I use browsers extensions to make everything dark, sometimes some style breaks but is the price for the almighty dark mode. That could be a great video concept, or in other words, I'm bad at doing it and I would like to learn how to properly do it from you.
@@snovbird there are extensions that do this if you can’t add extensions there’s a flag on most chromium based browsers that will make any site dark mode (some sites might break and yellow and green seem to get changed even when not necessary or desired)
For me any site with a dark mode has it enabled I have a chrome flag that will force rverything else to be dark mode and certain apps if I can customize the ui are either dark mode or darker if I want it (I did this to blender)
As a Full time dark mode user i welcome this trend but i think there should be a option for light mode as i feel the frustration when I can't go to dark mode and the light mode users may feel the same
Accessibility goes both ways, really. Some people may also want to use Light Mode to wake themselves up and not get sleepy. The blue light emitting from the screen helps with that, since it resembles daylight in a way. While Dark Mode makes your eyes adjust to the darkness much better, which can help your sleep cycle, especially with a blue light filter enabled.
I'm a lifelong dark mode user that steadily has to move towards light mode because dark mode is increasingly straining my eyes. In the evening it's still fine, but during the day, I pretty much have to use light mode now or else I won't be able to read anything. It sucks. I'm glad many applications and websites can use the current system color nowadays, and system color can switch depending on time of day.
Appreciate you mentioning that! I have astigmatism and you know what really makes me like a website? Being able to read it 🥲 But I know dark mode is important too for people with light sensitivity and migraine.
Having astigmatism and sensitive eyes, I have never picked a light mode over dark when having the option to just go dark. The moment at 2:42 just burned my eyes.
I love dark mode when I'm in actually dark environment. It makes things easier to read for a long time. But when I'm outside or working on my laptop on a sunny day on my balcony, I would really appreciate a light mode option. Instead of trying to find a right angle, shadow or going inside, I just switch to light mode and I'm able to read things with zero problems. Please, don't bash on option B, just because you personally like the option A.
You need no advice from me, but this is a sick niche you're filling in and your channel is obviously growing crazy rapidly. Design-centric advice for developers - that is good, current, thoughtful, and not focused on selling Framer, SS, Wix, etc. - is probably the least saturated of the tech/design tutorial area on YT. So thank you!!!! And keep it up :)
@@sharonye8297 lmao same. I don't even have at toggle for dark/less dark/light. its dark, take it or leave it, I don't care, the dark is better anways
It is really often overlooked that light mode is also an accessibility feature. Some people have eye impairments which makes it hard for them to read white text on dark backgrounds
Very important to tell people that the humanly visible difference in lightness is based on fractions not absolute values. So the difference between 5% and 15% lightness is a lot stronger than the difference between 70% and 85%. That's important if you're used to "dark color = light base color - 15% lightness" and now try "light color = dark base color + 15% lightness". It's probably more like +3-7% lightness, depending on how dark your "dark base color" is. Also, the reason why there are gaussian blurs in dark mode is to prevent color banding on gradients which appear much easier on dark modes (everybody watching an almost-black scene in a TH-cam video will have noticed that effect; there it is also caused by compression, but the effect is pretty much the same for gradients).
Additionally, it's important to mention that computer RGB colour codes are exponential and not linear in scale. I don't know the exact ratio, but this would make 20% lightness look double as bright as 10%, while being more in actuality.
There's not a lot of cats, but I'll take it. I have seen myself move towards more dark themed + "glassmorphic" designs over the past months and I do agree with you, there's a lot more that can be done with "dark mode" than "light mode". Something I noticed while working with dark mode is that you don't necessarily have to ever use shadows like we do on light mode for depth (and I think you touched on this in your video), when you have a dark background as a parent, all you need to do to have the child show elevation is to reduce the lightness and there's a point on that scale that you'd get to where the depth effect would naturally just show. Really great video and like last time, I demand (just joking) more cats. 🐱 Cheers.
I also love dark glassmorphic designs, with just a few gradient colors as accents. I'm also a fan of Android's Material You, it looked goofy at first, but now I'm addicted to it. These 2 combined would be the ultimate UI I guess.
Honestly... I kinda prefer light mode a lot of the time. Sure, dark mode looks all cool and stuff, but black on white is just way easier to read than white on black. I spend my working days staring at my IDE and my medication can sometimes dry my eyes and make light text on a dark background look really blurry and hard to read. You know what always helps a lot? Switching to a light theme! Similarly, I switched a lot of websites and apps from dark back to light mode because idk, it just looks... slicker. Sharper. Better. Don't get me wrong, a well-done dark mode can look amazing, but it often feels like most websites do it badly, and making light mode look good is like 10x easier.
They did say though that just having white on black is kinda a bad approach to dark mode specifically for that reason. Personally, I made my own dark theme for my terminals that also relies on having less pure primaries/grays in addition to less starkly black and white to really kinda help take the edge off.
you captured everything I was thinking in your comment! My IDE theme is literally a darker version of a white background, not completely white but not dark mode either. On discord I still use a dark sidebar + light text area for reading.
I'm all for dark mode; but light mode is important for certain e-ink displays, and I'm sure there are some other niche uses for light mode, too. It's best to support both if you can; but it's quite a bit of work to do so: when you want more than one theme, you have to build a theming engine; you can't just hard-code everything.
