How many of you use light or dark mode or both?

[MrMobodies]

I have noticed something and thought I'd run a survey and discussion first to verify if my suspicions are true or not.

I would also like to know from you, your reasons as to why you either prefer white or dark mode or even both.


Thanks.

[UnijunctionTransistor]

Dark mode seems easier on my tired eyes.
But there are apps where reading the text seems easier in light mode.
Thus I have mixed modes.

[thm_w]

I only ever use dark mode. Overly sensitive vision.
Some apps its a pain though, altium, excel, etc. I'd be changing the colors that end up on printouts and that other people see.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389945725005180

[abeyer]

I used to switch depending on context and what I was doing... but have found most dark modes less legible as my eyes have gotten older. All light mode for me now.

Your poll choices confuse me though, I'm supposed to fit into exactly one of "Web developer/graphic designer" (aren't those two completely different things?), "User", or "Other"? Who isn't a user? and who besides web developers and graphic designers isn't an other?

[brucehoult]

I don't see a category for "programmer" so I went in "other".

I'm 100% light mode, all the way, ever since the ICL Perq / Apple Lisa / Apple Macintosh introduced high resolution, high contrast, and HIGH REFRESH RATE black on white displays. All three had 60 Hz non-interlaced displays.

I think people who don't like light mode either have inferior displays, or simply have the brightness turned up WAY too high.

I just checked and I have my current Philips 328P (bought in 2018) monitor set to 12% brightness 75% contrast. I probably haven't adjusted that in 3 or 4 years. On some monitors I use 1% or 2% (maybe even 0%) brightness.

Light mode was painful on a VT100/VT220 etc or the equivalent DG Dasher D200/D210/D400 (I mostly used a D210 in 1985-1987, before getting a Mac II at work). I tried light mode on them but the flicker killed my eyes.

But the Mac, especially ... BOOOM. Light mode is perfect, especially on mono/grey screens. I stuck with large "full page" (640h x 864v) and "two page" (1280x864) grey scale displays as my main screen (with a 640x480 secondary colour screen for video) through into the PowerMac 6100AV. Those large (for the day) displays had 72 Hz or 75 Hz refresh rates, and were a distinct improvement on the original Mac.

I didn't switch to colour as my main display until after December 1995 when Apple introduced a 17" Trinitron "AppleVision 1710" that could do 1152x870 at 75 Hz. FINALLY a colour display with a resolution and quality I could replace my two page greyscale with and not feel pain.

In the last 20 years I've been using first a 2004 Apple 30" 2560x1600 display starting in maybe 2006 or 2007 (bought used), and then standardised on Samsung or Philips 32" 4K (3840x2160) when those came out around 2015.

Before the LCD era Windows PCs were almost universally unusable for long periods of time in light mode, but I've been using light mode exclusively on Macs for more than 40 years.

[MrMobodies]

Your poll choices confuse me though, I'm supposed to fit into exactly one of "Web developer/graphic designer" (aren't those two completely different things?), "User", or "Other"? Who isn't a user? and who besides web developers and graphic designers isn't an other?

There is a reason and I'll tell you why now it is in relation to this thread:
https://forum.openwrt.org/t/excessive-gui-overlay-dimming-on-large-parts-of-screen-behind-dialogues-and-modals/251247

I am pleased they helped me and provided a solution with Stylish which I appreciate thank you very much so it remains calm and light at all times.

#modal_overlay {
   background: none !important;
}

I am starting to think that those who develop webpages or work on them, whether it'd be a web developer or graphic designer involved with web page design, maybe working in dark mode not actually realizing the effect of dimming overlays have especially when they are implemented excessively for someone using it in light/normal mode.

I use to suspect this was deliberately done under the impression the the user was stupid and confused and the information behind dialogue overwhelmed them but not it looks to me like those implementing it may not be aware of the eye strain excessive use of these things can cause in the opoositing light mode.

A dimming overlay may show minimal effect in dark mode as it is already dark and not much may suddenly change in terms of brightness/contrasty effects so those working on UI design in dark mode may not notice and think they are helping users to focus according one of the reasons someone explained.

