Someone swallowed a history book... a fictional one

[eti]

Was this written by a 20 year old, who wasn't around at the time of terminals and DOS? LOL...

This was not "for power saving", it was the state of the technology; GUI OS did not yet exist   

https://dev.to/codesphere/should-you-really-be-coding-in-dark-mode-4ng8

[The Soulman]

Kids..

[eti]

Kids..

10-20 mins of trivial research would've saved this article from falsehood. It's not that difficult to Google things, or ask someone in a forum, like, for example, here...

[xrunner]

I thought most early computers used black ink on white paper. 

[james_s]

There's no reason early computers couldn't have used dark text on a white background, simply inverting the video signal will accomplish that. Some even did, the boot screen of the old Sun workstations had dark text on white. The reason it was done was largely to reduce eyestrain. It would have saved power and extended the life of the CRT too but I don't think people cared much about that back then.

As for dark mode in modern UIs, I see it as a bandaid over the trend to use vast amounts of bright white space resulting in unnecessary eyestrain.

[eti]

I just found it amusing that this person clearly knows very little of the reason that old terminals were black screen with bright text. Eeeeh, the internet ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This “dark mode” obsession is a fad wave. It’s hardly a technological breakthrough to set light text on a dark background, and yet is promoted as such. The app world LOVE hyperbole. One’s pupils contract when viewing dark text on light backgrounds, ergo the eye is focused more sharply, as opposed to the pupils dilating and becoming LESS focused in “dark mode”.

All a bit silly.

[rsjsouza]

Our green phosphorous CGA monitor had an "inverted" mode that flipped the back and foreground colours with a flick of a switch. The strain in the eye was palpable.

All in all, this is just lack of information - nothing to lose sleep about. Something that can be fixed in a second "print" of the book.

[Ed.Kloonk]

I thought most early computers used black ink on white paper. 

Now it's you that is showing your age.

[Ed.Kloonk]

This “dark mode” obsession is a fad wave.

No it isn't. When you're older, you'll understand. 

[Ed.Kloonk]

There's no reason early computers couldn't have used dark text on a white background, simply inverting the video signal will accomplish that.

I remember noticing that the Macs and pc's with CGAs or EGAs used with the next iteration of office software used the high color, high contrast to in marketing to distingish that the industry had moved beyond "old" monochrome office terminals.

I remember my local library had a Apple 2(?) with a plain old orange display for anyone to use to search the library database. It was great. Simple, but great. Then this Macintosh showed up with a small screen. Bloody awful.

[james_s]

I remember my local library had a Apple 2(?) with a plain old orange display for anyone to use to search the library database. It was great. Simple, but great. Then this Macintosh showed up with a small screen. Bloody awful.

We had a lot of both when I was in school. I quite liked those little compact Macs, they had a nice sharp display and the hardware design was really elegant. A portion of the system RAM was used for the video display, the display being quite literally a bitmap scanned from the RAM via simple hardware. The Apple II was also very elegant, it did a lot with very simple hardware.

[james_s]

This “dark mode” obsession is a fad wave.

No it isn't. When you're older, you'll understand. 

Indeed, I love dark mode on my phone, I find it much easier on the eyes. On a desktop it depends, I have some dark text editors that are visually pleasing but I can also work on a white background if there's at least something darker around it. A lot of times I find dark mode too dark and light mode too bright.

[Halcyon]

I mean, marks for creativity, but this is a good example when you make assumptions about how something works or why a certain thing was done.

[eti]

I mean, marks for creativity, but this is a good example when you make assumptions about how something works or why a certain thing was done.

Ass—umption. The old tale holds true. It takes just one article with clearly poor research to discredit an author. It smacks of laziness. There’s SO many people writing articles, so tell me why I should come back and read another? First impressions still matter.

It’s like the old web “ site under construction, please come back later“ banners - what makes you think I’m gonna come back?

[tom66]

CRTs do distinctly use less power showing white text on a black background, compared to the alternative.  However, it's more likely to cause eyestrain, as others have noted, especially with earlier CRTs with lower refresh rates and poorer focus/resolution.

I suspect that the choice was down to a combination of reasons.  Power may have been one of them, though.

[coppice]

I thought most early computers used black ink on white paper. 

Nah, we used black ink and holes on cream coloured card.

