Dark Mode is an extremely popular feature to implement into your website using basic HTML, CSS and JS. So why don't you have it on yours yet? In three easy steps you can enhance your site to incorporate dark mode! Let's get started.
Table Of Contents
Step 1
Step 1
Step 3
Demo On CodePen
Step 1:
If you don't already have a website, simply create an HTML file.
<!-- index.html -->
<!DOCTYPE html>
<head>
<title>Dark Mode Feature</title>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
</head>
<body>
...
<body>
</html>
Once you have that lets implement the HTML and CSS
Step 2:
In the basic HTML form lets now input everything we will need. Start by connecting your JS and CSS file. add
<!-- index.html -->
<!DOCTYPE html>
<head>
<title>Dark Mode Feature</title>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<!-- ADD CSS FILE -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="main.css">
<!-- ADD JS FILE -->
<script src="main.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
...
<body>
</html>
Now we need to create those two files. Feel free to change the name of your css and
In the CSS file we'll add these lines of code.
/* main.css */
body {
background-color: white;
color: black;
}
.dark-mode {
background-color: black;
color: white;
}
Within the body we have specified that we want our default background to be white with black text. Then in the dark-mode class we've specified that we want want to change the background to black with white text.
Now we need to create the main.js file, the brain of our dark mode feature.
//main.js
function darkmode() {
const wasDarkmode = localStorage.getItem('darkmode') === 'true';
localStorage.setItem('darkmode', !wasDarkmode);
const element = document.body;
element.classList.toggle('dark-mode', !wasDarkmode);
}
function onload() {
document.body.classList.toggle('dark-mode', localStorage.getItem('darkmode') === 'true');
}
Once you've successfully created both the main.css and main.js files there's one last thing.
Step 3:
Though you may think you're done, you aren't. Ask yourself this very question. What if my website has multiple pages? how will each page stay in dark mode without returning to the default white background? The answer is far simpler than you think. In the initial body tag on each page add:
onload="onload()"
That's it. Hope this was helpful! Thanks for reading!
Top comments (29)
👋 Interesting approach but why not leave theme detection to browser?
Why not both?
And do the same check in the post but for a string via a switch. This also opens up the ability for different themes (maybe a dark mode that's actually light enough to blend in with the browser UI in dark mode, an amoled dark mode, a solarized mode, a few color-blind modes)
This is also a great way to do it!
Instead of
onload="onload()", I would prefer this, since you would only need to add one line to your page (<script src='script.js'></script>):But otherwise, this is great!
You should use event listeners if you want to be on the safe side
window.onloadcan be overwritten andeventlisteneradds an listener to the page and will not be overwrittenGood point. However for this demo I wanted to keep it simple. For those who are into JS and have more than one function set for onload, they should understand how it works. But eventlistener is a great alternative.
Definitely works too! Thanks for the tip!
welcome , my pleasure!
Hey Matthew,
Yeah I agree with you. The dark/light mode toggle is a really popular feature and can really enhance a website.
Just from an accessibility point of view, If I was to have a toggle on my website I would first let it default to my OS dark/light mode.Then as that changes on the site you could consider then to use local storage.
We have a media query in CSS called
prefers-color-schemewhich we can access in JS with window.matchMedia.web.dev/prefers-color-scheme :
This blog is really worth a read. It even talks about only loading CSS we need and not loading non critical CSS. You can also see the power of custom properties.
I will definitely read it because the preferred color scheme is a great feature to implement as well! Thanks Gary!
Thanks it really helped🙌
Not sure what browser your in. All edges work for me.
Is there something wrong with just using the DarkReader extension?
Nothing wrong with that. And never said there was. This is just one way to achieve dark mode.
I just wonder why people are wasting time coding in dark themes when modern browsers have extensions to do that.
You have a good point
Actually mobile web pages still need it.
Great post!
I'm from HelloGitHub, a nonprofit organization in China. I am reaching out to you to ask if it's OK for us to translate your posts, "Implement Dark Mode On Your Website.", into Chinese and publish it on our WeChat official account. You own the copyright of course.
How does that sound to you?
As long as my Dev.to profile is linked and I'm credited that would be fine.
Nice use of dark mode,
I've made a dark mode site please check it out here
d8wbyo.mimo.run/index.html
You have to click on clock's time display area to switch between modes :)
Love it!
Thanks :-)
What`s wrong with prefers-color-scheme: dark?
Nothing wrong with that. using preferred color scheme is great, but also great to have a toggle.
Valuable information 👍🏻👍🏻