Spurred to action by squinty eye strain and this thread about Google Drive not having a dark theme like Gmail does, I tinkered with the CSS on the Typo theme I use here to make it mostly dark with a not-quite-white text, bucking the design trend of Apple and every website in existence that relies on white backgrounds.
There’s this guy who makes a case that dark sites “suck,” but what sucks more is being shivved with ads and graphics sprayed all over the page, especially when they are rudely stuck in your face like a dirt-encrusted middle finger, right in the midst of reading content. One of Davey’s arguments is that books are white with black text. That’s great, but pages are not glowing screens, and we’re not viewing them in low light. But judging by his author photo he enjoys seductively staring into the sun so such mild self-abuse might be a personal problem preference of his.
I may have missed something in the CSS, so if anything looks strange, let me know in the comments.
5 Comments
I seem to recall studies done back in the 1980s indicating that, on glowing electronic displays, white on dark blue was the least eye-strain or something like that. The next best was pale colors on black. Think DOS-based word processors. I still have one of my favorites on CD: Enable A/O.
Do you have a screenshot of that program, Ed? I searched for one but I couldn’t find.
Not currently, but I’m planning to run Win2K in a VM which is perfect for old DOS stuff. I’ll post it on FB just for fun.
I would assume that books were printed with black ink on white pages because of the cost and nature of the ink itself. If that is accurate, it would seem to nullify his argument.
Josh! Always good to see you. Sort of. On the internet.
That’s a good point. Book paper has been white or off-white, and you’d have to print dark onto it anyways if you wanted white lettering. Not very cost effective. Black on white reading was the default, not really by choice.