[magic]

Somewhere on the Internet, there exist a whole massive wiki for that sort of informative content written by that sort of erudite experts

[tggzzz]

I thought most early computers used black ink on white paper. 

Nah, we used black ink and holes on cream coloured card.

Those came later, much later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_(job_description)

[AndyBeez]

I remember my local library had a Apple 2(?) with a plain old orange display for anyone to use to search the library database. It was great. Simple, but great. Then this Macintosh showed up with a small screen. Bloody awful.

I still set orange text on black for my Linux SSH terminal connection, with a blinking block cursor. It gives a retro 'mid century unix' vibe.

Back in the day, orange was the 'posh' colour for monitors, whereas us common people had green screens. Some freaks inverted the monitor to have black text on a green screen - as that was closest to using 'real paper'. Some old timers still used real (toilet) paper teletype TTY terminals, but only because their eyesight couldn't bare the new retina burning VDUs. And then came along the ZX80 with black text on a white TV screen, and we were all converted to light mode. Until someone produced a video inverter and we went back to dark mode...

On the subject of Dark Mode, is this like Apple zen mode? ? ? ? I have no idea as technology moves so fast 

[Karel]

I believe the overal luminancy of the screen should be about the same level as the background lightning coming
from behind the screen (wall, room, etc.) in order to avoid eyestrain.
So neither black or white is a good choice as background color. Personally, I use some kind of "sand" color (#ffec9d) and black text.

[tggzzz]

I believe the overal luminancy of the screen should be about the same level as the background lightning coming
from behind the screen (wall, room, etc.) in order to avoid eyestrain.
So neither black or white is a good choice as background color. Personally, I use some kind of "sand" color (#ffec9d) and black text.

For decades my preference is "255 235 205 blanched almond" or #FFEBCD, which is similar albeit paler and warmer

[joeqsmith]

The term early is relative and they make no attempt to define it.  At 20 years old, I would expect "early" to mean maybe 5 years where I view as pre 70s.  I had a professor who helped develop the early drum.  I expect their view would be pre 60s.     

For Google searches on the subject, here are the first few hits:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2021/07/31/phone-battery-life-dark-mode/?sh=550cd2ec72df

http://mobileenerlytics.com/dark-mode/

One book I enjoyed on the history of computers was Hackers by Steven Levy. 

[Gyro]

Back in the day (monochrome CRT) white on black (well CRT face) looked better for a given video bandwidth. On standard 80 character terminals, a 'white' background showed up the scan lines and emphasised any ringing on the video. As others have mentioned, it also resulted in lower average beam current and possibly better EHT regulation (blooming on screen blank).

Our green phosphorous CGA monitor...

Phosphor 

This “dark mode” obsession is a fad wave.

No it isn't. When you're older, you'll understand. 

Indeed, I love dark mode on my phone, I find it much easier on the eyes. On a desktop it depends, I have some dark text editors that are visually pleasing but I can also work on a white background if there's at least something darker around it. A lot of times I find dark mode too dark and light mode too bright.

Presumably, on new fangled OLED screens, dark mode significantly reduces power consumption.

[PaulAm]

The world really didn't begin with Apple IIs.  Prior to microcomputers there was a large time sharing environment with remote access by serial terminals (eg Teleray) and other protocols (eg IBM).  IBM CICS systems used a green phosphor and were widely deployed (I think you can still find CICS terminal emulators around).  This is like the mid to late 70s.

Power saving?  Nobody even considered that until after the oil shocks caused an energy crisis.  The world looked very different then.

[macboy]

I believe the overal luminancy of the screen should be about the same level as the background lightning coming
from behind the screen (wall, room, etc.) in order to avoid eyestrain.
So neither black or white is a good choice as background color. Personally, I use some kind of "sand" color (#ffec9d) and black text.

For decades my preference is "255 235 205 blanched almond" or #FFEBCD, which is similar albeit paler and warmer

I suspect (and may be wrong!) that you both have your white point or color temperature set too high in your monitor, like 9300K. In comparison, 6500K white point would have all white look similar to your preferred "blanched almond". As a bonus all colors will be more accurate since pros with color-calibrated monitors usually use this white point, so most content is produced to use it. Sadly most monitors come preset to the eye burning highest white point, just as most TVs come preset to Vivid mode, with high color temperature and boosted saturation, contrast and sharpness, because somewhere someone decided it looked better or at least more impressive.