I'd also add for the defense of white themes that with OLED panels showing up everywhere (where dark pixels are effectively shut off), that a dark BG with light FG/text has quite a bit of a "halo" effect on the letters and this fuzziness wreaks havock on my eyesight/fatigue.
This is why prefers-color-scheme exists.
They also are constantly moving targets for any web designer who tries to keep up…
A lot of people use it on the regular and I have been lucky to have a lot of their feedback since I shared it here a few months ago.
I just added support for comments too! I'd love to know what folks think.
Th-thanks ...
You have to open up the settings drawer and you can have it match your system scheme.
I think dark mode can be deceptive. Blazing hot white text on a pitch black oled background is like visual caffeine to me. I would not want to be staring at this if I was adjacent to bedtime.
Dimming doesn't solve much.
I won't dim screen every time I switch apps. It doesn't work when you use multiple apps side-by-side (which is nowadays a thing even on mobile/tables). It doesn't bring relief to people that have visual problems that can be fixed with dark mode (I am super annoyed by floaters that I don't notice 95% of the time. Except from very bright websites like HN).
> Blazing hot white text on a pitch black oled background is like visual caffeine to me.
Same thing for me and my vision - I just can't use pure dark themes. But there is so much middle-ground here.
And: on iOS you can reduce the white point quite a bit which makes the display appear very dark indeed. You can even tie it to a shortcut which is quite handy
On Mac, there's an app old app that still works called Shady to get darker than normal.
Look it up.
It gives you an API, doesn't get in your way if you wanna add CSS. Everyone is free to consume HN as they they please, adding extra cruft really isn't in the spirit.
Basically this and prefers-color-scheme: dark https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23202647
That said, given the amount of time I spend reading on the site I do wish there was a dark mode option.
[1] - https://mirror.newsdump.org/hn-ublock-colors-other.txt
! dark mode (adapts to your browser preference)
news.ycombinator.com##html:matches-media((prefers-color-scheme: dark)):style(filter: invert(90%) hue-rotate(180deg))Automagic dark mode on every site
Is it just me who feels completely opposite? I struggle to read dark, text-heavy websites for the exact same reason.
Also, if dark mode ends up happening, please put the checkbox on the account page, the UI is busy enough :)
I have nothing against dark mode in principle, but please don't make it the default. Respect the user's preference.
Or, at the very least, don't use white on black. Soften the contrast so that, if you force me to read it, it's not burned into my vision.
Reading dark pages will never be as good as reading in a well lit room. But there are ways to make it work.