Dark Mode Sucks

wow that was a huge waste of time, why write this or post it?

True. Use dark mode or don’t, but stop going on about it.

Without taking an extreme or absolutist stance on this issue, I generally agree with the author here. Dark mode should be reserved for after sunset and before sunrise.

The eyes are adapted to see daylight levels of light during daytime. If your ambient lighting and screen don't match this, then you're not using your body in the way it's evolved to function. What we need more of are screens with anti-glare and a wide range of brightness levels.

What might have a worse impact on your eyesight is the effects of Myopia, which is being exacerbated by basically every portable device with a screen. Anyone who has the technological literacy to enable dark mode (and advocate for it) is likely someone who gets above-average screen time and is therefore someone at a higher risk of myopia.

I kind of wish white showed up as that manila bookish paper color. I think my eyes read that better than white. But I dont mind dark mode either. I wouldn't never say its mandatory though

You do realize, people can be sitting in the dark right? Right?!

> your ambient lighting is crap . That will kill your eyesight

it is a myth that dim lighting negatively impacts eyesight long term.

It’s a godsend for people with legitimate vision issues, such as eye floaters.

I think providing both a light and dark mode is overkill, lead to odd bugs, and some weird color combinations. A lot of eng time lost here.

If I were 20 I'd agree. Dark mode is better on the eyes

What bothers me is when you copy something from dark mode, and then paste it somewhere normal and you see unreadable background-styled text ■■■■■■■■■■■■■.

I occasionally get requests from readers to add a dark mode to my blog - https://simonwillison.net/ - and I'm never sure how much priority I should give those, as someone who almost never chooses to use dark mode.

Dark mode fans: does it really bother you to read white web pages?

Just let people enjoy things, if you don’t like dark mode, don’t use it.

I view dark mode as basically an accessibility tool. Provide the option of light/dark mode to your users so they can choose what works best for them. I prefer dark mode for most things, but what I’ve actually found is that I just don’t like pure white backgrounds with pure black text. It’s just that a lot of light modes are exactly that.

This is the privileged majority punching down at minority, not unlike an abled person whining about the existence of accessibility options, or a native-born American complaining about government forms also having a Spanish section after the English section.

There's a reason that extensions like Dark Mode¹ have 10,000,000+ installs while no "Light Mode" extensions can even exist as far as I can tell: more or less the entire internet is already light-mode by default, with no option even provided by webmasters for dark mode for those who want it on a vast majority of websites.

What I can't comprehend is why the people who already have light mode as the default across the entire internet can't be content letting people with a preference for dark mode even exist without aggressively trying to erase the preferences of people who don't feel the exact same way as themselves.

Further, for anyone using OLED panels, which is a non-insignificant portion, black backgrounds reduce power draw and therefore global carbon emissions. Light backgrounds literally accelerate climate change, however marginally.

¹https://darkreader.org/

This is one of the worst class of articles that are posted on hn. These articles make very confident claims based on their own opinions, are extremely short and make no effort at all to back up their confident claims with any sort of reasoning or data.

Just make it configurable. It's not that hard. The only thing I want to hear less about than light vs dark, tabs vs spaces, is the dripping condescension of morning people.

Make it configurable and let people be.

  > let's not pretend it's just one variable change.

  > For example, where is the color palette defined?

  > That wouldn't be helpful anywhere outside of Wikipedia.

  > Maybe if you link to the Wikipedia page you're talking about that would help.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_News

  > That's not defining a color palette, which would probably go in CSS.

As someone who use an eink Android device frequently, I'd appreciate it if every website that uses dark mode by default to have a least a toggle between light/dark.

And do test that the toggle works properly for syntax highlight code blocks: for some websites, the toggle does not change the color of the code block and I had to resort to Chrome's reader mode.

I agree with the author - I'm sick of hearing the cliches from people who prefer 'dark mode'. But I remember long before there was 'light mode' and 'dark mode' there were themes based on a spectrum of hues and values - actual colors. Why not bring that back? "Light mode" can be way more bearable if it's not pure #ffffff. I dislike the invented dichotomy of light and dark anyway, there's an entire spectrum that designers can use, and I think apps in general would look way better if they took advantage of that.

Dark mode actually saves a lot of energy and thus battery time on mobile devices. It's more practical, cheaper, and good for the environment. I don't get the hate in this article.

I used to be one of those setting everything to dark mode, custom CSS and all, but I am now cured. It was a difficult time as my eyesight was rapidly deteriorating to the point that I thought that I would need to change carers to something not involving computers. I am so thankful that it is over. The source of the problem was that I had been consistently over-prescribed by different optometrists. I don't blame them, but something must be off in how they were trained. To avoid this issue, do not use regular progressive lenses in your eyeglasses. Instead ask for an "intermediate distance" formula optimized for the typical distance between your eye and the computer monitor. In practice this is a depowered formula supposed to be used only for computer used, but I used it all the time. On my next checkup my official formula had decreases confirming that it was too strong in the first place. I know don't have to use dark mode, and my vision is much better in general (I'm in my 50s). And don't over use your phones!!

