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The Lounge General Discussion
#1

I just can’t stand wasting up to 60% of my monitor’s real estate with “modern” sites that have narrow stripe of text in the middle and wide empty spaces on it’s sides. Also it’s probably bad for your eyeball muscles - eyeball should really move side to side, not stay centered all the time.
Moreover, this white color will burn your retinas out sooner or later.

My solution is twofold:

Bonus: thin XTerm-like scrollbar for Chromium-based browsers (incl. Brave, Opera etc - won’t work in Firefox)

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#2

There is a darkmode btw :upside_down_face:

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#3

indeed there is, but somehow I like DarkReader’s result better. YMMV.

Edit: and you can adjust either of DarkReader’s 4 modes (Filter/Filter+/Static/Dynamic) any way you like, unlike stock dark mode…

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#4

Oh true. Contrast can have a wild effect depending on if you have astigmatism or not as well. Thanks for pointing that out

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#5

It probably isn’t. Your eyes are constantly moving anyway and our brains stabilise the image - just how wide the text might be on any given page is irrelevant. The white colour will not burn your retinas, or at least, it’s no worse than any other web page or web site. There is lots of really useful information out there about how to work with screens with no impact on your health…

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#6

anecdotal evidence suggests otherwise. Me and a couple of my colleagues actually did sight tests before and after switching to all-dark (I did it more than once). Sight goes down faster with bright colors if you stare at the monitor a lot (I mean almost full-time like we do). Believe me, those dark themes for various IDEs were created because of reason, and there’s a reason why UNIX console has bright text on a black background and not the other way around.

Edit: also I do believe that if LEDs are firing, bluelight & UV emissions go up (well, a little for UV due to filter film), isn’t that so?

#7

If you’ll forgive some tongue-in-cheek flippancy on my part, isn’t anecdotal evidence an oxymoron? More seriously, I know that there are various issues associated with prolonged use of monitors which is why I made reference to the screeds of information that is available on how best to work with them. I guess that the point I was alluding to was that the design choice of the Elektronauts forum is unlikely to account for any impact on anyone’s eyesight unless they are spending 8 hours reading the forum… I mean, sure there’s loads of great information here but…

Edit: I don’t know the history of UNIX terminal design, but I would hazard a guess it was more to do with how cathode ray tubes worked where it’s more efficient to put white on black.

#8

their terminal history actually started from teletype, which AFAIK printed black text on rolls of white paper…

Most early CRT terminals had green background.

When I read a book, I usually read greenish text on dark background. Sepia isn’t for me, YMMV, but the effect should be the same:
less blue light (mind you, white is RGB) -> less hard-energy entering the pupil -> better for retina.

why, DarkReader works for all the ‘web’ !

#10

Please don’t go to a black background and white text… that kills me. A few mins on a black background with bright text is more than enough. Maybe it’s my eyes but it’s visual torture (for me at least)

#11

For me it is the only way.
There were sufficiently large periods in my life when by willpower alone I made myself “be like others” and tortured my poor eyes with that white ‘web’ / white UI abomination, for months at a time. Then sight measurements showed that the damage was done (no wonder, eh), and I reverted to black background again. Second time I tried to decrease overall color temperature extremely - was more bearable then default, but still, I could only cope for a number of months and not longer. Got measured one more time (good jobs pay for that via premium health insurance), small damage was done, but damage still. Now I measure the same as that last test - only a dozen years later…

Yes, one should “acclimatize” to proper colors - it won’t come within a couple of minutes like you say (due to different focusing). You need time to get used to even some good things. :wink:

Also I can attest that cheapo displays won’t work with dark backgrounds at all - but who in his/her sane mind will buy cheap display anyway, given that eyes aren’t replaceable yet?

My suggestion to you is to try to use DarkReader in its Light mode, perusing Sepia & Brightness sliders as you see fit. You’ll cut blue light as stated above by doing that, and your retinas will be thankful later.

#12

I’d say that readability and eye strain would improve a lot if the font is not helvetica but smth more on the humanist side along with slight increase of size and line spacing.

#13

again DarkReader to the rescue - see its last (3rd) tab: it has font override, also has optional text stroke !

increase of font size? Just press Ctrl and roll that mousewheel ! Ctrl+0 (zero) resets it.

#14

Don’t be talking smack about helvetica!

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