Now what if it was the other way round, say in dark mode there is a light overlay in some package that whitens the background and goes back to dark excessively after every dialogue/modal or message, now wouldn't that annoy you and strain your eyes?

I was expecting there to be more dark mode majority than light mode to support me theory.

If you like I could separate them in the polls and let them remove their vote so they can revote?
I have separated developers and graphics designs and added some more. I can't find the option to allow voters to remove the votes so they can revote and I thought saw that when I was setting up the pole other than reset back to 0.
Sorry about that.

Unfortunately I find with dark mode is that I can't read the text as easier compared to a white background which is a shame.

So I thought I'll run a poll and see what others use and experience.

[Someone]

I'm 100% light mode, all the way, ever since the ICL Perq / Apple Lisa / Apple Macintosh introduced high resolution, high contrast, and HIGH REFRESH RATE black on white displays. All three had 60 Hz non-interlaced displays.

Same here.

I think people who don't like light mode either have inferior displays, or simply have the brightness turned up WAY too high.

I just checked and I have my current Philips 328P (bought in 2018) monitor set to 12% brightness 75% contrast. I probably haven't adjusted that in 3 or 4 years. On some monitors I use 1% or 2% (maybe even 0%) brightness.

That is more linked to your ambient lighting conditions:
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/9/4108
there is some evidence that dark mode can be beneficial when the monitor is too dim for comfortable viewing:
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9089640
I'll say that's a failure of the user to set the brightness relative to the ambient. Bizarrely that would suggest dark mode may be most beneficial in extremely bight ambient where the display is already at its peak brightness, making its name oxymoronic.

[Randy222]

Some things have native light/dark modes, and then I also run an extension on edge to make websites run in configurable dark mode.
I always use dark mode when I can, easier on the eyes, and, makes the battery last a few min longer.

[brucehoult]

I always use dark mode when I can, easier on the eyes, and, makes the battery last a few min longer.

Well that's not right!

Light or dark mode has zero effect on the thing that uses the power on LCD displays: the backlight.

If anything, someone using dark mode is likely to have the backlight turned up to a higher power level.

[Someone]

I always use dark mode when I can, easier on the eyes, and, makes the battery last a few min longer.

Well that's not right!

Light or dark mode has zero effect on the thing that uses the power on LCD displays: the backlight.

If anything, someone using dark mode is likely to have the backlight turned up to a higher power level.

OLED or mini/microLED has a benefit and it can be substantial on low power devices:
https://ijemh.com/issue_dcp/The%20Impact%20of%20Color%20Schemes%20on%20Device%20Energy%20Consumption.pdf

Higher power was true for conventional backlit LCDs:
https://www.theregister.com/on-prem/2025/02/20/using-dark-mode-to-save-energy-you-might-want-to-rethink/366691

[RoGeorge]

Profession doesn't matter, the size of the monitor does.  Modern panels (post TFN LCD) are able to output a lot of light at an instant, and at considerable contrast (no matter how small you dial down the contrast, any GUI is still at much higher contrast than a real life image, with unnatural sharp transitions and unnatural uniform coloring).

Good luck watching a 32 inch desktop monitor from 1 meter away with a light theme.  It will make your eyes bleed. 

[multipla]

For me, dark mode strains the eyes much more, the white on black text kinda burns in because the text is narrow and bright.
I use light mode everywhere but have set my monitors to a quite low brightness and also make sure there's enough ambient light in the room.

[default0.0player]

For me, dark mode strains the eyes much more, the white on black text kinda burns in because the text is narrow and bright.
I use light mode everywhere but have set my monitors to a quite low brightness and also make sure there's enough ambient light in the room.

With light mode, the max brightness is only slightly higher than average brightness. With dark mode, the max brightness is much higher than average brightness. Your pupil adjusts its diameter based on mostly average brightness so light mode has less eye strain.

Additionally, with light mode screen's backlight brightness is lower compared to dark mode, saving energy slightly.