Dark-mode and light-mode are both so popular as user preference, that apps and sites should make sure at least stock light and dark modes work well, out of the box. Noticeable examples of needing improvement:

* Default light and dark themes of programs/apps and sites that have illegible low-contrast color combinations. Very common, sometimes within themes they control entirely but apparently never tested both light and dark themes. (For example, the non-customizable foreground color a calendar program users to indicate task priority doesn't change when the theme changes the background color to dark. Or the terminal app thinks that yellow is a foreground color to use for highlighting warnings, and apparently the author has never heard of terminal windows with white backgrounds.)

* Bluesky's delayed page-loading full-screen interstitial of small butterfly logo against white backdrop, rendered when they know the session is in dark mode. If you've in dark mode in a dark room, winding down for bed at night, this is awful. I occasionally notice lesser problems like this with streaming video UIs, but not as consistently jarring/blinding as Bluesky. (Almost as awful as the movies/shows on home video streaming services that throw in gratuitous strobe light scenes. If it doesn't give the customers seizures, it stil can't be good for their sleep cycle. At least Bluesky's unnecessary sudden blinding white doesn't strobe.)

This assumes low light conditions are bad for the eyesight. Which _may_ be a thing for children, but that's where the science ends.

The best dark mode impl i ever saw: https://web.archive.org/web/20240101060519/https://tonsky.me...

"Dark Mode" is a theme, and themes are the lowest form of software feature.

I suppose you never heard of floaters, let alone experienced it.

Agree. For me it only works for IDEs and code editing, and even there with a carefully calibrated colour scheme and a (not too dark) grey background. Otherwise, it's like reading neon lights in the night. Anyway, as someone pointed out, our vision evolved to see dark signs against a lighter background, not to see light in the darkness.

I have eye floaters. Dark mode saved my career.

You don't like it? Don't use it.

Someone needs to read about the effects of artificial lighting

Even though most[1] 'Dark Modes' don't work for me (in the sense that everything just turns into a muddy blur and I can't make sense of anything anymore at all), I do realize that's entirely a personal thing, and I do make a point of respecting the user's preference in the apps and sites that I ship. Small price to pay for being neighborly, and a lot less passive-aggressive than "didn't anyone explain to you how to turn down your display brightness?"

[1] With the exception of that weird Windows 11 theme option that keeps the main window content 'light' yet turns most OS affordances 'dark' -- that one is oddly pleasing...

> Fix your lighting instead of bullying the rest of the Internet into eyesight-damaging practices.

Is there actually any evidence to support this claim? As far as I know, bright screen and dim room usually leads to eye fatigue and eye strain, but these are temporary issues. As far as I understood, any claims that computer work leads to long term vision problems are largely unfounded. Am I missing something here?

I only prototype in dark mode (my strong preference), to cater for both would be a waste of time.

Funny, I am sitting here in a dark nordic country, turned off my lights to vacuum about 15 minutes ago, with the dyson laser lol. I open HN and the first thing I see after my eyes adjust to the flashbang is this link at the very top of the page. :D

I've been convinced by my team that unified light mode is a good idea.

There's always a website, a person screensharing, a shared screenshot or something else that is light, and it WILL bother you if everything else is set to dark.

A dark thing in otherwise light settings doesn't produce the same issue, therefore adapting your settings for light work is more protective.

My main issue has been finding good light color schemes, particularly for neovim. Most have awful ideas like light yellow colors over light background, that I suspect come from just porting the dark mode to a light background as an afterthought. All of the themes I use have a few adjustments in my config.

This post is a self-described "rant" which doesn't contemplate why some people prefer dark mode (I prefer light mode myself), but let's make something constructive out of it:

Please consider the comfort of your users: sufficient contrast, sufficient text size, and when feasible, a choice of dark mode or light mode.

for what it's worth, my ophthalmologist recommended I use light mode only, with reduced blue and red (because red light actually activates the blue cones too apparently)

Then my screen time started affecting my sleep so I still use dark mode at night

But anyways all software should be configurable and follow the parent software (browser, OS) by default, css even allows for that now. There is even a "prefers-contrast" property in order to design for people who need high contrast stuff.

That article needs way more meat.

I’d recommend this classic for a read: https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/15142/whic...

Tl;dr dark text on a light background is usually easiest to read. Note in dark mode, you often see font bolded to compensate for the readability drop.

Almost ever major website dosent use dark backgrounds for text for a reason.

I personally like a dark mode UI (menu bars, dock, and so on), so it’s less distracting, but light mode for content.

The only dark mode I like is in my console of choice.

Unless I want to emulate a Solaris console, which has a lovely font.

Side note: if you're autistic -> this article isn't for you.

Have a look to the cursor website. Everything dark gray on dark background. I’m unable to use it without an extension to change color…

Yeah, dark mode is really worse for the eyes almost everywhere. I make an exception for terminals.

I tried many times to like it. When I used to have web conferences with my dev team, I'd have everyone use a light theme for their IDEs when I wanted to read code on their machines, because the clarity was so much better than with the dark themes.

it does, and so does using a screen in the dark. bright room, low brightness, high contrast, light mode - your eyes will thank you later.

