Dark themes

Posted by washere
Feb 2, 2018 at 03:45 AM

On Windows & Android OSes, almost everything I use is black themed or at least dark themed. In fact I can’t recall a single software which I use that has a non black/dark theme. On both Windows & Android the whole operating system has been turned black using custom hacks themes & Substratum with black themes, several of which I use. So nothing is white for me.

Those that force white, like yet another portable Office I added today (5th light suite I use now alongside MS Office) usually provide darker theme. There have been a few software I stopped using due to unhackable whiteness, but they were not in my top 15 or 50 or even 100, from among 400 or so various genres (outliner, notes, Mindmap, visual boards, tree editors, etc) I’ve tested & graded. I can’t stand a folder window in Windows which is white anymore.

Most software are actually not mentioned on this forum. When I did search for some, like Typora was not mentioned when I first mentioned it after searching, later yet posting a link by which time others said they’d been using it. I also have a backlog of about a dozen tree editors yet to test, been waiting a few months as no time. Most relevant software are not actually mentioned here for whatever reasons. But the few which had to be white, were not in my top 100 anyway. So no loss for me. Some I had to do myself, and take time, my optimized Scrivener black theme took many hours.

And it’s not just sensitive eyes which I do have. Since the 80’s, high end computer graphics stations are on a black OS & even in Light controlled rooms, graded & dimmed. In the 90’s some projects meant I had to use some. Same reason film color grade specialists & top photographers always had black environments to work in. The neural networks extend well into the eyes and can be trained & weighted over the years, hence why there’s always been less than a dozen telecine top colorists over the decades. Like developing a taste palette or top wine tasters. Other reasons to use back/dark theme apart from sensitive eyes or training the eye to fine expert levels are:

Black backgrounds let one work much longer with less visual stress

Helps avoid night time sleep disorder

Saves on battery

Less color & light vibrations, was much worse with CRT flickers

IMO more peaceful & relaxing & soothing, as most top CGI graphic station slaves I’ve met testify. Microsoft has been promising a true black, including folders etc, theme for Windows for years, including beta and final last year, but they keep postponing it, and will, I know why. Too much disruption in thousands of top software. But we use our own UI/UX libs and custom themes anyway.

White background has a few advantages, not for the eyes though, but that’s another story. As some girls say: Once you go black, you never go back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJAfLE39ZZ8