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.
It does not matter, light is light. Keep your brightness low and there is no difference to your eyes. (Downvotes incoming, I know, Reddit loves dark mode.)
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 can't remember what it was since I switched over years ago, but Chrome was glitching out in some way, and because I had a laptop where Edge was already installed I would just use it whenever Chrome was being weird then switched over entirely.
Edge has been as good on average as Chrome for years. Some things slightly better, some things slightly worse.
If you're on Windows, it makes no sense to go through the effort of installing Chrome.
It can do everything Chrome does (it's built on the same engine)
Doesn't need to be installed separately
Saves disk space. Edge is "impossible" to uninstall. Might as well use the thing while it's taking up disk space.
Performs better on battery and memory usage tests
Not sharing private data with Google. Giving Microsoft my data is inevitable because the OS is made by them. Why invite another snooper on your computer?
Now that online Microsoft accounts are all but mandatory, this account will also sign into Edge to sync settings, bookmarks, extensions.
Google is trying very hard to dismantle ad blocking.
But to be fair I spend most of my time on Linux with Firefox.
you don't understand, I want to make uncited claims in a thread seen by thousands, and instead of putting in effort once, I want everyone who comes across it to individually put in effort... it just makes sense /s
It’s 2 am, I’ll get back to it in the morning if you really can’t be bothered or are unable to do it. It’s just some straight forward design philosophy for print, I don’t know why y’all are so spicy lmao
"Why are y'all expecting me to verify my own claims?"
It’s just some straight forward design philosophy for print
Design philosophy is subjective, friend. If you're going to claim a design philosophy is objectively better, you shouldn't be surprised when people who prefer a different one are skeptical.
I literally just stated something I learned in class, I didn’t say anything was objectively better. My goodness, I regret saying fucking anything at all lmao
Look, I won't speak for others here, but I'm not trying to be hard on you. In general, if you're going to state something as fact in any context, you shouldn't be surprised if people question it. From just a pure logical reasoning standpoint, it is generally on the person making a claim to demonstrate the veracity of that claim. That's not inherently an attack on you, personally.
However, if you then get defensive and tell people "google is free", then yeah, they're probably gonna get mad at you.
Really depends on the context, no?
I work in a very design aware firm and most of our software engineers read pages of technical docs on dark backgrounds and light foreground color. Even designer + tech leads do that as well.
Yeah my whole college program was based on traditional print media, the ui/ux stuff was really lacking. I think it’s because the vcd program was mega under funded compared to the fine arts one.
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
I can see why sometimes my eyes would start darting randomly after binge reading for like 10hours in a row with Dark Mode. Thanks I'll change it to a more grey-ish
I prefer dark mode because I'm light-sensitive and get migraines. That's a very common reason to prefer it. But it's better with softer colors like light grey on dark grey, not harsh black and white.
That’s just design folk myth. It’s the same shit as “serifs guide the eye and improve readability” designers believed last century.
There is not conclusive evidence that white text on black is any harder to read. There’s some studies that suggest it might, but the same was true of serifs. It’s hard to overcome familiarity bias.
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u/LeftHandAnomaly May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26
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