  > If normal mode bothers you so much, it says one thing: your ambient lighting is crap

It's easier to change software than hardware. My screen only gets so dim.

It's easier to change software than the sun. Neither its brightness nor when its up or down.

Wikipedia, why the fuck do you have "auto" if it's not the default? I've never wanted to slap someone in the face so much.

But seriously, we can detect the desktop setting trivially. We have options!

We can both win here!

There's no reason for a war here, yet one still exists. Light mode sucks because the designers suck. Stop being so lazy. The vast majority of templates have an auto toggle! You have to go out of your way to remove it. If you're going to do things by hand, you have even less of an excuse. There's no "one size fits all" and it's clear there's significant numbers of people that like both styles. So do the "hard" work, especially when its not hard

Stop being so lazy.

And if you're mad at me calling you lazy for not adding the option, then you'll be more mad to know I think you're the problem.

Ironically, my eyes can't take dark mode and I suffer all the issues proponents of dark-mode use against normal mode with it.

I've had to install Stylish just to have control over those websites that think they know better than me on what's good for my eyes.

I rarely flag articles, but this one was garbage and made the cut.

Maybe I'm weird, but I just stick with whatever the default is per app. Discord and Spotify and MetaFilter dark, Slack and Gmail and HN light. It feels strange switching either to the non-default, but have no preference for either as a whole.

It’s just a preference. They really annihilated those strawmen, though.

Calling their preference “normal” is annoying. Clearly the alternative is quite popular given that they want to complain about it.

Any good program allows color customization.

Dark mode looks better on CRTs and OLED, screens that have real darks.

I was going to comment that it’s a bit weird that dark mode is viewed as a new or special option. But someone else already wrote a whole article on that point [1]

[1] https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/a-brief-history-of-dark-mode-fr...

There’s a significant lack of self-awareness necessary to criticize a group of people for using hyperbolic language and then rebut them with unsupported claims about “eyesight-damaging practices”.

No idea why this extremely poor "article" is getting so much attention on HN. There is a time and place for dark mode. For certain demographics, default dark mode may be more suitable than others. And letting the user change it covers all bases.

For example, on my site [1], I default to dark mode (not pure black though) and have settings for changing the theme to: Pure black, Light mode (white), and 2 custom themes which are off white, and a dark blue background.

I picked dark mode as default because my site is directed towards tech people (it's for STEM + Arts and Design) and thought dark mode works well for that theme.

[1] https://limereader.com/

This post makes me want to start a site to collect the worst-ever takes shared on HN. Right now this would be at the top of the list. ;)

I support the article's idea only because I believe that dark mode standardized modern layouts and in a way, killed creativity.

This article has barely any substance at all and its claim is unsubstantiated. Honestly, I'd hazard to even call it an article; it is four sentences and a fragment.

So does Youtube's new Theater Mode.

I've started using a sepia tone filter for my phone screen which solves this nicely for bright websites. It's in the accessibility settings and actually it's 25% opacity orange but really improves everything. Even dark mode websites look nice with it. It just evens everything out a bit and gives it a warm feel.

Anyway, point is, the onus is on the author of this rant to adapt to his circumstances. Not to expect everyone to change everything for him.

Ok you don't like dark mode.

I love dark mode, and I don't like light mode. Everything is dark mode on my machines, day and night.

I find it stupid to have so much light beamed into my face, and I prefer to only light up the useful signal. The letters and numbers, and graphs. The 99% of background is of no interest and as such it doesn't need to send light to my face.

I have no ambiant lighting. I have my window opened or the CO2 level gets bad. If I get lights, all the fucking insect existing in the forest will come in my room. Or I can get a fresh breeze while being on my PC in the evening.

With Dark Mode.

Yeah, yeah, it sucks. Unless you have some particular vision issues. Then it doesn't suck, but this enlightened opinion does.

I mean, there is not much substance in the article, but I agree. I don't like dark mode too much either. I read that people with astigmatism, so cylindrical sight, don't handle dark mode well. I'm not sure how true this is, but it definitely applies to me. I can't seem to properly focus on many dark mode UIs - with spreadsheet software being the worst.

What I found is that using light mode, reducing screen brightness, adequate ambient lighting, and applying a brown filter works really well. Each of these components add an immediate relief when I'm applying them.

Funny thing is, I'm experimenting with dark mode in some places. In my KDE, it seems to work well for me in general OS UI, and in my file manager. Also works well on my phone after dark.

What I especially dislike is the mixing of dark and light modes. For example, when everything is light mode, only the console, and the IDE are dark. Fuck that. For this reason, for many years, I had my console in light mode as well.

Dark mode is for when it's dark. People who use it at midday are quite mad in my opinion, unless it's Iceland in winter

I purposely switch to light mode for screenshots just to troll. And like a same person (not saying I am one just cosplaying) I adjust my windows to the ambient conditions.

Didn't expect Hacker News to be so easily rage baited.

It's not about light/dark mode, it's about giving both options and letting the user choose.