[brucehoult]

Profession doesn't matter, the size of the monitor does.  Modern panels (post TFN LCD) are able to output a lot of light at an instant, and at considerable contrast (no matter how small you dial down the contrast, any GUI is still at much higher contrast than a real life image, with unnatural sharp transitions and unnatural uniform coloring).

Ink on paper? Dead trees?

Good luck watching a 32 inch desktop monitor from 1 meter away with a light theme.  It will make your eyes bleed. 

I'm 63. I just measured ... around 60-65 cm (arm's length) .. on my 32" monitor. It was the same on my previous, 30" monitor, starting from 20 years ago.

I can report my eyes do not bleed, even with 12+ hours per day of use, since forever.

I've been wearing glasses at the computer since I was 35 but still pass the tests to drive cars, motorcycles, and heavy commercial vehicles without glasses. Also fine for private aviation.

As I said, turn the brightness down. Waaaayyy down. And adjust the contrast appropriately too —  my go-to test is Google maps. If you can't easily distinguish forest from grassland from urban areas, different browns on the mountains, contour shading (shadows on south/east facing slopes) in all areas ... then you've got your settings wrong.

[Ranayna]

I am maybe an outlyer.
I am an administrator and part time programmer.

And i use light modes whereever available.

But, I have dimmed the brightness of my screens, and i also use windows "night light" at all times, set to 20.

[hans]

On desktop, I mostly use darkmode because my lab bench doesn't have much daylight
I'd prefer to have a brighter workspace, but then I may have to put a PC desk in my living room again (and juggle between lab projects and desktop work). But in this summer weather is too hot. So until I relocate its a compromise.

For laptop.. I use both. I let MacOS decide. Using daytime/nighttime works pretty well. Dark screens are hard to read in bright rooms. Black text on white background is easier.

I can vouch for sticking to a bright workspace though. Sitting down in a dim room for long periods of time is no good.

[tooki]

I selected “other” because for me, the answer depends on the specific task, as well as the particular implementation. One also needs to distinguish between light and dark modes for content and the user interface.

For example:

- I use Altium in dark mode for the UI, but leave the schematic view with the default white background and PCB view with the default black background.

- I use VS Code in dark mode, because my favorite code coloring schemes are designed for a dark background. But I don’t mind coding in MPLAB X’s light mode, either.

- I like MS Office in the default colorful schemes.

In any event, what I absolutely do not like is dark mode of the content for WYSIWYG document creation; that is, if an on-screen document’s layout and colors are meant to match what comes out on paper (like a Word document), I want the document area to remain in light mode, even if the UI around it is in dark mode.

[tooki]

Profession doesn't matter, the size of the monitor does.  Modern panels (post TFN LCD) are able to output a lot of light at an instant, and at considerable contrast (no matter how small you dial down the contrast, any GUI is still at much higher contrast than a real life image, with unnatural sharp transitions and unnatural uniform coloring).

Good luck watching a 32 inch desktop monitor from 1 meter away with a light theme.  It will make your eyes bleed. 

Ummm… this is a whole lot of made-up nonsense, sorry.

Have you never tried using a normal LCD outdoors in bright sun? You can’t see diddly squat because the backlight is far weaker than the sun. So a printed page in bright sunlight is much brighter than an LCD, and with excellent contrast and very sharp transitions. Offset-printed material is usually printed at 2450dpi, far more than even the very highest pixel density smartphone LCDs (>800ppi), and vastly more than the 300-500ppi most phones use, and almost comically more than the 70-100ppi of a typical 1080p desktop display, the 150-200ppi of a 4K desktop display, or even the 300ppi of a 4K 14” laptop display. And because the behavior of offset printing smooths the edges of the printed character, the effective resolution of printed text is even higher than the 2450dpi. (It far exceeds what the human eye can actually resolve…)

If a 32” display’s brightness makes your eyes hurt, it’s not because the display is too bright in absolute terms, but rather that it is too bright for the room it’s in, or that the room doesn’t have enough lighting for the display. The room lighting is what dominates for the purposes of whether your pupils dilate or constrict.

