I would like to know why dark themed apps have become so popular? I'm 30 and use black on white themes whenever possible, only exception being when there are no other light sources, like reading from bed.
That's like saying "I am only interested in the one bits. They carry information, unlike the zero bits which signify nothing."
There is no fundamental difference between one bits and zero bits. This should be self-evident to any programmer. After all, you can apply a "not" function to any binary string to turn it into another string with all the bits reversed.
Light pixels and dark pixels each convey the same amount of information. Light themes vs. dark themes is not a question of which one lets photons carry more information, it's the same information either way.
The real difference is how our far-from-perfect human eyes perceive them.
You're telling me there's no difference between light and the absent of light barring our perception of them as though light isn't a physical phenomenon with measurable effects.
For an inverted color scheme (light information on a black background) on a display where black pixels don't emit light-- the only emissions your eyes have to take in are information.
Your digital logic analogy is sanitized. If the high logic level is at 10kV your equipment is going to have a hard time.
We're talking about staring into a light source, there's a difference in total energy your eyes have to absorb.
Maybe your argument is self-evident to any theorist, but it completely ignores the physical world.
I'd also add that when reading with reflected light (such as reading on paper), your eyes are going to be taking in the same amount of light regardless of where they look in your environment because you're just reading ambient light. Completely different than staring into a light source.
Try programming while looking through an LCD directly at the sun and have it display characters by darkening pixels of direct sunlight aimed at your retinae then tell me there's no difference between a lit pixel and a dark pixel.
Hey, there's no difference between a one bit and a zero bit, here's a great computer interface idea: Transmit binary data to the user with gamma rays. The only difference is in how their far from perfect human body experiences them.
There are two kinds of dark themes: low-contrast, washed-out dark themes that use various shades of greys, and high-contrast, white-on-black dark themes that are good for people with poor eyesight or poor quality hardware, and for use in an actually dark environment.
Naturally there are things in between the two, but by and large there’s a pretty clear division between the two and which is provided, and the latter are pretty rare.
I actually do, especially on my OLED laptop screen and phone. The backgrounds are often these dark but not black grays that just lower the contrast of the content for no reason. Chrome and Firefox have these reader modes that don't give a true black background, it's just so wasteful.
I still prefer those themes to black-on-light but I do not love them.
They’re supposed to reduce eye strain, but personally I’ve never experienced eye strain from any colour scheme, and suspect it has more to do with the eyesight of the user than the colours involved.
Staring into a bright screen in a poorly lit room is eye strain. The pupil is dilated because the room is almost dark so more of the light from the bright screen will hit the retina.
Blacking out the screen in those conditions reduces that strain. But you still have to maintain a good brightness and contrast between the elements otherwise you trade one issue for another.
There's no one size fits all unfortunately. Which is why it's great when developers allow for customization.
> Staring into a bright screen in a poorly lit room is eye strain.
That's a really good point.
If I have to use a computer or phone under poor lighting, I turn down the display brightness to match.
Otherwise, I prefer to be in a space where I can read something written on paper. And then I adjust the brightness to match that - not cranked up too bright like I see sometimes.
Personally I can work 16 hours with white theme but even 1-2 hours with strictly dark theme is borderline unbearable. I tried it multiple times due to posts advertising it's lower eye strain. I'm 30 and myopic, -4 in both eyes, using PCs for decades.
Opening a white window is like a full headlight in my eyes. Many scientific studies said that blue led (and then white RGB pixels) deteriorate the sight over time, by destructing photosensors in the eyes and they never recover. I would encourage black themes in all apps.
Apparently my direct experience gets downvotes. I literally use light themed apps in low light conditions every day and have never experienced any discomfort that could be called eye strain. For at least some set of people it simply does not exist. I therefore put the variance down to the individual’s vision.
I think it would largely depend on the display technology. I know for some technologies a black pixel uses nearly no energy, but for others, all pixels are equally 'lit' by the same backlight.
For OLED displays, black uses (almost?) no energy. For LCD displays, black uses more energy, since the pixel has to be energized to block out the backlight. The difference is negligible, though, since the backlight uses far more.