD panels emit less light when it's showing black) Whoa, hold on there. It’s not “the appearance of less light” - it is less light because the backlight is being occluded by the LCD subpixels. The subpixels aren’t perfect at blocking the light, thus the varying grays of LCD blacks versus the pure blacks of OLED, but a black LCD screen is most assuredly emitting (if not producing) less light than a white one.
- freehunter 12y ago
  Man you even quoted the part where I said "obviously that's simplified". Black OLED pixels emit no light. Black LCD pixels emit > 0 light.