For whatever reason I strongly prefer dark mode MOST OF THE TIME. It all depends on the underlying work I’m doing.
And as a separate issue the red lettering on a black background can drive me nuts. I’m in the 15% of males with N. European heritage that have a LOT of trouble with that combination and a few others.
(We don’t go into graphic and design mostly due to that reason so the people in the field have no idea how hard it is for us to read that kind of lettering. Oh, well.)
I’m afraid that “colour temperature” and “correlated colour temperature” are identical. The former is the informal term, the latter is the formal. CRI is another test that is designed for incandescent lamps and works poorly with LEDs and the like. Wikipedia has good articles on both of these.
I switch back to light mode occasionally, but I find myself reverting to Dark Mode for most tasks. I do not like Dark Mode for email, but it’s definitely easier for me to work on photos or videos within a dark UI.
I think Apple’s heavy promotion of it probably comes as a response to the creatives, programmers and gamers who’ve been asking for it for a long time.
For me, it’s a matter of personal preference. I was happy when the feature was introduced because it added some customization and choice to the overall UI. As long as the choice is there, I’m happy, but if they choose to make everything dark (which I doubt that they would do), I like many others would have a problem.
The most suitable background for editing pictures depends on how you expect to see the pictures when you’re done. If you are editing them for viewing them in dim surroundings, then editing them with dark surroundings gives a more accurate representation. However, if you are editing them to be printed, then white surroundings gives a more accurate representation.
Black backgrounds make colours stand out, so when I used to present transparencies to art directors, I always presented them in a black mask. However, since the transparencies were always going to be printed, I always selected them on an un-masked light table.
It is great that the problems of Dark Mode are being addresed, but this article doesn’t even mention the reason why it’s a huge problem for me… astigmatism. I’m in my mid-40s and have had astigmatism since my 20s. By now it’s what I would describe as “moderate-plus.”
Light-on-dark text (a.k.a. “Dark Mode”) causes a tremendous amount of eye fatigue for those of us with astigmatism. If you’ve ever done one of those things where you stare at a reversed-color image for a minute and then look at a blank wall, and you can see the image because of temporary “burn-in” on your eyes… well, imagine that with all of the lines of text, and after only a few seconds.
I can’t read light-on-dark text for more than 3 or 4 seconds before the lines all start to blur and then everywhere I look for a minute or so afterwards, I see stripes. Dark Mode is absolutely a no-go for me.
Of course if you don’t have astigmatism, it doesn’t cause this level of strain… but I think this is illustrative of why our eyes don’t really handle it very well.
I have this issue too. My eyes totally adapt to focal changes real slowly. I wear glasses for astigmatic nearsightedness but take them off for close work, (and switch to a different device (iPad)in a comfy chair if it’s just reading) - but i do a lot of Logic Studio work which involves following many tracks and precision edits. I welcome visual Interface changes on devices… (I was a huge Appearance/Kaleidoscope fanatic in the OS9 days- though i think Steve Jobs did not like this so much ) I like - larger- not too seraphy type and icons - non-conflicting colors, b/w backgrounds, yellow highlights, good ambient lighting, hate bright Pop up ads and notification distractions (these make your eyes work harder across large screens) !!! all affect screen work, i do like dark mode aesthetically - I’m not sure why it’s “New” - Apple has to purge some of Steve’s totally subjective opinion sometimes.
I wish there was a more fine-grained control over dark mode. I’ve been using it for awhile and find it’s nice for image-heavy content and not so nice for text-heavy content. So for example, I think it would be nice if you could configure Safari’s reader mode to remain dark text on a light background.
If you’re old enough to remember when the Mac first came out, most computers at the time were dark and the Mac was a standout. I really liked that reading text on it felt like reading a book. They were pitching it at the time as a wysiwyg user interface, so it’s interesting that they’re moving away from that now.
For my part, I do most of my work in TextMate and it has custom themes so I can still have dark on light even if the rest of the OS is dark. That’s actually a pretty nice effect since it keeps me focused on the code.
One thing I wonder about is if there is an appreciable effect on the power consumption of your display depending on which mode you use?
A dark-colored background with light-colored text just puts me in a better mood. I think it lowers anxiety. When someone is interrogated, they shine a bright light on them; they don’t put them in a dark room. Now, I don’t have any diagnosed anxiety conditions. I’m not into goth music or emo music or anything like that. In fact, two of my favorite songwriters are The Moody Blues and Bonnie Raitt. But I definitely appreciate Megadeth and Metallica, too.
Ever since I started using a computer in the early 1980s, I’ve always preferred dark backgrounds with light text, throughout the whole operating system, when possible. I’m not trying to fix any ophthalmological problems or headaches, though I do have some floaters. I’m just not into bright light being all over the room. It doesn’t have to be a pitch-black environment, but I don’t want the whole room to be glowing. My preference is in line with Rick Deckard’s apartment in the film “Blade Runner”.
Maybe for some people in the evening, a screen background color that differs greatly from the room light may keep them more focused on their tasks. But for me, feeling in-tune with my environment is vital to maintaining my focus on tasks. Indeed, when I look around a shady room, and then look at a dark screen with light letters, the experience of the screen background feels coherent with my experience in the room. As I stated before, I believe it reduces anxiety. And everybody could use a little of that.
