Color Themes for Visual Studio. This extension installs additional color themes for Visual Studio. Similar to the Color Theme Editor, but without the editor - just the themes. Includes all the themes available in the Color Theme Editor, plus additional themes contributed by the community.
This question already has an answer here:
- What are the negative and positive aspects of dark color scheme? 14 answers
This is not a programming question, but it concerns the programmer itself. So I don't know if it really belongs on this site. But my question is: what is better for the eyes, a dark color theme or a white color theme?
Jack TwainJack Twain1,3543 gold badges8 silver badges5 bronze badges
marked as duplicate by Mervin Johnsingh, Erics, DA01, JonW♦Mar 2 '14 at 19:46
This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
5 Answers
There has been a lot of research on this topic since the 1980s and a lot of it still holds true today. One study from the 1980s states this:
However, most studies have shown that dark characters on a light background are superior to light characters on a dark background (when the refresh rate is fairly high). For example, Bauer and Cavonius (1980) found that participants were 26% more accurate in reading text when they read it with dark characters on a light background.
Reference: Bauer, D., & Cavonius, C., R. (1980). Improving the legibility of visual display units through contrast reversal. In E. Grandjean, E. Vigliani (Eds.), Ergonomic Aspects of Visual Display Terminals (pp. 137-142). London: Taylor & Francis
The reason why this matters is because of focus. As this article on UXMovement states, 'white stimulates all three types of color sensitive visual receptors in the human eye in nearly equal amounts.' It causes the eye to focus by tightening the iris. Since the eye is focused, dark letter forms on light backgrounds are easier to read. When using a dark background with strong light letter forms, the iris opens to allow more light in, but that causes letter forms to blur. Why?
People with astigmatism (approximately 50% of the population) find it harder to read white text on black than black text on white. Part of this has to do with light levels: with a bright display (white background) the iris closes a bit more, decreasing the effect of the 'deformed' lens; with a dark display (black background) the iris opens to receive more light and the deformation of the lens creates a much fuzzier focus at the eye.
Jason Harrison – Post Doctoral Fellow, Imager Lab Manager – Sensory Perception and Interaction Research Group, University of British Columbia
Now there seem to be varying factors into contrast and legibility. Room ambient lighting. Brightness of the monitor. Also you can mitigate the straining effects of white (#FFF) on black (#000) by simply lessening the contrast like using a light gray (#EEE, #DDD, #CCC) on a dark background (#111, #222).
Further reading:
- UX.SE Post: 'Which color scheme to choose for applications that require long work hours?'
- Journal of Vision – Interaction of Ambient Lighting and LCD Polarity on Text Processing and Viewing Comfort
- Journal of Vision – Why is light text harder to read than dark text?
Community♦
HynesHynes7,2102 gold badges14 silver badges34 bronze badges
For me, a dark background in a dark room or a bright background in a bright room is ideal.Bright rooms causes the eye to let less light in, making dark backgrounds and the little bright letters even darker.
As for the dark room: being able to see the rest of the room is important for me to be able to look away from the screen now and then.
Have a look at GPS-devices for use in cars. They have different themes depending on the time of day.
Filip HaglundFilip Haglund8051 gold badge6 silver badges13 bronze badges
Computer vision syndrome expert Dr. James Sheedy:
'The best color combination for your eyes is black text on a white background, though other dark-on-light combinations also work well.'
SOURCE: http://www.allaboutvision.com/cvs/irritated.htm (independent source of trustworthy information on eye health)
Personally for me light text on dark background strains my eyes, and that's why I have always wondered why so many colleagues use light text on dark background, and keep saying it's better for the eye, since for me only normal thing has been dark text on white background.
Samuel MSamuel M1,9581 gold badge10 silver badges14 bronze badges
Two things that can make this an 'it depends' issue are environment and visual impairment.
Using an app at night might make lighter text on a dark background better. For example, I find it less straining (and certainly less annoying to my wife) to use a dark background reading e-books in bed). Someone needing to preserve night vision or security, such as military or law enforcement, might also require much less light emission. Another factor might be the content displayed in an application. For instance, where the content is primarily videos or movies, a darker, more 'cinematic' UI will be appropriate.
Some visual impairments require high-contrast for legibility and this is occasionally aided by being able to select a reversed foreground/background color set.
StonetipStonetip
You may be talking about strain and not personal taste. One thing I know, though, is that it is somewhat physically painful to look at themes that have dark backgrounds with extremely bright (high brightness and saturation) foreground icons/text. If you choose dark backgrounds, lessen the brightness and saturation but make it still readable without effort.
White background with dark text is commonplace, and I haven't heard of any eye strain complaint about it. Bright backgrounds such as #00ffff (aqua) with dark text are very straining, though.
