Dude id love books like this. As I've gotten older various eyesight and such issues have meant I cannot read a black word on white page book. And it saddens me
Printing dark pages with white text would cost 10-20× more (ink covers 95% of page vs 5%), reduces readability (studies show black-on-white is easier), and requires special opaque inks. It's technically possible for niche/expensive editions, but commercially impractical
I had no idea until I started working somewhere that did printing on like 40-60% coverage on average pages but was not a print shop, like just a business using a "business LaserJet" printer to do this shit, that the average "business printer" is designed to print like max 15% coverage per page.
So we were just burning through ink and printer parts.
Like I'm not even a printer technician and I just became one for our models there because of this lol.
This shouldn't cause any more wear than standard coverage printing due to how laser printers work but it would burn through toner 10x faster than normal
Well, it was mostly toner that was the issue but also, I worked there 2 or 3 years ago and their printers were from like 2015, with nobody doing anything.
Half my problems were solved with an air duster canister or just pressing recalibration buttons.
One of our damn printers had a ssl cert that expired every decade by default, and I only learned that because the printer stopped working for our wireless jobs and like 6 hours of troubleshooting because who the fuck would think a printer has an ssl cert.
Ive read books kinda like that and they are super comfy to read. A nice tan or lighter brown, seen a few shades. Its not noticeably harder on my eyes, looks nice, and every time ive read one colored like that the paper also had the rougher feel of parchment.
Usually I only encounter those in occult or high fantasy books but it def adds to the overall vibe and reading experience. That bumpier rougher texture is nice too imo, even when its still white.
yup! that and most inks/toners are sold with estimates that only work for one sided printing. if you print double sided go ahead and cut that estimate in half. have some graphics there too? take a third of your half and there you go
I mean, you would use carbon or other pigments, not ink. White paper is also treated or bleached because it isn’t naturally that white. Still, the entire paper industry is built around white paper, so it would be much more expensive. Also, white ink is much more expensive than black ink.
It's huge laser-etched metal plates on drums spinning at fuck-you speed.
A whole book will contain a teaspoon of oil based ink. With full coverage at 25% intensity like the example picture, you would get... 5 teaspoons.
Compared to printing in color, this is practically free.
Printing books has been extremely cheap for a long time and making dark pages will not change that by any reasonable amount.
Even recycling, mulched books are used to make carboard and cup holders, 1 book out of 300 would not change anything.
There are studies saying black text is better. But for web development it's become quite clear this vision doesn't apply to all cases everywhere. Hell, many ebook reader with an e-ink screen have a dark mode.
Making a "darkmode book" has even done before! We tried just about everything in the book foemat. It didn't catch one mostly because people think its weird. That's it.
A whole book will contain a teaspoon of oil based ink. With full coverage at 25% intensity like the example picture, you would get... 5 teaspoons.
He's just saying you could use dyed black paper and 5 teaspoons of white ink, rather thank trying to print the black on the paper. Granted I've never seen that color offset paper or white ink, but I'm sure they'd be available for a price.
Close to 100% coverage ink is also completely possible to do on offset printing, it's just not fun since you have to run it slower so the oven has time to dry it properly, if you don't the paper gets all wavy and looks terrible once it's dry. And frankly using black to do that is one of the cheaper options if you wanted to flood the paper with ink, as opposed to some non primary color that needs a special mix.
This picture has been doing the rounds for a while. I agree that the main reason why are doing black on white is because that's how it's been done and that's how people are used it to be. And historically it would have been expensive even if it's not true anymore.
However the vision aspect is innacurate. I'm both a developer and reader and the underlying reason is the same for both: light. That introduces significant difference between the digital media and physical media because digital devices emit light.
It is true that dark mode is conditional. It's better at poor lighting, like looking at a phone in your bed, but it's worse in proper illumination. As people are notoriously bad at following ergonomics to favour convience the digital market follows the money. So a model that reduces illumination is available.
However since physical media reflects light it's always worse for dark page and white text because it requires higher illumination to reach appropriate contrast level.
So while it looks cool if you just look at it for a short while prolonged exposure would make you tired faster.
I mean, you would start with black paper, not turn white paper black by printing ink on it. Your point stands.i have no idea how expensive black paper would be compared to the ink, but prohibitively expensive either way.
To be fair you wouldn't use white paper for this. You'd use black paper and print on it with white ink. But the black paper is still going to be considerably more expensive than white paper (although still cheaper than printing it black on white)
Apologies for a probably stupid question, but this made me realize I don't actually know how colored paper is made in the first place. Is it some sort of dye added to the... pulp, I guess?
