> Ergonomics research has shown a long time ago that dark text on light background is easier to read on computer screens for long periods of time.
I have to wonder whether that research took into consideration how large and bright modern displays are, and for the duration that modern IT professionals are using them for.
I would guess that the majority of these people would have been using 15-19" CRT monitors, and mostly single displays.
In pretty much every office that I've seen, most people have two or three 23-27" displays. Modern LCD panels are also extremely bright.
Staring at that much screen realestate with primarily light/white colours can be painful for long periods of time. It certainly feels less uncomfortable to use a darker theme.
> I would guess that the majority of these people would have been using 15-19" CRT monitors, and mostly single displays.
I doubt that this is the reason. On a CRT I prefer bright text on dark backgrounds because it minimizes visible flicker. Where the screen is dark on a CRT, the beam is simply off. This becomes especially important if the monitor has low refresh rate and/or fast phosphor. I think that it's for this reason that a lot of (actual) terminals have really long afterglow phosphor and use bright text on dark backgrounds. It's basically a prerequisite to use them regularly for any extended amount of time. Newer CRTs improve the situation considerably, though, with much faster refresh rates to compensate for the short afterglow necessary for media like games and video.
Overall I think that using CRTs is more exhausting than LCDs, even taking into consideration the typical size of a computer CRT display compared to a modern office dual LCD setup. After a couple of hours of use of a 15" 2002 CRT my eyes feel dry and sandy, and the problem is exacerbated by bright screen content. Also, my LCDs (at home and at work) are not nearly as bright as my CRTs.
On LCDs I tend to use bright backgrounds in daylight because it seems much easier to read, and the screen doesn't need to be so bright. In the dark, I use dark backgrounds because bright screens easily become the brightest thing in the room with little natural lighting. In practice this means a bright theme at work and a dark theme at home.
I can't wait for paper-like unlit desktop displays with fast refresh rates. IMO it's the most important step for improved computer ergonomics. Then we can fully embrace natural lighting e.g. during summer time office hours, which is healthy for soul and body and easier on the eyes than basically staring into a lamp. Also potentially a lot more energy efficient.
I have been using solarized-dark for a long time and switched to light background for a few years only to be back in a dark mode everywhere.
I find this much easier on my eyes than light theme. Especially when I read some pdf's just before bed and all lights are off where my screen is the only source of brightness. Granted I also reduce my laptop screen brightness and pdf viewer (Zathura or Mupdf) supports custom colors (solarized dark). My eyes never get too tired.
I've also used redshift for some time but I don't need the gamma reduction actually with the above approach. At night my laptop looks very similar to "e-paper" or a Kindle. And my gf who has to get up a couple of hours earlier doesn't even notice my late night reading next to her.
Also, did that research have variables for ambient lighting (in field of view but not from the display) and for screen glare? A 360-degree bright cube farm is much different from a dim room with a desk lamp facing away. Your eyes respond differently and I would love to know more.
I suspect the real answer is a big, fat, "it depends."
Turn the brightness down to something not much brighter than a sheet of paper on your desk. You can always turn it up to watch a movie.
The brightness setting is like the adjustments on a car driver seat: the point is not to always use an extreme of the range. You probably wouldn’t move the seat all the way back just because the setting exists.
> Turn the brightness down to something not much brighter than a sheet of paper on your desk. You can always turn it up to watch a movie.
With the computer screens I've seen, it's only possible to approach paper in a brightly lit environment. I'm normally setting brightness to minimum and contrast to maximum, and still using light-on-dark themes with good (though not extreme) contrast.
For dim environments, some mobile phone screens (and I've heard computer screens as well) attempt such adjustment automatically, and can go dimmer than common computer screens, but it usually leads to a very low contrast and illegible texts.
> I have to wonder whether that research took into consideration how large and bright modern displays are, and for the duration that modern IT professionals are using them for.
I have to wonder whether that research took into consideration how large and bright modern displays are, and for the duration that modern IT professionals are using them for.
I would guess that the majority of these people would have been using 15-19" CRT monitors, and mostly single displays.
In pretty much every office that I've seen, most people have two or three 23-27" displays. Modern LCD panels are also extremely bright.
Staring at that much screen realestate with primarily light/white colours can be painful for long periods of time. It certainly feels less uncomfortable to use a darker theme.