[jellyfishbeaver]

I must be in the extreme minority, I always prefer light themes.

[cosmic_cheese]

For me my preference toward dark themes increased through the 2000s along with my need for syntax highlighting as I started writing more complex code. With light themes, syntax colors don’t “pop” nearly as well, giving me fewer visual anchors and making my eyes get lost in the code a lot more easily.

That said, I’m not fond of super dark or pure black-based themes and prefer those with a 75% gray background (with 100% being black) or thereabouts. With pure black themes the code pops too much and it feels like it’s all vying for my eyes’ attention at once.

[herpdyderp]

I've also found that light themes have issues with syntax color "pop". I always make my own!

[wincy]

I changed my home office to my “luminarium” where I’m using about 700W of LED bulbs to get my lux to around 10,000. It’s a necessity that I use light mode, it’s impossible to see dark mode.

Also it effectively cured my SAD.

[wyre]

700 real watts or equivalent watts?

[weebao]

My dad also did that to my house too, and I had to try to find a corner dark enough to see my editor in dark mode lol

[MadnessASAP]

As a real Stan for good indoor lighting, I would like to know more about your setup.

[kleiba]

We're in the same boat, my eyes actually start hurting when I look at a light-on-dark screen for more than a couple of seconds.

I'm just really glad that my web browser has a reader mode, or else there would be quite a few web sites (blogs etc.) that I could not read.

[dijit]

I get horrified looks from my dev team when they look at my screen, but I typically use light mode for work, and I find it easier to read by a long shot.

For dev work at home, I use darkmode, but I usually work in a less well-lit environment and for less time.

[ImPleadThe5th]

Exactly. Light mode for coding in the sun. Dark mode for late night hacking.

[dusted]

Yeah, I remember back when I was a cringy teenager and bought into all the propaganda about why darkmode was better for eyes and whatnot, so much stuff.. So I spent 15 years or so with darkmode, untile one day, i read somewhere that the evidence of darkmode being better was not just lacking, but that people read dark letters on a bright background faster and more accurately than the other way around.. Now this is the Internet, with a capital I so I won't back up that claim with any references, and it's not important whether anyone believes that or not, fact is, that day, I thought "hm" and I switched my editor back to light mode and thought "hm, this is fine too" and I kept it long enough that I discovered that I prefer it.. Now, my xterm, I do want white on black, but that's just something about how that bitmap font looks to my eyes, that makes me want it that way.

But honestly, I don't get what the big deal is with either preference, it's not a big deal really.. black or white.. it's fine!

[maksimur]

I use light mode during the day and dark mode from dusk till dawn. I do this because I find it more comfortable, not because I'm told by someone or a study that it's better.

[jisnsm]

I suffer from astigmatism and dark themes fatigue me a lot.

[david422]

Same here, I think that's why I prefer light themes when developing. Although I like my terminals dark for some reason.

[lemper]

same, mate. i'm not sure why people question or consider my preference (that actually affects my situation) as an unusual situation. haven't they ever seen a blind with a stick? to be exaggerating.

[tsumnia]

WIIIIIIIITCH!

Just kidding ;D

I'm actually studying my students' color theme preferences for lecture slides and I'm seeing that while a majority do prefer dark mode, there is noticeable chunk that still prefer light mode. I think some of it may involve time of viewing, but that is another research question I haven't explored quite yet.

[PKop]

In the daytime I prefer light mode, and at night I prefer dark mode. I think it's somewhat odd to have a preference inconsistent with the time of day.

[ramon156]

I actually went back from dark to light! Feels pretty good

[mmoskal]

I think universally light when using a projector! But maybe nowadays it's remote or big LCDs...

[foepys]

Same here. I work in an office with lots of daylight and dark mode makes it actually very hard to see.

Also, light theme allows for more distinguishable colors.

[guestbest]

I’m actually moving to an extreme because of the busy colors on the screen attracting distractions, high contrast white on windows with Color Filters on grayscale. It’s like reading a newspaper. Now I just need to increase the window frame borders for the touch screen and it looks like eink

[immibis]

In my opinion, dark themes are for when your monitor's brightness is set too high.

[jdyer9]

I always struggled with loving dark mode, but I usually keep my brightness as low as tolerable without straining, and your comment made me wonder if it's related I do like dark mode if I'm working in a super dark room though

[weebao]

I love how this went viral because of this thread lol. I do know some friends who prefer light mode too, so maybe an opposite effect of forcing your light-mode-fan opponent to code in dark mode? Dunno lol

[winocm]

You’re not alone. I do the same, but often I keep the text editor in dark mode but the rest of the system on light mode to help provide contrast.

[tabony]

Dark mode is difficult to read for me.