One line - Dark Mode using CSS

This is an absolute no-brainer method of converting an already developed website to support dark mode.

Without further ado let's get into it! 👾

Consider this news application for example

Now add the magic CSS

html[theme='dark-mode'] {
    filter: invert(1) hue-rotate(180deg);
}

Voila! you are done ✌

Dark mode achieved

Explanation

Now let's try and understand what is going on under the hood.

The filter CSS property applies graphical effects like blur or color shift to an element. Filters are commonly used to adjust the rendering of images, backgrounds, and borders. (Reference: MDN Web Docs)

For this dark mode, we would be using two filters namely invert and hue-rotate

invert filter helps to invert the color scheme of the application. So, black becomes white and white becomes black and similarly for all the colors.

hue-rotate filter helps us with all the other colors that are not black and white. Rotating Hue by 180 degrees, we make sure the color theme of the application does not change but just attenuate the colors of it.





The only catch with this method is, it will also invert all the images in your application. So we will add the same rule to all images to reverse the effect.

html[theme='dark-mode'] img{
    filter: invert(1) hue-rotate(180deg);
}

and we will also add a transition to the HTML element to make sure the transition does not become flashy!

html {
    transition: color 300ms, background-color 300ms;
}

Result:



There we have our Dark mode implemented. Great job guys!

My days are fueled with coffees and only coffees. So I know, you know what we all should do 🤞

Comments

[Ross Angus]

This is a wonderful post.

[Akhil Arjun]

Thanks mate 👍

[Nemo]

Awesome trick! Thanks Akhil. ☺️

[Akhil Arjun]

You are welcome 🕺

[Trieu.iv]

I'm trying
Thanks 👍

[Akhil Arjun]

Do let me know how it goes 🙂
I have used it in a demo application i am. Building for another PWA tutorial
akhilarjun.github.io/news-peek/

Check it out for implementation of the dark mode 👍

[Jáder Carvalho de Medeiros]

Excellent! Could you please share the JavaScript code to toggle between themes as well?

[Akhil Arjun]

I am writing a post for the javascript side of it too. Will post it today itself 🙂

[Akhil Arjun]

Please check out the post-

Dark Mode - Unmistified! 🐱‍👤

Akhil Arjun ・ Aug 3 ・ 3 min read

#beginners #css #tutorial #webdev

[Nick Watton]

This is wonderful. So simple. Thank you

[Akhil Arjun]

Am glad it helps 😊

[Samuel Amagbakhen]

Wonderful post, mate

[Akhil Arjun]

Glad you liked it !! 🕺

[technikhil314]

if you want full greyscale dark mode then use invert(1) greyscalle(1)

[Akhil Arjun]

Yes, but the only downside to it is that even the images go greyscale

[technikhil314]

Yeah agreed.

[Gavin Sykes]

Would that be such a bad thing? I've always thought having them do that would be pretty cool.

[Akhil Arjun]

Oh! yes, it would be. I once worked for a client where the dark mode had everything greyscaled. It was awesome 😎 It's just that not every UX would work better that way. So it has to be informed decision

[Sodeeq Olamide]

This is very amazing, I'm surprised to realize to know that achieving dark mode on one's site is simpler than I thought

[Akhil Arjun]

Well, they say a magician should never reveal his tricks. Maybe I am just a bad one 😂😀

[Mohammad Fazel]

Fantastic!

I shared it on my twitter account (putting credits).

Let me know if there's a copy right problem.

Thank you, peace.

[Akhil Arjun]

Hey nopes. Have at it bro 😎✌

[Dimas]

Hello!
That is amazing simple decision!
Great! Thank you very much.
But it is also converted all my background images...
Is it exist any option for filter them?

[Akhil Arjun]

Yeah. You have to apply invert filter again on images to re-colorize them and turn back the hue a whole of 180deg.
We can do that by selecting all images so

html[theme='dark-mode'] img{
    filter: invert(1) hue-rotate(180deg);
}

[Paul Phillips]

I think he was referring to CSS background-image not img's

[Akhil Arjun]

I get it. Well, there are a couple of ways we can achieve that too. If it is just a div with a background-image set. Then applying filter would not be a problem there, but if that element has some content then the filter might affect it all too. So we might have to check for specialized solutions.
There is a beautiful article on css-tricks regarding the same css-tricks.com/apply-a-filter-to-a....

Hope that helps 😀

[Dimas]

Yes, correct.
I found only the way to add extra "non-dark-mode" class to turn them back...