@@CallyWasHereOfficial On some older e-ink devices, dark mode basically meant full refreshes every time something changed. Apparently that's since been fixed.
Actually, it doesn't save energy if you have some sort of display that uses a backlight, because that's gonna "burn" the most energy. I'd have to turn it up so much higher when I'm outside using dark mode, so I just use light mode.
this; lcd uses the same amount of energy at 100% brightness in dark theme as it does in light theme. the "it saves battery" claim is so stupid when you consider that this only applies to the people whos display is actually able to turn off individual pixels and pretty much only when the background is #000000. i dont know why this claim got so much attention when in reality is super specific because youre just not supposed to use #000000 as the background anyway
@@FAB1150Not only that, but modern TVs and monitors also use various local dimming effects. If the darker sections of the area are dark enough (with little to no light parts), the display can dim or fully turn off the LEDs that aren’t needed.
It's scientifically proven that black text on white background is easier to read and have more contrast. Dark mode feels easier on the eyes, but it's actually much worse for your eye health
Not just that. The background lighting is also very important and usually is missing in "dark scenarios". Positively biased UI is basically what the world around us is like and that's what human eyes are optimized for.
Dark mode has no power saving benefits when used with and LCD/IPS displays, as the backlight is always on. Some people even claim dark mode may use a bit more power on those display types as people tend to turn the brightness up so as to be more readable. There's even evidence to suggest having a current run through the the LCD crystals to turn it "black/blocked" consumes more power, as opposed to the "white/transpaprent" state which simply turns the current off. The only power saving benefits are on OLED type displays where each pixel is its own ligth source and even that's minimal.
A lot of LCD displays, be it computer monitors, TVs, or laptop screens, actually reduce the backlight automatically on darker scenes in order to give you better blacks so your assumption here is wrong. Yes, OLED and other LED technologies get significantly larger power savings on darker content, but they don't get the exclusivity. And especially for OLED screens, it's not minimal. If we are talking about power savings for environmental reasons, sure that isn't saving the planet, it's unimportant compared to our collective energy consumption. But a lot of these devices are portable and battery powered and as far as battery life goes, dark themes do have a significant impact.
@@IrisNebula7023 Sorry but you're wrong. Devices do not lower the screen brightness automatically on LCDs for dark mode as that'd make reading anything even more challenging. You're confusing this with the following: 1) Power saving mode, typically on smartphones and laptops/tablets, when battery percentage drops below a certain threshold does lower the backlight. Dark mode or not. 2) Automatic light sensorts, be that on smartphones or large displays. Whether it's in dark mode or not. Lowering the backlight when exclusively in dark mode makes no sense as it'd just make things more difficult to read.
@@ondrejsedlak4935 I am not wrong, I don't post walls of information when I don't know what I'm talking about. I am not confusing it with any other mode either, I know all of what you are referring too, those are different features. For example, all Intel laptops do this by also changing the colors to be brighter while they darken the blacklight, making text appear to be the about same brightness. Yes really, it does slightly destroy color accuracy (and in some cases not so slightly), but you usually don't perceive this. You can find this in the Graphics configuration utility if it's properly installed, adjust the strength or disable it. Also for example, TVs can even do this locally as their blacklight is often split in zones (more expensive = more zones), trying to only do this in dark areas of the image, but often actually do make everything darker. Subtitles can get darker or brighter depending on the rest of the scene and they even get decolorised every so often (in my case I use yellowish subs). Look up "local dimming" although it's not the only feature in play here, they do change the blacklight as a whole too, depending on scene. It's why you sometimes see 2 contrast ratios in specs, it's the actual panel contrast vs achievable with blacklight adjustments. Phones don't typically do this because they want to prioritise color accuracy and readability, but then again, lots of those are actually OLED to begin with.
@@ondrejsedlak4935 Also look for other root comments saying what you did and look at their answers, you'll find lots of other people trying to explain what I'm saying as I noticed after I replied.
As a Developer I spend more than 8+ hours a day looking at a screen and websites etc. The halation effect gets worse the longer I spend looking at my monitors. The first thing that can help reduce it is not having true black & white background/text which you already mentioned. The second thing that can improve it is font, line-height and letter-spacing. Usually for websites with thin font or annoying colors I just bump up the font-size quite a bit just so that it doesn't strain my eyes too much.
The quality of this video is excellent and very well designed! I imagine it must have taken a long time, it is so pleasant to watch even not being such a graphics tech or software designer. I appreciate the design engineering to make things better for everyone so thanks for this inspirational video! Hope this helps developers out there with their designs :)
I love dark mode. As a writer who has to stay up late nights writing on computer screens, I hate so much that a lot of google sites don’t have it, why doesn’t google docs have it yet? It’s gotten to a point where if a website doesn’t have dark mode, and it’s late at night, I like to put my computer on inverted colors through the magnifier tool and then full screen lol
I personally much prefer light mode, I don't have astigmatism, but in terms of reading comfort it is just much better for me. Yes, in dimly lit rooms it can form a wall of light, however the solution is quite simple, just use at least a night light. That being said I recognize for some people there is a strong desire for dark mode, I just don't think it should ever be the default, unless you are following the system theme.
