I’m seeing a concerning trend of webpages that are designed for dark mode only. They present light-text-on-a-dark-background all the time. There is no light mode. No respecting the user’s preference.
I literally cannot read white text on dark backgrounds. At least not more than a few words worth. It’s weird to slowly have more and more of the web become unusable to me.
Do better.
It’s super easy to provide both. We should all provide both.
@jensimmons I tried enabling dark mode in Edge a while back due to light mode making it hard for me to read sites, but from what I recall, it didn't work, didn't work on all light mode sites, or is no longer included. I found the Sauron extension, which works in both Edge and Chrome to make most sites readable, with white text on a darkened background. I run it on all my Windows computers. Without it, the brightness is too high. Reducing my monitor's brightness does nothing to make light mode sites easier to read for me. #darkmode
@EvilKiru@jensimmons I started using "dark mode" about 20 years ago by setting a custom windows colour scheme, and writing custom CSS to apply to web pages. Nowadays I also use Dark Reader extension, since it works slightly better than my own CSS on some sites, but the most important thing for me is that the contrast between text and background is not too high (white text on black background is even worse for me than black text on white background; this same thing also makes Windows dark mode unusable for me).
Don’t forget you can turn down the brightness of your monitor. You likely have it too bright, meaning you’re staring into a light bulb. Best results are when white on the screen is as bright as a piece of paper on your desk.
I agree with you 100% for websites and it is no coincidence that this Mastodon instance is light mode.
But weirdly I go into reverse when I go into SSH/Console mode. It has to be white text on black background with flashes of green for host/usernames. Maybe a throwback to pre-gui early PCs and VDUs when black background was de rigeur.
Maybe we are locked in our brains to reading newspapers, magazines and books. I imagine that many who go dark may come from gaming with less baggage from consuming printed paper text.
@schwa@jensimmons I'm not trying to be annoying, but light mode is an accessibility issue, too. Eye conditions are very diverse and some folks don't do well with contrast and a lot of light at all. (While writing this, I turned down my screen brightness to lowest. It is daytime.)
Add comment