Mickael CarusoMickael Caruso
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged colorthemeshuman-eye or ask your own question.
This question already has an answer here:
- What are the negative and positive aspects of dark color scheme? 14 answers
This is not a programming question, but it concerns the programmer itself. So I don't know if it really belongs on this site. But my question is: what is better for the eyes, a dark color theme or a white color theme?
Jack TwainJack Twain1,3543 gold badges8 silver badges5 bronze badges
marked as duplicate by Mervin Johnsingh, Erics, DA01, JonW♦Mar 2 '14 at 19:46
This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
5 Answers
There has been a lot of research on this topic since the 1980s and a lot of it still holds true today. One study from the 1980s states this:
However, most studies have shown that dark characters on a light background are superior to light characters on a dark background (when the refresh rate is fairly high). For example, Bauer and Cavonius (1980) found that participants were 26% more accurate in reading text when they read it with dark characters on a light background.
Reference: Bauer, D., & Cavonius, C., R. (1980). Improving the legibility of visual display units through contrast reversal. In E. Grandjean, E. Vigliani (Eds.), Ergonomic Aspects of Visual Display Terminals (pp. 137-142). London: Taylor & Francis
The reason why this matters is because of focus. As this article on UXMovement states, 'white stimulates all three types of color sensitive visual receptors in the human eye in nearly equal amounts.' It causes the eye to focus by tightening the iris. Since the eye is focused, dark letter forms on light backgrounds are easier to read. When using a dark background with strong light letter forms, the iris opens to allow more light in, but that causes letter forms to blur. Why?
People with astigmatism (approximately 50% of the population) find it harder to read white text on black than black text on white. Part of this has to do with light levels: with a bright display (white background) the iris closes a bit more, decreasing the effect of the 'deformed' lens; with a dark display (black background) the iris opens to receive more light and the deformation of the lens creates a much fuzzier focus at the eye.
Jason Harrison – Post Doctoral Fellow, Imager Lab Manager – Sensory Perception and Interaction Research Group, University of British Columbia
Now there seem to be varying factors into contrast and legibility. Room ambient lighting. Brightness of the monitor. Also you can mitigate the straining effects of white (#FFF) on black (#000) by simply lessening the contrast like using a light gray (#EEE, #DDD, #CCC) on a dark background (#111, #222).
Further reading:
- UX.SE Post: 'Which color scheme to choose for applications that require long work hours?'
- Journal of Vision – Interaction of Ambient Lighting and LCD Polarity on Text Processing and Viewing Comfort
- Journal of Vision – Why is light text harder to read than dark text?
Community♦
HynesHynes7,2102 gold badges14 silver badges34 bronze badges
For me, a dark background in a dark room or a bright background in a bright room is ideal.Bright rooms causes the eye to let less light in, making dark backgrounds and the little bright letters even darker.
As for the dark room: being able to see the rest of the room is important for me to be able to look away from the screen now and then.
Have a look at GPS-devices for use in cars. They have different themes depending on the time of day.
Filip HaglundFilip Haglund8051 gold badge6 silver badges13 bronze badges
Computer vision syndrome expert Dr. James Sheedy:
'The best color combination for your eyes is black text on a white background, though other dark-on-light combinations also work well.'
SOURCE: http://www.allaboutvision.com/cvs/irritated.htm (independent source of trustworthy information on eye health)
Personally for me light text on dark background strains my eyes, and that's why I have always wondered why so many colleagues use light text on dark background, and keep saying it's better for the eye, since for me only normal thing has been dark text on white background.
Samuel MSamuel M1,9581 gold badge10 silver badges14 bronze badges
Two things that can make this an 'it depends' issue are environment and visual impairment.
Using an app at night might make lighter text on a dark background better. For example, I find it less straining (and certainly less annoying to my wife) to use a dark background reading e-books in bed). Someone needing to preserve night vision or security, such as military or law enforcement, might also require much less light emission. Another factor might be the content displayed in an application. For instance, where the content is primarily videos or movies, a darker, more 'cinematic' UI will be appropriate.
Some visual impairments require high-contrast for legibility and this is occasionally aided by being able to select a reversed foreground/background color set.
StonetipStonetip
You may be talking about strain and not personal taste. One thing I know, though, is that it is somewhat physically painful to look at themes that have dark backgrounds with extremely bright (high brightness and saturation) foreground icons/text. If you choose dark backgrounds, lessen the brightness and saturation but make it still readable without effort.
White background with dark text is commonplace, and I haven't heard of any eye strain complaint about it. Bright backgrounds such as #00ffff (aqua) with dark text are very straining, though.
Mickael CarusoMickael Caruso