Agreed! Hopefully the dark mode - fad will soon be over, and relegated to the gaming PCs of people that were in their late teens in 2010. Back where it came from;-)
Damn, this video is perfect. I'm a lead UI/UX Designer at my company and I'm gonna share this video with the other designers and devs. I'm terrible at explaining stuff and you explained all the things I've learned over the years in such a simple way! Thanks for it!
I like both themes and like switching between them I just wish websites were give you the option to do so and not have one. And not have one on dark mode only, since I tend to have troubles reading white text on black background (which I just learnt is called halation!) Maybe that's why I am more of a light mode user 🤔
For me, dark mode is absolutely essential to being able to use a device. And some of the current fashions (including a couple of points in this video) are unhelpful. Still I'm grateful that it's becoming more common, and more talked about. Yet I think it's really important that light mode is achievable or those who need it. While I need dark mode with some specific characteristics; I've talked to people who have the same level of need for light mode. At the end of the day; users who have a real need for one of these, know what they need. We should be enabling them to make that decision for themselves rather than ramming our own preferences down their throats.
I finally feel noticed here. I can barely use light on dark, and without my glasses, oncoming car headlights are these big balls of light that make it almost impossible to see.
Thanks for such a clear example of how to combat astigmatism with contrast! I have really bad astigmatism but light mode anything gives me really bad eye strain and sometimes migraines so I force darkmode anywhere I can (including my own work).
Yes! Light being default was really hurting my eyes for years. The most abhorrent practice of all was, of course, "blinding white background" not only being the default, but being THE ONLY mode. I hate all these apps, MS Office included, and won't touch them with a 2-meter long pole
I noticed a while ago, that even though dark mode looks cooler, light mode gives a better and longer satsifying experience. I switched everything to light mode and I'm not going back!
I actually learned web programming and web design few years ago, because my favourite infosec news sites switched to forced dark mode with waaay too dark background and I was getting helluva side effects like halation or some kind of "afterimage" (seeing blurred-text-like lines on walls for a good few seconds) and it drove me crazy even though I don't have any visual condidions execpt of myopia (like 30% of population rn, in our communities more like 80% lmao). So yeah, using badly designes dark mode can lead to decrease of visitors or increase in number of web programmers. One of them is bad for your ad revenue, another one is good for economy I guess...
I do not have any medical condition, but I usually use my computer in a well lit environment with light entering from everywhere. With dark mode i have to boost the brightness to max to be able to see anything, and it starts stinging my eyes. And at that moment it does not really help with emissions or power usage because if anything it will consume more power because backlight is set to max.
Light mode is better for your eyes and better for reading (see: books), the problem is people seem to love using their phones and computers in dark rooms or at extremely high brightness, which is terrible for their eyes. The brightness of a display should be in line with the ambient lighting of the room you're in, that's why phones have auto-adjusting brightness levels (which people lock at max).
@@TRRDroid Not a general fan of auto brightness but what I dislike most is that there is a protocol called DDC to control the brightness of monitors among other settings in software but it's both implemented inconsistently and is not exposed at all. there are tools to use it however.
Dark mode isn't easier to read. Black have a higher contrast against white than what white has against black. There is a reason why we didn't colour paper black that wasn't money. Dark mode also often looks more like a great milky colour than actual dark. It also doesn't look as good on non oled/amoled screens.
That's why the best solution is to design a website with a dark mode theme, but not entirely dark. Finding a middle ground makes it ideal, preventing eye strain while also considering people with astigmatism.
Light mode is necessary for accessibility, btw. There are people who literally can't make out white text on a dark background. That's why disabled users got so angry at Discord removing light mode for April Fool's Day as a "joke." Also the energy savings only apply to OLED and CRT (if anyone's still using one). LCD screens use *more* energy displaying black and the least energy displaying white.
For some reason Dark mode makes programs feel way more claustrophobic and unclear for me. There are some exceptions, streaming platforms, video editors and coding look way better in Dark mode. I guess that kinda explains it, most working environments are light so that's why but those things are traditionally done in Dark rooms. In general, I'm a sucker for skeuomorphism, it's more intuitive to use and also looks cool. I will never understand why it had to go away.
Item #: SCP-9804 Object Class: Euclid Seen in: Half life, Half life 2, Half life Opposing force, etc. Other knows as: G-Man Clothing: A uptight blue suit, briefcase Special Containment Procedures:
Dark mode does not help with reading. It's harder for us to see contrast with white on black than black on white, but all the other reasons stands true!
The way one of the most common screen technology's LCD's work is by blocking the light the back light makes selectively. As a result, having dark mode on does not actually save any power as the screen is still making the same amount of light, the only difference is you are blocking more of it. This is not true with all displays but it is with most of them.
I have astigmatism. Although dark mode does look better, it is hard for me to read white text on a black background for extended periods of time. It strains my eyes and I'll see black dots for hours afterwards.
Exactly. I'm surprised by the small amount of people actually using this feature for this exact purpose. There's daylight outside? Light Mode. It's getting dark/I want to sleep? Dark Mode (+Night Shift color filter).
This video showcased two great puns in just 30 seconds which shows the quality of humour its crew possesses (saying dark ‘web’ instead of dark mode, and Greta’s face on CO2 emissions). Not to mention the little ones like the cat panicking at low battery and so on.
In fact, I use an extension named Dark Reader to force sites to be in dark mode, even those that don't have it. I use it on sites like Wikipedia because its built-in dark mode desaturates the colours of pictures, which I don't like.
