You Can Customize HN to Be Darkmode Friendly

Posted4 months agoActive4 months ago

Skullfurious

11 points

8 comments

Techstory

supportivepositive

Debate

20/100

Dark ModeBrowser ExtensionsUser Customization

Key topics

Dark Mode

Browser Extensions

User Customization

Basically just have ublock origin installed in your browser, click the icon, go into the settings, click My Filters on the top, and paste the following.

After you apply and reload the page you should have a Nordic style theme that's a bit easier on the eyes.

-------------------

! Darker page background + main text color

news.ycombinator.com##body, .c00:style(background-color: #1e222a !important; color: #c8d0d9 !important;)

! Top orange bar (nav/header)

news.ycombinator.com##td[bgcolor="#ff6600"]:style(background-color: #2a2f3a !important;)

! Body content background

news.ycombinator.com##[bgcolor="#f6f6ef"]:style(background-color: #1e222a !important;)

! Full black elements background

news.ycombinator.com##[bgcolor="#000000"]:style(background-color: #2a2f3a !important;)

! Hide spacing row

news.ycombinator.com##tr#pagespace:style(display: none !important;)

! Hacker News title link

news.ycombinator.com##b.hnname > a:style(color: #8fcadb !important;)

! All links

news.ycombinator.com##a:style(color: #7fbacb !important;)

! Subtext (e.g., posted by, time)

news.ycombinator.com##.subline:style(color: #8a9c8b !important;)

! Subtext links

news.ycombinator.com##.subline a:style(color: #7aa5a8 !important;)

! Score + top navbar links

news.ycombinator.com##.score, #hnmain > tbody > tr td:last-child > span.pagetop:style(color: #d0aa55 !important;)

! Site domain (.sitestr)

news.ycombinator.com##.sitestr:style(color: #b56c70 !important;)

!Shrinks the text input box on the submit page. (Flashbang reduction)

news.ycombinator.com##textarea[name="text"]:style(width: 400px !important; height: 30px !important;)

-------------------

I got the idea from another poster and modified it a bit. I don't know why the textbox on the submit page is a locked size. But other than that little quirk I find it a lot easier on the eyes.

If anyone knows how to change the submission boxes to be a different color that would be nice as well.

I thought there was a way to post code on HN but I cannot seem to figure out the formatting. Sorry about that.

The post shares a custom dark mode theme for Hacker News using uBlock Origin, and the discussion revolves around various methods for achieving a dark mode experience on HN and other websites.

Snapshot generated from the HN discussion

Discussion Activity

Light discussion

First comment

Peak period

1-2h

Avg / period

1.3

Key moments

01Story posted
Sep 2, 2025 at 11:02 PM EDT
4 months ago
Step 01
02First comment
Sep 3, 2025 at 12:05 AM EDT
1h after posting
Step 02
03Peak activity
3 comments in 1-2h
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03
04Latest activity
Sep 3, 2025 at 11:55 AM EDT
4 months ago
Step 04

Generating AI Summary...

Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns

Discussion (8 comments)

Showing 8 comments

WhereIsTheTruth

4 months ago

1 reply

Here is what I use:

    body {
        background-color: #262626 !important;
    }

    body > center > table, input, textarea {
        background-color: #222 !important;
    }

    body > center > table > tbody > tr:first-child > td {
        background-color: #ff6600 !important;
    }

    /* Bright text */
    td.title a:link, span.comment font, span.comment font a:link, u a:link, span.yclinks a:link, body:not([id]),
    td:nth-child(2):not(.subtext) > a:link, input, textarea, p > a, a > u, .c00, .c00 a:link,
    a[href="http://www.ycombinator.com/apply/"], a[href="https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/"] {
        color: #ccc !important;
    }

    .admin td {
        color: #aaa !important;
    }

    /* search box and comment box */
    input, textarea {
        border: 1px solid #828282 !important;
        font-family: "Jetbrains Mono"!important;
    }

SkullfuriousAuthor

4 months ago

Thanks I am about to try it out! I'll update the post when I get the chance for any future dark mode enjoyers.

shaunpud

4 months ago

1 reply

I was doing similar for a while but too many sites needed changes so I ended up installing and toggle Dark Reader where required. https://darkreader.org

Davidbrcz

4 months ago

And invert color images for the images (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/invert-image/)

southwindcg

4 months ago

A while back I thought of simply adding a CSS filter to turn the colors of the entire site inverted, but never bothered.

* { filter:invert(100%) !important }

I'm not sure if that would work on the text boxes or not, though.

rfarley04

4 months ago

Love it. Thanks

deafpolygon