Introduction
According to a survey, 70% of software engineers prefer a Dark theme IDE over the light theme. You will always a lot of dark theme in the popular theme section of any IDE. So why? Developers love the dark theme. So here I am going to list some reasons why I like the Dark theme.
1. Soothing to Eye
As obvious a dark theme helps us to focus on the screen without having irritation in our eyes. The dark theme doesn't make we go dry as compared to the white theme. During the low light situation, Dark theme is the most preferred theme.
2. More Concentration
Human eyes easily find something brighter in dark surround, it comes from our ancestor. So Dark Background helps us to see the font colour clearly in the editor. Also, the different colour for the different element is easily recognizable in the dark theme. It makes code easily readable because of contrast.
3. Save Energy
This point doesn't sound like an obvious reason but a dark theme help to save energy. It might be not a lot of energy but still, if you are working on the laptop for a long session it can be helpful. Also if most people use dark theme it will result in a large quantity of energy being saved.
I would love to know your reason to use a dark theme. You can tell your favourite dark theme also. Thank You guys for reading this blog post.
Latest comments (100)
It is actually scientific that the light theme (dark on bright) is more readable, has much better contrast and makes you more productive. Dark theme on the other hand makes you work much harder in order to comperehend what you are seeing.
Most of the developers use it because most of developers just like fads or what they think makes them cool.
Just like so many of them insist on coding on an Apple machine for no reason (even though Apple is cleary anti-developer and they basically use Chrome anyway), or think that developing with a half keyboard or 3/4 laptop keyboard (like in the ads you attached to your article) is not a really bad idea, or prefereing the obviously forced and very error-prone javascript language, or hating Microsoft even though it's one of the only companies that care about giving really good tools to them, etc, etc...
I have seen with my own eyes how my developers struggle with the dark theme (not seeing things, having a hard time reading) while insisting at the same time that it's better (because everyone else says it's better...)
The only valid argument is that it's easier on the eyes when you are in a dark room (but it's still less readable so it's a compromise), but how often does that happen anyway ?
I need to say that dark themes don‘t save energy per se! The LCD Displays have a back illumination and the liquid Crystal blocks the light for the dark pixels. They use the same amount of backlight if you have white or black background image. OLED Displays produce light per pixel and can save energy when you use a dark background. That is why they can save battery for the newer smart phones. Sorry, physics geek here.
Many people (only me?!) like to show off that cool setup with that pitch black dark theme 😂 😅
Everybody do 🤣🤣
In regards to point #3...
If you ask me, the premise that a dark-themed IDE will use less energy is problematic at best.
Popularised by Blackle, an energy-saving, dark-themed alternative to Google, the energy saving nature of dark themed apps mostly only applies to mobile phones with an (AM)OLED screen and computers running an old-fashioned box monitor.
The boxy CRT monitors of the 90's and early 00's, similarly to modern (AM)OLED screens, creates light pixel by pixel. That means that the more light that's created, the more energy used. Thus, the brighter overall look of a theme, the more energy used.
The vast majority of laptop screens and current desktop displays work differently. LCD screens start with a certain amount of light coming from a backlight. That light passes through a screen which dims certain pixels depending on how dark a theme is. Aside from screens with intelligent, multi-zone backlight dimming, the darker the screen doesn't mean less energy is used because the backlight is still on.
In addition to the backlight, the switching of the LCD pixels from light to dark uses energy. This can differ because some screens use energy to switch from light to dark, and then spring back to light when the power is removed, while others use energy to switch from dark to light. The former screens will even use more energy for a dark theme because it takes power to keep the pixels of the LCD screen dark.
Finally, I personally tend to turn up the overall brightness of my screen when using a dark theme so that the text pops out even more. In the case of an LCD screen that works exactly the wrong way for trying to save energy.
I can say that I'm looking forward to MacBooks with AMOLED Retina (or whatever the follow up to that will be) screens, so that black is truly black and dark themes will actually use less energy.
For now, though, you'll need to get a laptop that does have, or an IDE that will work on your AMOLED mobile phone :)
If you have a bad display, light theme might be better. Because bad displays cant do both good dark and light contrast at the same time.
Very cool :)
Currently I'm learning more about REST APIs, Firebase Auth, and creating some small projects to put on my Github.
Yep :D
Btw, how is WickedTemplates going?
Haha I try my best 😂😂
Fun fact: it actually takes more energy to display a dark image than a white image on LCD monitors.
OLED in screen can save energy
I used light Theme 😂
That's something surprising bit yesss it personal choice
😂😂😂
Probably won't save much energy unless you're running an OLED display
Yes, good point bro
Don't forget the bugs!
Soothing to the eye... that depends. A light background can be just as good. Spacemacs e.g. has a very nice light theme. I tend to use the light one during the day, and switch to the dark one in the evening.
No idea where you got that "more concentration" thing for, source please?
The energy saving point is a myth, unless you have an OLED screen, and even then the only way it saves energy is if you have the background set to completely black. And hardly any dark theme does that.
So, yea...
You have a point bro.
Easier on my eyeballs.
I didn't really like dark themes ... I always used the light "normal" theme or modified it to be more grayish.
Then, most of the development tools went the dark mode route by default and I felt it was too much trouble to change all of them so I stuck with it.
Now, I finally understand it was better all along and it was just that I was not used to it. I should have forced myself to use it years ago.
I hope now you Can adapt to dark theme era.
I like it now and I think I was wrong to be so reluctant before :D
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