I have astigmatism, but i always switch to dark mode whenever possible, because I can no longer stand light mode. It's gotten to a point where I sometimes just don't use a website at all if it can't be switched to dark mode and there are alternatives.
Although I generally prefer dark mode, light mode does have its uses and I hate it when there is no light mode. For example, there is an entertainment lighting control software called Eos (think stage lighting) and it usually runs on lighting desks in venues and theatres, but you can also install it on a PC to use it as an offline editor or a control software. I have pre-programmed on a train before and it was a pain. There was light unavoidably hitting the display and even when turning the brightness all the way up, it was super difficult. Dark mode is the only one that makes sense when it's on a light board in a dark theatre, but when it's on a pc in an office or really anywhere, it's awful sometimes.
The rise of dark mode is a great case study of Apple's insane influence over the whole software industry. If you recall, Android tried to do it first, and a bunch of apps had dark mode as a selling point feature. But it wasn't until after iOS got dark mode that almost every major app started to support it. I know that Facebook considered it a low-impact project until Apple changed things, then dark mode was released like a month later. Now apps either go dark-only, or they have to support it to be taken seriously.
Recommended contrast values for dark mode should be different. Or the formula itself. I feel like the current formula was made with only light mode in mind. Spotting a dark point on a white background is not the same as spotting a bright point on a black background! This was briefly noted as "don't use a pure black background under text". But what to do with OLED themes? Or with graphics that can still burn into your retinas. There should be an upper bound for the contrast, that gets lower with the background going darker.
When you’ve been using dark mode for a long time light mode is like a flash bang. The only time I can handle white as a background is if it’s paper like such as on Kindles.
So what do you think about going dark mode? 🤨 Let me know below!
Well I know that I avoid like the plague any website that forces me to use light mode
The benefits both in the real world and on your eyes make it an obvious choice for UI design!
I use browsers extensions to make everything dark, sometimes some style breaks but is the price for the almighty dark mode.
That could be a great video concept, or in other words, I'm bad at doing it and I would like to learn how to properly do it from you.
@@snovbird there are extensions that do this if you can’t add extensions there’s a flag on most chromium based browsers that will make any site dark mode (some sites might break and yellow and green seem to get changed even when not necessary or desired)
For me any site with a dark mode has it enabled I have a chrome flag that will force rverything else to be dark mode and certain apps if I can customize the ui are either dark mode or darker if I want it (I did this to blender)
As a Full time dark mode user i welcome this trend but i think there should be a option for light mode as i feel the frustration when I can't go to dark mode and the light mode users may feel the same
Accessibility goes both ways, really.
Some people may also want to use Light Mode to wake themselves up and not get sleepy. The blue light emitting from the screen helps with that, since it resembles daylight in a way.
While Dark Mode makes your eyes adjust to the darkness much better, which can help your sleep cycle, especially with a blue light filter enabled.
I'm a lifelong dark mode user that steadily has to move towards light mode because dark mode is increasingly straining my eyes. In the evening it's still fine, but during the day, I pretty much have to use light mode now or else I won't be able to read anything. It sucks. I'm glad many applications and websites can use the current system color nowadays, and system color can switch depending on time of day.
Dark mode is fantastic but it's always good to have a light mode for users with astigmatism.
Appreciate you mentioning that! I have astigmatism and you know what really makes me like a website? Being able to read it 🥲 But I know dark mode is important too for people with light sensitivity and migraine.
I have astigmatism and dark mode looks better to me, light mode makes my eyes hurt to the point it gives me headaches.
Having astigmatism and sensitive eyes, I have never picked a light mode over dark when having the option to just go dark. The moment at 2:42 just burned my eyes.
I'd much rather struggle a little with my astigmatism when reading text than burning my eyes out lol
thank you for saying that!!
I love dark mode when I'm in actually dark environment. It makes things easier to read for a long time.
But when I'm outside or working on my laptop on a sunny day on my balcony, I would really appreciate a light mode option.
Instead of trying to find a right angle, shadow or going inside, I just switch to light mode and I'm able to read things with zero problems.
Please, don't bash on option B, just because you personally like the option A.
I personally use dark mode but having a light mode option is also good in some situations. And dark in night and light in day also works.
Agree. I think light mode is more visible under direct sunlight as well.
Why does this have no read more option is that just me
There are snatchers anywhere, don't use any device while you're outside
I also switch between the two throughout the day. It feels right.
You need no advice from me, but this is a sick niche you're filling in and your channel is obviously growing crazy rapidly. Design-centric advice for developers - that is good, current, thoughtful, and not focused on selling Framer, SS, Wix, etc. - is probably the least saturated of the tech/design tutorial area on YT. So thank you!!!! And keep it up :)
You and your gradient ass
I refuse to make my websites have a light mode. Instead, I make a less dark version.
That was a good one lol
I literally did this with my portfolio
@@sharonye8297 lmao same. I don't even have at toggle for dark/less dark/light. its dark, take it or leave it, I don't care, the dark is better anways
It is really often overlooked that light mode is also an accessibility feature. Some people have eye impairments which makes it hard for them to read white text on dark backgrounds
I use light mode whenever I can. Dark mode makes me feel sleepy
Very important to tell people that the humanly visible difference in lightness is based on fractions not absolute values. So the difference between 5% and 15% lightness is a lot stronger than the difference between 70% and 85%. That's important if you're used to "dark color = light base color - 15% lightness" and now try "light color = dark base color + 15% lightness". It's probably more like +3-7% lightness, depending on how dark your "dark base color" is.