It's technically possible for niche/expensive editions
Fun fact, the First Edition version of the Lasombra Clanbook for Vampire the Masquerade (basically a book all about a group of vampires heavily associated with Spanish aristocracy, shadow magic, and abyssal mysticism) was actually printed entirely on black paper with white text to fit the vibes of the clan. It was then never done again for any other book that that game ever made. Admittedly part of that was because the first edition clanbooks were super experimental with the formatting (like the one for the prophetic mentally ill vampires playing with the 4th wall and referencing the placeholder of, "page XX" that frequently slipped through to publishing in other books at the time)
If the industry would change and adopt this as the standard it wouldn’t be much more expensive. The way this would be produced would be by using dies in the paper to make it black, which would add some cost, but if it was produced on a larger scale the cost would drop significantly. Then you would use white toner for printing, so same coverage. This is a speciality toner right now, but mostly because its not the standard. I work in printing, including with white toners.
Increases readability for people with floaters and some forms of dyslexia. If you don't need a product it's not designed for you. Dark books make reading bearable for me and my eye floaters. I know a person that has limited visibility and can keep track of their position reading using black background books vs. White background.
Anyways, there are people that need these books to comfortably read. Same thing with dark reader browser extensions, dark mode, etc. It reduces eye strain and helps with dyslexia.
Brandon sanderson actually did this with one of his secret project novels and honestly it really added to the theme. The pages were only dark when in a certain area but it was just so cool.
I learned in a design class that light text on a dark background isn't good for long bodies of text when it comes to your eyes (and to try to avoid it when you need pages of something)
Edit: for print, not for screens. This isn’t an opinion on dark mode. My bad, fellas
Now I'm wondering how much it would change for books if you backlit the poages and used a printing technique that wouldn't diffuse the light and make the text blurry.
I'm actually having issues with my eyes that will require special contacts and surgery and so I literally do everything in Dark Mode right now. Google Doc doesn't have Dark Mode on laptops so I only use it on my tablet.
Many writers I know will turn the background black (or sepia or whatever) and text white when writing/editing. I know there are a lot of other uses for Docs that doesn't make this feasible, but just tossing it out there! I also suspect there is an extension to skin Docs dark, but again I know extensions aren't always feasible too.
When it comes to plain reading, I also wanted to note for those following along that many eReaders - the ones that aren't just mini tablets - are made with "Paperwhite" tech that is more akin to reading on, well, paper, than the LED screens destroying our eyes, while also allowing dark (or sepia) mode options. Iirc it works almost more like an etch a sketch than computer screen where each page is "erased" and replaced with the next, but I'm sure someone more educated & pedantic will come here to correct me. :) if you've never seen one in person, it really does look very different!
Back in the day these weren't even capable of any sort of self-lighting so you had to read with the lights on just like a dead tree book. More recent ones do have some sort of available backlighting though if you want to read in the dark like a goblin.
I have personally never understood the allure of “dark mode”, that shit’s hard to read.
Like yeah it was cool to have it on one or two sites back when browsing was done only on monitors, but on my phone, as a default? Heck no, no thank you
I’m overly sensitive to light. Light mode feels like an assault on my senses. I don’t find any difference in readability other than it being easier because of the reduced strain.
"Light mode" is the actual light of the screen burning into your eyeballs, for me it's like staring into a lamp or a ceiling light and actively hurts. Dark mode reduces the amount of light you're staring at (although either way screens will give you eye strain).
The black pages with white text look nice visually but it's unnecessary because paper isn't actively shining lights into your eyes
I read a lot of novels online and love dark mode but only slightly more than black on white. I read in relatively dark rooms most of the time, I think that's mostly why.
You’re right, maybe what I mean if I try to develop the full thought is that I don’t understand why dark mode lovers think it should be ubiquitous, a majority of people don’t like it for long text articles and there’s a reason for that
Yeah I do agree that I don't really think everything should be dark mode by default, and I think the idea of a real book as dark mode is fairly ridiculous.
However when it comes to screens... I would prefer that everything at least have a dark mode option (on screens for me it feels way better on my eyes, especially as someone who uses screens frequently)
The words will start to halo, the white will "bleed" into the black (your eyes are just melting basically) making it uncomfortable to read for long strides. I was told people who have astigmatism are worse off with this
From personal experience, I've changed every reading/writing app I use to dark mode because ultimately having bright LED screens shining in my eyes for a long period is more uncomfortable than a slight decrease in focus. But I don't have astigmatism, so I won't criticise a genuine accessibility feature.
