Light Vs Dark Themes what is your preference?

Ever since Apple introduced Dark Mode on iOS and macOS I have adopted it with a lot of the apps I have created recently. And I usually change the theme on a website to dark as well. Like Twitter, YouTube and even dev.to.

Comments

[Cara (Borenstein) Marin]

I enjoy dark mode personally but contrast matters a lot. Really enjoyed this article by a designer at Superhuman on delightful dark themes. blog.superhuman.com/how-to-design-...

In particular, her point on avoiding smearing makes a huge difference. Smearing happens when you use pure black background with pure white text (or something close to it). The pixels blur together and it can strain your eyes.

[Andrew Baisden]

Good article useful reference for the next time I try to create a dark theme for something.

[Michael Fasani]

100% this! That's why I made a VS Code theme specifically for Coding in the Sun!
marketplace.visualstudio.com/items...

[William Henderson]

Dark mode but not too colourful - I like my themes to be dark but pretty unsaturated

[Sarah]

This 👆

Examples:

• Blog posts, articles, books, etc (basically everything that has more than a few sentences to consume): light mode the majority of the time. I have difficulties reading big chunks of text on a dark background no matter the contrast.
• Except when I'm having a bad headache, then dark mode for everything (where it's convenient to switch) cause the light makes it worse.
• Things like Twitter (short sentences, lots of input, usually on my phone), almost always dark mode by default.
• If I'm reading in bed with the lights off, often dark mode too so the light doesn't wake up my fiancée.
• On my phone I don't bother to switch from the default a lot of the time because the toggles aren't always easy to find and I don't have patience.
• Etc.

[Andrew Baisden]

I agree it comes down to the preference and context.

[Michal Bryxí]

90% of the time I use and prefer light theme. Unless it's really really really dark in my room, most dark themes are unusable thanks to poor contrast. I do love light & sun even (especially) when coding and the stereotypical "the display brightness is burning my eyes" is rarely an issue to me.

[Pacharapol Withayasakpunt]

macOS desktop? I use light mode regardless of dark mode being suggested.

PyCharm, I also use light mode, because of familiarity (in the past). Android Studio and IntelliJ are also light mode.

VSCode, I use Default Dark+. Tried several light themes, but they never stick.

For general web surfing (and app with preferences), I NEVER prefer dark mode.

dev.to is also default light.

[zhon12345]

I have always been a fan of dark mode no matter the time or place, I personally think that dark mode is made for anytime and anywhere. You can use it during the day or night and its more soothing to the eyes while light mode will make your eyes hurt when used in the dark. Plus I am just used to using dark mode as i have been using it for probably 2 yrs+.

[Michael Fasani]

Please do share it, That would be amazing :-)

I use Alfred for copy+paste plus some automation and what I want to complete is a simple workflow to switch everything from Light to Dark and back again. The terminal theme as well as browser, editor, everything basically. If I can, and when I get it figured out I will be sure to share it.

[Michiel Hendriks]

You know that they invented lamps, right?

[Giorgos Sarigiannidis]

In general, I tend to prefer light mode better. But I usually go with whatever is the software's default mode, because it's the one that gets the most attention and it's better polished, as it is not rare that small details are often get overlooked on the non-default version.

[Andrew Baisden]

Thats true many software programs are usually built with one theme in mind to begin with. They don't usually offer a variety from the start.