Also, the reason why there are gaussian blurs in dark mode is to prevent color banding on gradients which appear much easier on dark modes (everybody watching an almost-black scene in a TH-cam video will have noticed that effect; there it is also caused by compression, but the effect is pretty much the same for gradients).
Additionally, it's important to mention that computer RGB colour codes are exponential and not linear in scale.
I don't know the exact ratio, but this would make 20% lightness look double as bright as 10%, while being more in actuality.
There's not a lot of cats, but I'll take it.
I have seen myself move towards more dark themed + "glassmorphic" designs over the past months and I do agree with you, there's a lot more that can be done with "dark mode" than "light mode". Something I noticed while working with dark mode is that you don't necessarily have to ever use shadows like we do on light mode for depth (and I think you touched on this in your video), when you have a dark background as a parent, all you need to do to have the child show elevation is to reduce the lightness and there's a point on that scale that you'd get to where the depth effect would naturally just show.
Really great video and like last time, I demand (just joking) more cats. 🐱
Cheers.
THANK you! I'm happy you liked the video :)
I also love dark glassmorphic designs, with just a few gradient colors as accents. I'm also a fan of Android's Material You, it looked goofy at first, but now I'm addicted to it. These 2 combined would be the ultimate UI I guess.
thats like $2 lol
@@nmtui That's more than you have given, so what's your point?
Damn. $1,000?
Honestly... I kinda prefer light mode a lot of the time. Sure, dark mode looks all cool and stuff, but black on white is just way easier to read than white on black. I spend my working days staring at my IDE and my medication can sometimes dry my eyes and make light text on a dark background look really blurry and hard to read. You know what always helps a lot? Switching to a light theme!
Similarly, I switched a lot of websites and apps from dark back to light mode because idk, it just looks... slicker. Sharper. Better. Don't get me wrong, a well-done dark mode can look amazing, but it often feels like most websites do it badly, and making light mode look good is like 10x easier.
They did say though that just having white on black is kinda a bad approach to dark mode specifically for that reason. Personally, I made my own dark theme for my terminals that also relies on having less pure primaries/grays in addition to less starkly black and white to really kinda help take the edge off.
you captured everything I was thinking in your comment!
My IDE theme is literally a darker version of a white background, not completely white but not dark mode either. On discord I still use a dark sidebar + light text area for reading.
Yes Ella
Have you tried gruvbox?
I've just started programming my own website. And I'm just realising how helpful this channel is going to be every step of the way! Thank you
I'm all for dark mode; but light mode is important for certain e-ink displays, and I'm sure there are some other niche uses for light mode, too. It's best to support both if you can; but it's quite a bit of work to do so: when you want more than one theme, you have to build a theming engine; you can't just hard-code everything.
Dark mode works just as fine with E-ink. In fact kindle comes with dark mode.
@@sailor5853 Oh nice! The newest e-ink screens must have fixed this, then.
dark mode is amazing for e ink wtf are u on ab
@@CallyWasHereOfficial On some older e-ink devices, dark mode basically meant full refreshes every time something changed.
Apparently that's since been fixed.
semicolons are SITUATIONAL PUNCTUATION!! you overuse them!! please cut down your semicolon usage it hurts to read
Short, to the point and amazing editing. You've easily become one of my favorite design centric channels, keep it up!
can we just take a moment to appreciate how cool the animations and editing are in this video?
Amazing work!
These videos are so good. As a non designer the tips all feel actionable
Actually, it doesn't save energy if you have some sort of display that uses a backlight, because that's gonna "burn" the most energy. I'd have to turn it up so much higher when I'm outside using dark mode, so I just use light mode.
this; lcd uses the same amount of energy at 100% brightness in dark theme as it does in light theme. the "it saves battery" claim is so stupid when you consider that this only applies to the people whos display is actually able to turn off individual pixels and pretty much only when the background is #000000. i dont know why this claim got so much attention when in reality is super specific because youre just not supposed to use #000000 as the background anyway
@@lootriamost phones use OLED
Correct, but more and more phones now are switching to OLED panels so it does hold true.
@@FAB1150Not only that, but modern TVs and monitors also use various local dimming effects. If the darker sections of the area are dark enough (with little to no light parts), the display can dim or fully turn off the LEDs that aren’t needed.
@lootria most screens are OLED I dont even own LCD anymore even mY tv is OLED
I have astigmatism but I always prefer true black background. It's just the best.
Every other landing page is a dark theme website with purple primary colour
this channel helps me make the most insufferable sites imagine.
bright pink on pure black with a gradient to cyan is what I need in my life
It's scientifically proven that black text on white background is easier to read and have more contrast. Dark mode feels easier on the eyes, but it's actually much worse for your eye health
Yes!! Exactly. Why are poeple still spreading this desease of a UI trend?!
Pro tip: Dark mode is actually bad for your eyes. Your eyes have a much harder time focusing on light text on a dark background.
Not just that. The background lighting is also very important and usually is missing in "dark scenarios". Positively biased UI is basically what the world around us is like and that's what human eyes are optimized for.