[PlainName]

Good luck watching a 32 inch desktop monitor from 1 meter away with a light theme.  It will make your eyes bleed. 

My 43" monitor exactly 85cm away is light mode. Eyes are fine, thanks, but they wouldn't be in dark mode - black on white is clearer than white on black (or, horrors, grey on dark grey).

Edit: as someone refers to above, light mode is better for focus because the iris is smaller (more light, see) so depth of field is larger and things more in focus.

[Bicurico]

I am using a 50" 4K TV at 50-100cm distance.
I generally prefer a dark mode.
But my real preference goes to my own custom modes, with less black and more dark blue/gray.
I true to offer extended configuration possibilities in the software I develop.
I learned that different people with different setups have different preferences or requirements.

[madires]

And i use light modes whereever available.

But, I have dimmed the brightness of my screens, and i also use windows "night light" at all times, set to 20.

I prefer the light mode too and set the screen's brightness as low as possible while keping it reasonable, i.e. the sweet spot between nice colors and deep black. But shells need to have a black background and some applications benefit also from a dark background, e.g. PCB layout.

[eutectique]

Dark mode causes strong afterimage stripes, visiting sites like hackaday physically hurts.

I use light mode whenever possible. Since I spend most of the day in CLion and shell, my preferred colour scheme is black on blanched almond. Font is Monaco Regular, to answer your next poll question.

[nctnico]

I don't see a category for "programmer" so I went in "other".

I'm 100% light mode, all the way, ever since the ICL Perq / Apple Lisa / Apple Macintosh introduced high resolution, high contrast, and HIGH REFRESH RATE black on white displays. All three had 60 Hz non-interlaced displays.

I think people who don't like light mode either have inferior displays, or simply have the brightness turned up WAY too high.

You may be on to something here. Whenever I buy (or use) a new monitor, I turn the brightness way down as well.

[Siwastaja]

I don't see a category for "programmer" so I went in "other".

I'm 100% light mode, all the way, ever since the ICL Perq / Apple Lisa / Apple Macintosh introduced high resolution, high contrast, and HIGH REFRESH RATE black on white displays. All three had 60 Hz non-interlaced displays.

I think people who don't like light mode either have inferior displays, or simply have the brightness turned up WAY too high.

You may be on to something here. Whenever I buy (or use) a new monitor, I turn the brightness way down as well.

Sensible way to think about this is that the "white" background color is not supposed to be 100% (255,255,255) white, but rather, something like 75% white. This leaves 100% white for highlights - e.g., mouse cursor that's distinguishable from the background. Monitor brightness is then adjusted so that this background ~75% white does not cause eye discomfort in the room lighting, but rather feels like reading a paper. In a "typical" well-lit office environment, that might be easily 50-70% setting, while in darker home environment maybe 10-30% is what suffices. Depends on monitor too.

Color temperature can be similarly fine-tuned; for very warm room lighting, monitor needs to be a tad warmer, too, because eyes partially adjust.

If the UI theme uses 100% white and you compensate by using very low brightness setting, then if you switch from coding to looking at pictures, videos or whatever will look too dull because of too little brightness, too little dynamic range.

[SiliconWizard]

I personally don't like dark mode, and as someone else said, looking at a dark mode website or document and switching back to another app or document in light mode makes you see dark bars for a while, that's very annoying.

For those who find pure white backgrounds a bit overwhelming, I suggest changing the background color to a light yellow or light beige, especially for text editing - works very well.

The almost only use case I have for "dark mode" is PCB editing, for which it's well adapted.

For reading text, it's overall pretty bad - it's been shown in numerous studies in ophalmology that light letters on a dark background are actually harder to read and harder to focus on than the other way around. The only benefit of dark mode is the lower light exposure (which may feel uncomfortable for some), but that's about it. There are ways to mitigate that, change the background color to something else than pure white as I said above, and/or lower the screen brightness. Also have good lighting around - using displays in a dark environment is a very bad idea overall.