Dark mode for Stack Overflow

[dsr_]

This seems redundant. What could be darker than the way they treat their volunteer moderators?

[hellofunk]

I've been waiting 10 years for this feature. Now that it's here, I can finally start using that website.

[basch]

https://darkreader.org/ works great for sites that dont have one.

[airstrike]

If that were really the only thin preventing you from using the website, you could have just written your own CSS or leveraged the dozen or so already available through Stylish

https://userstyles.org/styles/164922/stackoverflow-neon

[saagarjha]

Seems nice, but it’d be better if “system” ended up being the default even when not logged in.

[acqq]

And I don't want dark mode as the default, as I can't read such pages.

[airstrike]

It's still in beta

[vienzo]

When it's hidden behind login, 90% of population most likely will never see it.

[dewey]

90% of the population also probably don't care about dark mode as much as some people in the tech bubble.

[zamadatix]

It's beta, the average user isn't supposed to see it yet:

"We want to share it with our community, especially our power users, and gather feedback so we can improve, iterate, and expand Dark Mode in the future."

One of the beta is "System setting" which pulls the default from the browsers "prefers-color-scheme" value (which by default pulls it's value from the system scheme). When it's ready to roll out fully this seems to be the likely path they are planning.

[lstamour]

... but it doesn’t work on mobile, where dark mode was first popularized and whose screens tend to look best in dark mode due to the prevalence of smaller OLED panels which make white on dark truly pop... kind of disappointing then.

[galacticaactual]

The Chrome Extension "Dark Reader" has given me months of dark mode for hundreds of websites to include Stack Overflow. Given the long hours and late nights, it has been invaluable to both my productivity and eyesight.

[lukevp]

You may want to look into the science of this if you are doing it for your eyesight. I think dark mode looks great but it’s not definitely better for you. https://tidbits.com/2019/05/31/the-dark-side-of-dark-mode/

[quaffapint]

I've been using Dark Reader for about a month or so now and though it's anecdotal it has really helped with my dry/irritated eyes.

I realize it could be other factors as well, but I notice that I can go longer without my dry eyes bugging we with it on then with normal bright pages.

[Flimm]

The link is: https://darkreader.org/ . The extension exists for Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge.

[ravenstine]

That extension is amazing! I tried 4 different alternatives and they all had either terrible performance or just didn't work well for 1 in 4 websites.

[pedrokost]

Chrome has this built-in as a flag: chrome://flags/#enable-force-dark

It will render all web pages with dark mode

[ravoori]

Ditto Firefox

[ProAm]

There has been userstyle scripts for this for years as well.

[kyberias]

Is the dark mode supported in Windows + some browser combo so that the web site gets that info automatically?

[jakub_g]

Windows and Firefox and Chrome support dark mode. You can see for example on twitter_com.

How it works: OS setting is propagated to the browser, which propagates it to the websites via CSS `@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark)`.

For now StackOverflow is in beta, so it's only opt-in for logged in users.

[airstrike]

It's in beta still, but apparently one of the opt-in choices is "system" which presumably picks up what best fits your OS / browser choices.

Speaking for myself, it correctly chose "Dark" and I'm using Windows 10 and Firefox with a dark theme

[pojntfx]

Working fine on both macOS and Linux here.

[CodeSheikh]

Why do developers prefer dark mode for pretty much everything from IDE to OS to iOS?

Edit: added missing 'much'

[aviraldg]

I cannot comment on developers' preferences as a whole, but I personally have several large floaters (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floater) and using a display with a bright background makes them very noticeable and distracting. Which is why I use Dark Reader (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/eimadpbcbfnmbkopoo...) for websites and dark themes in my OS/terminal/IDEs. It's not just an aesthetic choice.

[yingw787]

For me, eye strain, and being more of a night owl (where it gets dark outside during winter).

I favor Solarized, which has both a light and dark theme: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solarized_(color_scheme)

[downtide]

I prefer consistency. The system setting, is the best here. If my system is dark, go dark, if light, go light. At night, dark is great, in a bright room, light wins. Shifting between the extremes is horrid.

[jonfw]

I feel like light mode is way way easier on my eyes, but I generally work in well lit rooms and avoid computers at night.

Plus I think it's important for your circadian rhythm. Bright blue-ish white makes you feel like it's daytime

[Ididntdothis]

I find it easier on the eyes if I stare at a screen the whole day.

[mixmastamyk]

It had for years with the "dark mode and light text" extension. But, glad to see more sites supporting the css mode.

It's funny, the text of the blog post makes it sound like it was really difficult. Non-trivial, sure, but difficult?

[NKosmatos]

So, when can we expect to see a dark mode here in our beloved HN? (currently reading on an iPad, late at night, with night shift on to cut blue light and with minimum brightness to reduce eye strain)

[redditmigrant]

The title should be "StackOverflow now has a dark mode" instead of "StackOverflow has now a dark mode".

[airstrike]

No, it really should be "Introducing Dark Mode (beta) for Stack Overflow"

[frosted-flakes]

Also, Stack Overflow is two words.

[lopis]

Both are grammatically correct. "has now" gives emphasis to "now" while "now has" emphasizes "has".

[ravoori]

Interesting, what is the difference?

[adamanz]

Just what the world needed!

[Ididntdothis]

Sounds pretty disruptive to me :) At least they put energy into something useful instead of wasting millions on a logo...

[DJBunnies]

Thanks, Yoda.

[32gbsd]

Well this is new