0:38 yes, colour theory proves that the dark mode one is the same colour than the light mode
It’s not, I color tested it
Dark mode has no power saving benefits when used with and LCD/IPS displays, as the backlight is always on.
Some people even claim dark mode may use a bit more power on those display types as people tend to turn the brightness up so as to be more readable.
There's even evidence to suggest having a current run through the the LCD crystals to turn it "black/blocked" consumes more power, as opposed to the "white/transpaprent" state which simply turns the current off.
The only power saving benefits are on OLED type displays where each pixel is its own ligth source and even that's minimal.
A lot of LCD displays, be it computer monitors, TVs, or laptop screens, actually reduce the backlight automatically on darker scenes in order to give you better blacks so your assumption here is wrong. Yes, OLED and other LED technologies get significantly larger power savings on darker content, but they don't get the exclusivity.
And especially for OLED screens, it's not minimal. If we are talking about power savings for environmental reasons, sure that isn't saving the planet, it's unimportant compared to our collective energy consumption. But a lot of these devices are portable and battery powered and as far as battery life goes, dark themes do have a significant impact.
@@IrisNebula7023 Sorry but you're wrong.
Devices do not lower the screen brightness automatically on LCDs for dark mode as that'd make reading anything even more challenging.
You're confusing this with the following:
1) Power saving mode, typically on smartphones and laptops/tablets, when battery percentage drops below a certain threshold does lower the backlight. Dark mode or not.
2) Automatic light sensorts, be that on smartphones or large displays. Whether it's in dark mode or not.
Lowering the backlight when exclusively in dark mode makes no sense as it'd just make things more difficult to read.
@@ondrejsedlak4935 I am not wrong, I don't post walls of information when I don't know what I'm talking about. I am not confusing it with any other mode either, I know all of what you are referring too, those are different features.
For example, all Intel laptops do this by also changing the colors to be brighter while they darken the blacklight, making text appear to be the about same brightness. Yes really, it does slightly destroy color accuracy (and in some cases not so slightly), but you usually don't perceive this. You can find this in the Graphics configuration utility if it's properly installed, adjust the strength or disable it.
Also for example, TVs can even do this locally as their blacklight is often split in zones (more expensive = more zones), trying to only do this in dark areas of the image, but often actually do make everything darker. Subtitles can get darker or brighter depending on the rest of the scene and they even get decolorised every so often (in my case I use yellowish subs). Look up "local dimming" although it's not the only feature in play here, they do change the blacklight as a whole too, depending on scene. It's why you sometimes see 2 contrast ratios in specs, it's the actual panel contrast vs achievable with blacklight adjustments.
Phones don't typically do this because they want to prioritise color accuracy and readability, but then again, lots of those are actually OLED to begin with.
@@ondrejsedlak4935 Also look for other root comments saying what you did and look at their answers, you'll find lots of other people trying to explain what I'm saying as I noticed after I replied.
Dark mode doesn’t use more power than light mode because the pixels aren’t in use, most people do not turn up their brightness when using dark mode
Amazing content and editing as always, love your videos. I have no doubt your channel will grow immensely.
As a Developer I spend more than 8+ hours a day looking at a screen and websites etc. The halation effect gets worse the longer I spend looking at my monitors.
The first thing that can help reduce it is not having true black & white background/text which you already mentioned. The second thing that can improve it is font, line-height and letter-spacing.
Usually for websites with thin font or annoying colors I just bump up the font-size quite a bit just so that it doesn't strain my eyes too much.
Purple in dark mode is like sugar in coffee
if you don't add atleast a little bit it will be intolerable
The quality of this video is excellent and very well designed! I imagine it must have taken a long time, it is so pleasant to watch even not being such a graphics tech or software designer. I appreciate the design engineering to make things better for everyone so thanks for this inspirational video! Hope this helps developers out there with their designs :)
As a person with astigmatism, i actually use a "automatic" light-dark mode. Light during the day, dark at night.
I love dark mode. As a writer who has to stay up late nights writing on computer screens, I hate so much that a lot of google sites don’t have it, why doesn’t google docs have it yet? It’s gotten to a point where if a website doesn’t have dark mode, and it’s late at night, I like to put my computer on inverted colors through the magnifier tool and then full screen lol
Holy shit I finally know why staring at white text on a black background makes it so hard for me to read the text... i have astigmatism.
I personally much prefer light mode, I don't have astigmatism, but in terms of reading comfort it is just much better for me. Yes, in dimly lit rooms it can form a wall of light, however the solution is quite simple, just use at least a night light. That being said I recognize for some people there is a strong desire for dark mode, I just don't think it should ever be the default, unless you are following the system theme.
Agreed! Hopefully the dark mode - fad will soon be over, and relegated to the gaming PCs of people that were in their late teens in 2010. Back where it came from;-)
Damn, this video is perfect. I'm a lead UI/UX Designer at my company and I'm gonna share this video with the other designers and devs. I'm terrible at explaining stuff and you explained all the things I've learned over the years in such a simple way! Thanks for it!
I love how good are the animations while explaining, it's so entertaining!!
Dark mode is easier on eyes than eyes piercing pure white
I like both themes and like switching between them
I just wish websites were give you the option to do so and not have one. And not have one on dark mode only, since I tend to have troubles reading white text on black background (which I just learnt is called halation!)