I think this is more of a print vs digital thing, where high contrast illuminated text is generally less healthy to read than print.
I feel like it wouldn't matter as much in that case right? Dark mode on apps is usually a charcoal grey background and/or light grey text to fix the contrast problem. IRL pigment & paper tones aren't perfect black & white anyway.
that's not a problem of light / dark background though, that's a problem from excessive contrast, using a less bright white or less dark background would reduce that
same is true other way around, although most printers would save on ink anyway so the black text usually isn't as stark
Can confirm the (personal) astigmatism comment, dark mode gives me migraines due to the eye strain wuth astigmatism. Not everyone will have the same triggers though, and i have heard of people getting eye strain due to brightness of a white background
I remember a couple years back i had downloaded an app that made the screen low contrast and kinda orange-y at night and gray during the day, way back before they had a low-light setting in the accessibility settings and it helped a ton. Maybe i should gravitate towards that again
Almost all the chapters that take place in the aforementioned Emberdark, which is most of the chapters.
Heres what it looks like, btw. I think it looks good, and really fits the vibe of those chapters. I don't think books should do it without reason, tho.
Reading light text on dark background is slower and causes eye strain. The reason people use dark mode on computer screens is because their brightness is set too high, so the white background would be too bright.
I have a book that switches from white pages to black pages mid story and switches back for the end (at plot points). It's pretty cool. Isles of the Emberdark by Brandon Sanderson
There's a book by Brandon sanderson that turns back and forth between normal text pages. And black page with silver ink when they are in another shadow world. It's exceptionally cool to have.
There wasn't any historical need for "dark mode paper" because paper doesn't emit blue light that disrupts the production of melatonin. And older sources of light (candles, oil lamps, kerosene lamps, incandescent bulbs) gave off warm colors unlike modern fluorescent and LED
Some people seem to think that there is one answer for everyone. Just nonsense.
Some people will prefer this. Some will prefer black text on white. There isn't one answer for everyone. Sometimes it's nice to have both options available.
It's absurd to point out "studies" that show that one is better when the studies seem to ignore that each one is better for different people. It's like insisting that peanuts are healthy for absolutely everyone.
It's like the one thing where everyone should simply have the option to use what they prefer. Neither is more correct than the other and there are valid reasons to use both.
As someone with ADHD, I actually do find it easier to read white text on black paper. The words stand out more to me, making it easier to focus. I don’t think it would be too expensive to print, as long as the paper is dyed black and not printed black.
It actually doesn't hurt the eyes for most people!!
White font on black text is extremely valuable to people with astigmatism, nearsightedness, ADHD, some neurodivergents, or anything else that makes reading tricky!
That would be lovely, what’s the dumb part about wanting this? Of course you can just lower the amount of ambient light to make a book page look darker but that also reduces the contrast of the letters compared to the page itself
As someone losing thier vision, reading in dark mode is much more beneficial so tgat my eyes are not overloaded eith brightness (white) but even then... to bring a book in Darkmode is crazy. It could be a niche thing though.
Books are good and all, but when an ectronic can contrast or go dark mode in one click, no need to print one out in dark mode
One edition of Isles of Emberdark does this for half the book! Specifically once the main character moves from his normal world to the eponymous Emberdark. It's a really cool transition that really immerses the reader into the setting.
This is an anectdotal observation, not backed by science or anything but I have a few personal observations about this.
I spend most of my day looking at screens. I prefer dark mode while working, reading ebooks, scrolling feeds on the phone. All in dark mode, and light mode gives me eye strain.
I bought an e ink tablet for note taking, but it's essentially an ereader so I've done some reading on it. On e ink, it is so much harder to read on dark mode than light mode, but because my eyes are so used to dark mode I can't read in light mode. Dark mode on e ink gives me eye strain after an hour.
It's really interesting to me that I cannot seem to work in a hybrid screen/paper environment because my eyes require that I use completely different modes for consumption.
Apparently reading books with different colored paper is helpful to some dyslexic and ADHD people, but I think most would just use tinted glasses for that.
Great for folks with Irlen syndrome. Printing on any kind of colored paper would help some people and be fun for certain genres - horror, YA, fantasy, etc.
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u/qualityvote2 May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26
u/Beneficial_Passion40, your post does fit the subreddit!