Another point: All of the research on reading comprehension utilized test subjects who were used to reading physical books and/or periodicals and/or writing on white paper, which are primarily black letters on a white background. None of the research utilized people who very seldom (if ever) read. Such people are not as conditioned to utilize text comprehension inside a black-on-white visual space. In other words, if a person is used to reading books, that will increase reading comprehension on a black-on-white computer screen. But if a person is not used to reading books, I suspect the psychological (and occaisional physiological) benefits of a white-on-black computer screen will outweigh the productivity benefits.
There is, but only if you’re using an OLED-based display (such as on the iPhone X, XS, and XS Max) and the black is a true black and not a dark gray. The pixels have to be turned off completely. On a Mac, it’s no help at all.
This doesn’t seem like a relevant criticism. Everyone reads (and is trained to do so for years in school), and everyone reads all the time because there’s a vast amount of text in the world that you can’t avoid seeing. Research into reading comprehension makes sense only in the context of people who can and do read.
Babies will look at the light background first because there’s more total light emitted there.
Lincoln is better recognized with dark hair because people don’t have glow in the dark hair and color inverted facial
features.
People can generally read better with light in the background because the total light in your face makes for a smaller pupil, which consequently adds better depth perception. This masks eye defects of focusing on the screen. Most people probably don’t have perfect vision. So this can be seen as a brutal way to improve “productivity”, you can probably expose yourself to more and more light and do better as well, but that’s not recommended.
Light in your face may prod you to get it out of your face quicker than not thereby resulting in better “productivity” in test situations.
As noted in another comment people are also more used to looking at a light background.
None of this has anything to do with dark mode being any kind of a problem.
If you have poor vision you should start with getting proper eye glasses or increase font size, shining more light on your face is a caveman’s way to address poor vision.
The science is not clear in any way that dark mode can hurt your productivity any more than saying that not giving you a shock of electricity can hurt your productivity.
Nothing said here says anything that goes against dark mode, or shows that there is any productivity hit. Any perceived benefits noted are incidental, irrelevant, and have not been tied to any productivity outcomes.
There’s no quantification cited, exactly how much productivity is suppoed to suffer here? In any case is dark mode all about “productivity”, is coffee over green tea recommended because it’s better for “productivity”…none of this is relevant and is very misleading. dark mode and the like are long overdue.
Feel free to cite the studies supporting your criticisms of the research I cited to back up my general claims.
Obviously, there’s no way to quantify the exact amount that productivity will suffer because the studies are designed to create replicable, quantifiable tests, and you won’t be engaging in those exact tests day in and day out.
I think you missed my point. I guess I will just use myself as an example. For the past four years, I have had a very time-consuming job, one that doesn’t involve reading or looking at a computer at all, and is very physical. Thus, 95% of my weekly reading is Apple news through the MacHash app. I use its dark mode. Whenever I do crack open a book, or periodical, or try to read a computer screen without also having a black background and white text, it’s uncomfortable. I don’t really know why. But, I feel more relaxed when I’m in a familiar environment.
And that was my point. If you’re always looking at things with a white background and black letters, and then you try the new dark mode, of course you’re not gonna like it. Of course your productivity will suffer. What I’m saying is, I believe the test subjects in the aforementioned research are inherently biased, as they have far more experience at comprehending text blocks with white backgrounds and black letters.
I guess it is kind of a stupid point. Maybe the only value in mentioning this is to say that I believe that a person’s reading comprehension will be hardly affected by dark mode if it’s all they use for years, and they also don’t read very much print media (as it is primarily white backgrounds and black letters). Yes, there’s not much research done on this, as test subjects would be hard to find.
All aircraft use white on black gauges in the instrument cluster for good reason. The sun shining on the instrument does not wash it out.
The first car I owned with white instruments was gone within the year. White instruments and no-sale to me.
Needless to say no dark side for me.
The hype around dark mode strikes me as very similar to the hype around glossy screens a few years ago. Both demo well but are less practical than what they replace. Certainly, some people will see better with dark mode or will prefer the look, but it should not be the main attraction in an OS release. It should be listed under miscellaneous features and enabled in the Accessibility settings.
True Tone is absent from iOS 12.3.1 on my iPhone. Is there an alternative?
It is also absent from Mojave 10.14.5
Rob
Exactly my thoughts.
I never knew why this was! It makes perfect sense.
Although I love my ancient MacBook Pro, I was talked into buying the anti-glare screen by my husband who regretted not having the option when he got his. The Apple Store salesperson tried to talk me out of it, telling us that it will affect color on screen and in print. He was right, it does distort color, and I’m sorry I paid a few hundred dollars extra for the screen. I almost always used it plugged in to a big monitor, but it is an annoyance otherwise.
It makes me feel very nostalgic for the days of Apple Store salespeople who were trained and very knowledgeable and put the interests of the customer first.
Perhaps I’ve missed them, but I have two issues that I haven’t seen addressed yet.
TrueTone requires hardware support, I believe, so the question is what models of iPhone and Mac you have.
You can also check out f.lux. Not sure how it works in iOS, but it has been around for the Mac for a long time.
I think that’s mostly a matter of your screen and how you choose to arrange your environment. Try just hiding the Finder (Option-click from the Finder into the app you want to read in) so you see a darker background wallpaper instead.
Dark Mode would have something of the same effect but then you’ll be slower to read and parse Finder windows and other controls.
Web designers often go with what’s trendy or (to them) attractive, not what is easiest to read.