Maybe that's why I am more of a light mode user 🤔
I found this channel yesterday, my excitement when I first watched about Realtime Colors. Thank you for all your doing.
The whole point of dark mode for me is not destroying my eyes.
I used youtube in light mode for first 2 years and then i just checked dark mode for fun. Now i can't live without it. Yes, i'm a dark mode addict.
For me, dark mode is absolutely essential to being able to use a device. And some of the current fashions (including a couple of points in this video) are unhelpful. Still I'm grateful that it's becoming more common, and more talked about. Yet I think it's really important that light mode is achievable or those who need it. While I need dark mode with some specific characteristics; I've talked to people who have the same level of need for light mode. At the end of the day; users who have a real need for one of these, know what they need. We should be enabling them to make that decision for themselves rather than ramming our own preferences down their throats.
I finally feel noticed here. I can barely use light on dark, and without my glasses, oncoming car headlights are these big balls of light that make it almost impossible to see.
Please if you are a developer, and you make a dark mode: Add some color!
0:15 Going from dark mode stuff to that white screen legit hurt my eyes, lol
me watching that video while getting a bunch of flashbangs with the sudden white screen every time 💀
Thanks for such a clear example of how to combat astigmatism with contrast!
I have really bad astigmatism but light mode anything gives me really bad eye strain and sometimes migraines so I force darkmode anywhere I can (including my own work).
I despise dark mode I literally can’t read more than a short sentence on dark mode without getting a headache
you and so many others. It might seem like a "cool" idea while being young, but later on in life, the price is just too high.
Yes! Light being default was really hurting my eyes for years. The most abhorrent practice of all was, of course, "blinding white background" not only being the default, but being THE ONLY mode. I hate all these apps, MS Office included, and won't touch them with a 2-meter long pole
MS Office has Dark Mode
I noticed a while ago, that even though dark mode looks cooler, light mode gives a better and longer satsifying experience. I switched everything to light mode and I'm not going back!
I actually learned web programming and web design few years ago, because my favourite infosec news sites switched to forced dark mode with waaay too dark background and I was getting helluva side effects like halation or some kind of "afterimage" (seeing blurred-text-like lines on walls for a good few seconds) and it drove me crazy even though I don't have any visual condidions execpt of myopia (like 30% of population rn, in our communities more like 80% lmao).
So yeah, using badly designes dark mode can lead to decrease of visitors or increase in number of web programmers. One of them is bad for your ad revenue, another one is good for economy I guess...
I do not have any medical condition, but I usually use my computer in a well lit environment with light entering from everywhere. With dark mode i have to boost the brightness to max to be able to see anything, and it starts stinging my eyes. And at that moment it does not really help with emissions or power usage because if anything it will consume more power because backlight is set to max.
Light mode is better for your eyes and better for reading (see: books), the problem is people seem to love using their phones and computers in dark rooms or at extremely high brightness, which is terrible for their eyes. The brightness of a display should be in line with the ambient lighting of the room you're in, that's why phones have auto-adjusting brightness levels (which people lock at max).
It's pretty sad regular PC screens almost never have auto brightness options
@@TRRDroid Not a general fan of auto brightness but what I dislike most is that there is a protocol called DDC to control the brightness of monitors among other settings in software but it's both implemented inconsistently and is not exposed at all. there are tools to use it however.
Dark mode isn't easier to read. Black have a higher contrast against white than what white has against black. There is a reason why we didn't colour paper black that wasn't money.
Dark mode also often looks more like a great milky colour than actual dark. It also doesn't look as good on non oled/amoled screens.
I’m with you in terms of the oiled screen
TH-cam’s old dark mode was grey up until ambient mode
''You were the chosen one!''
- Light Mode
That's why the best solution is to design a website with a dark mode theme, but not entirely dark. Finding a middle ground makes it ideal, preventing eye strain while also considering people with astigmatism.
You know, you really make designing so much more intriguing than what I thought it was.Thank you
I still use light mode for TH-cam. Don't know why, it just feels too different in dark mode.
Light mode is necessary for accessibility, btw. There are people who literally can't make out white text on a dark background. That's why disabled users got so angry at Discord removing light mode for April Fool's Day as a "joke."
Also the energy savings only apply to OLED and CRT (if anyone's still using one). LCD screens use *more* energy displaying black and the least energy displaying white.
The "Stop. Using. Purple." Called me out
dark mode at night, light mode during the day for me lol
2:31 i just thought there was blooming from my screen but it was from the video
When you blurred the text I tried to correct it by squinting 💀💀
Alternative title: Rise of anti flashbangs every time you open youtube at 3AM
For some reason Dark mode makes programs feel way more claustrophobic and unclear for me. There are some exceptions, streaming platforms, video editors and coding look way better in Dark mode. I guess that kinda explains it, most working environments are light so that's why but those things are traditionally done in Dark rooms. In general, I'm a sucker for skeuomorphism, it's more intuitive to use and also looks cool. I will never understand why it had to go away.
I hated it when you showed halation, I thought my eyes were actually acting up for a second there and tried to correct it. Absolutely spot on lmao
The amount of flashbangs in this video when watching it at 1am is crazy dude
Jux: "This is your time to join the dark side"
Madam, we already are.
Item #: SCP-9804
Object Class: Euclid
Seen in: Half life, Half life 2, Half life Opposing force, etc.
