Pretty much anytime I have to read some white or light grey text on a dark background it is punishing on my eyes and I end up with light-lines in my vision temporarily after. I’ve given up on entire websites because they only have a dark theme and the simplified read mode doesnt work. On occasion, when I really needed to read a lot of text from somewhere I will copy and paste into a word processor.
Light mode, or anything with dark text on light background, doesn’t strain my eyes nearly so much.
I personally belong to the dark theme cult, but this spring we had to rent a flat for a while where ambient light conditions were just horrible. For the first time in my life I just HAD to use light themes everywhere because dark themes would just make my eyes hurt after a while. So maybe people who prefer light themes just spend most of their time somewhere with dim uneven lights?
Saves battery only on oled, but that’s a valid point. and easier in eyes is highly debatable! I absolutely prefer light theme at bright environments but dark theme at night.
I have astigmatism, so dark mode is harder on the eyes when reading text. So, even though I like the aesthetics of dark mode, I need to use light mode to not put so much strain on my eyes.
Battery life is rarely a concern for me; with standard use, not charging all day, my phone is still usually above 30% when I go to plug it in before bed, dark theme is most certainly not easier on my eyes when my surroundings are bright.
What a backwards question. The world is light. Text is normally black or blue on white. There are no good reasons to turn your online experience into a dive into a well of darkness where you have to squint and strain your eyes to see the text.
On my phone, it changes to light/dark depending on day/night. For my work computer, it’s only light mode. The ambient light in my office is bright enough that it actually makes it hard to read text in dark mode. Light mode seems easier on my eyes
For me both must coexist. The time light allows me to be able to see the development environment and the elements in situations when there is a lot of light (even if the monitor is anti-glare the light theme is better), while when the light decreases the dark theme does not "shoot a blinding light".
Dark theme in low light, light theme in bright light.
Unless I can dim and darken the environment, sometimes light is just more legible. I switch to dark as soon as I can, but I don't turn it into a religion (I used to)
I like dark themes, but not black themes. Give me a dark grey, dark blue/navy, dark purple, but black screen and white text is way too aggressive on the eyes.
Also, what happened that we only really get a "dark or light" theme these days if we beg the Tech overlords?
Back in the olden days of Windows 3.1, 95, etc, we could them the shit balls out of our computers. Suddenly 10000 years later, we have to beg Apple or some developer to give us pre-made themes? Sad.
Maybe, maybe not. For OLED screens, where the pixels themselves generate the brightness, then an overall darker image will save power. For LCD screens with backlights it's the opposite: the backlight is always on and the lowest power state of an individual pixel is to let the light pass through unmodified - the part that costs power is turning the pixel 9n so that it blocks the light to make a black dot. So, your statement isn't true for all (or even most) devices.
Next: I find bright text on a black background to be hardest and most jarring to my vision. Humans have been reading black text on a light medium for millennia; it is natural. Light mode, for me, is easier to read and least tedious for my eyeballs.
I also just think that a light mode look is more polished looking...cleaner.
Dark themes aren't easy on the eyes. It's preferred when you're looking at a screen in a dark room, but you shouldn't be doing that anyway. When I have to look at a dark theme, I find myself squinting and straining my eyes. Light themes just look better too. Better to save your battery by lowering the brightness of your screen.
Bright text on dark background hurts my eyes. It's like it burns in on my vision. As another commenter says, it stays before my eyes after I look away
Dark text on light background feels natural, like a newspaper or a book. I use warm color temperatures after dark, it's very comfy.
When I read text in dark mode and look away I can still see an image of the text in my vision for several seconds. I don't know if that's bad or not but it keeps me in light mode most of the time.
Because I can't get it consistently. Better to have my eyes adjusted to constant light than be randomly blinded when whatever random site or app isn't dark.
Some types of application I prefer light, some dark. But the premise is wrong:
Saves your battery
Only if you're using OLED, which most people aren't, and by very little. You could save more battery by using a low-power mode when you don't need all the bells and whistles.
I just find reading on light mode much easier and comfortable, so i use it most of the time. I do use dark mode for programming, it doesn’t bother me there, but for most apps and websites the dark mode feels much more tiring.
I find it easier on the eyes plus I don't use Oled Screens so I'm thinking "why should I block all this light that my backlight produces anyway just so i have something that looks a little more aesthetic?"
I'm just used to it, I guess. I've never had an eye strain issue with monitors for some reason. I'm resistant to change. Moving to Lemmy from Reddit was a big deal for me, and not just because I had sunk 13 years into Reddit, just the idea of changing something I'm very used to... there was a reason I still used old Reddit.
EDIT: That said, I spent countless hours on my old Apple IIs with their famous green-on-black monitors.
I use both. I always have automatic dark/light mode enabled where possible controlled by sunset/sunrise. If it's light outside I just prefer light mode and when it's dark outside I prefer dark mode. Being in a well lit room it's easier on the eyes to use light theme.
The only time I use dark mode only is for Discord and IDEs.
I just toggle based on time of day / lightness of environment.
I find my eyes are more strained when using light text on dark backgrounds in a light environment (and of course dark text on light backgrounds are a no-go at night). The only exception to this is my phone, where the battery gains from oled makes dark mode the only option for me. I hope Kbin gets a nice light mode toggle that can follow the system theme in the future.
Dark mode just looks bad aesthetically, IMO. Maybe it's something to do with my ADD, but I can't focus for long on apps or pages using dark mode. They're boring to look at.
Dark theme gives me a massive headache after just 5-10 minutes and I think it's because the text is fuzzier to me. I'm not sure if it is astigmatism related?
Weird thing is that AMOLED dark on my phone doesn't bother me the same way.
Also colors in dark mode when I'm coding seem to blend together more so I am not as quick at picking up visual cues.
while I would say I belong to the dark-theme cult, there are some applications/websites that I cannot get used to them in dark mode. Like github or slack for example in which everything else than they light theme looks strange in my eyes.
I never understood why go dark only? We have a neat feature in almost all the device change depending on the brightness or sunrise, that is the way to go IMHO.
I have photophobia (and photosensitivity!) so dark mode is the only tolerable way to look at things for me.
Since dark mode has become a lot more prevalent/accessibile there's been a notable reduction in headaches/migraines for me, especially in conjunction with 'night light' settings, and an anti-glare glasses coating.
I primarily use dark themes but I do switch to light themes from time to time. To see better, give my eyes a break, or when in a dark room for too long are some examples. Also some apps just don't play nice in dark themes.
It depends on content also, when reading books I tend to use light mode with brightness lowered since it makes me easier to read and relaxed?, But for other content I mostly use dark mode
I recently switched to dark theme depending on the time and I would say the reason not to use dark themes entirely is you don't get the contrasts you can get with light themes, setting the mood and I guess 'theme'.
Here to agree. I use dark thème when it gets to night. Shifting automatically for sunrise and sunset, but when reading long strings of text. That’s a no-go, I have to shift into light mode for that exact same reason
Memmy has an option I love.
You can chose a any theme for system daytime and a different theme for nighttime. So I chose Dracula for day time and OLED dark at night. The full black OLED theme is too flat for daytime but the dark Dracula is perfect.