Other knows as: G-Man
Clothing: A uptight blue suit, briefcase
Special Containment Procedures:
I use light mode everywhere I can. Change my mind.
dark mode on documents are awful i just can't read them
This is actually a very lovely video, I've loved every moment of it. Great freaking job 😂 😂
Dark mode does not help with reading. It's harder for us to see contrast with white on black than black on white, but all the other reasons stands true!
"Stop using purple" felt like a personal attack lol
i learned more in this video than my whole software developer career about designs.
The way one of the most common screen technology's LCD's work is by blocking the light the back light makes selectively. As a result, having dark mode on does not actually save any power as the screen is still making the same amount of light, the only difference is you are blocking more of it. This is not true with all displays but it is with most of them.
Instead of calling it "Rise of the dark mode" I'd call it "The dark age"
I have astigmatism. Although dark mode does look better, it is hard for me to read white text on a black background for extended periods of time. It strains my eyes and I'll see black dots for hours afterwards.
You’re videos are amazing. You really should have so many more subs
If it's bright around you, use bright mode. If it's dark, use dark mode. That's it.
Exactly. I'm surprised by the small amount of people actually using this feature for this exact purpose.
There's daylight outside? Light Mode. It's getting dark/I want to sleep? Dark Mode (+Night Shift color filter).
I don't use it like that i stick with one side all the time
@@Celphirio dark mode + reading mode (removes blue light)
Is the goat
Honestly iam starting to think that no phone mode is the best
Yeah but most of us are too lazy to go to settings every time we're in a different environment
@@lovrito2008 almost every app has an automatic dark mode option
This video showcased two great puns in just 30 seconds which shows the quality of humour its crew possesses (saying dark ‘web’ instead of dark mode, and Greta’s face on CO2 emissions). Not to mention the little ones like the cat panicking at low battery and so on.
"do your magic down there"
THAT IS SO SUS JASFDGHKLJHAFSTJD
i dont even design i just love how you explain things. my mere curiousity is satisfied.
I have been using dark mode ever since there is a function for it. White background hurts my eyes. Also it save electricity. So it's a win for me.
I use light mode because my laptop screen is very reflective, and i use it behind the window
In fact, I use an extension named Dark Reader to force sites to be in dark mode, even those that don't have it. I use it on sites like Wikipedia because its built-in dark mode desaturates the colours of pictures, which I don't like.
Despise the light grey instead of black behind text, but now I know why. OLED dark mode is the next best thing
Light mode on anything is like staring into a light bulb. White text on a black screen is so much easier on the eyes as opposed to the reverse.
I'm so annoyed that all apps are using a different shade of grey for their dark mode
I have astigmatism, but i always switch to dark mode whenever possible, because I can no longer stand light mode. It's gotten to a point where I sometimes just don't use a website at all if it can't be switched to dark mode and there are alternatives.
Adults Still Use Light Mode 💀
SKULLEMOJI!!!!!
Both are fine man
I'm an adult, I use dark
video filled with flashbangs. Ideal for night youtube lurking.
light mode is just generally better looking and more colorful and doesn't make me want to fall asleep in my chair
i may be biased as someone with astigmatism though
Exactly
0:37, the left one:
#24a1ed
rgb(36,161,237)
hsl(202,216,237)
the right one:
#2285c2
rgb(34,133,194)
hsl(202,210,194)
Although I generally prefer dark mode, light mode does have its uses and I hate it when there is no light mode. For example, there is an entertainment lighting control software called Eos (think stage lighting) and it usually runs on lighting desks in venues and theatres, but you can also install it on a PC to use it as an offline editor or a control software. I have pre-programmed on a train before and it was a pain. There was light unavoidably hitting the display and even when turning the brightness all the way up, it was super difficult. Dark mode is the only one that makes sense when it's on a light board in a dark theatre, but when it's on a pc in an office or really anywhere, it's awful sometimes.
3:48 ...why be minimal?
dark mode gives us more budget for adding more things!
modern minimal web is too scarce for its own good! fight it!
Me watching this in light mode 👀
The rise of dark mode is a great case study of Apple's insane influence over the whole software industry. If you recall, Android tried to do it first, and a bunch of apps had dark mode as a selling point feature. But it wasn't until after iOS got dark mode that almost every major app started to support it. I know that Facebook considered it a low-impact project until Apple changed things, then dark mode was released like a month later.
Now apps either go dark-only, or they have to support it to be taken seriously.
Now we need dark mode papers🗣🗣🗣
But yea dark mode should have always been the default and not light mode
Recommended contrast values for dark mode should be different. Or the formula itself.
I feel like the current formula was made with only light mode in mind.
Spotting a dark point on a white background is not the same as spotting a bright point on a black background!
This was briefly noted as "don't use a pure black background under text". But what to do with OLED themes? Or with graphics that can still burn into your retinas.
There should be an upper bound for the contrast, that gets lower with the background going darker.
So many times this is done wrong and made a bad rep to dark mode ...
2:13 Made the mistake of focusing on the text right at the transition. Now i remeber why i prefer dark mode so much 👀🔥
Watching this in light mode
"Stop. Using. Purple"
NEVER!!!
TIL that "halation" effect is an astigmatism thing, I thought everyone went through it
When you’ve been using dark mode for a long time light mode is like a flash bang. The only time I can handle white as a background is if it’s paper like such as on Kindles.