#ThanksOGB
This one goes out to the one I love
This one goes out to the one I left behind
A simple theme to occupy my time
This one goes out to the one I love
Dark
Mode
This one goes out to the one I love
This one goes out to the one I’ve left behind
Another theme has occupied my time
This one goes out to the one I love
Dark
Mode
original lyrics by R.E.M. – slightly modified by me [SUW]
Every developer knows that there is a dark mode. Here is why I like that and why you should use it too.
There are two simple reasons.
A) it is better for your eyes (not always)
B) it is better for the climate (always)
I’ll explain that a little bit later and also give some sources for further reading. First lets see how dark mode looks in a typical developer environment.
Examples
Now the DBA had terminals using dark mode for ages. The typical putty session is a black background with a white font color.
There is a reason why so many DBAs still use putty in dark mode (it is possible to change the colors). If a pattern is so well established, there must be a good reason for it.
Developers should think about that and consider to use dark mode too!
Don’t let those pesky DBAs get the upper hand! Fight them with their own weapons!
Now here is an example from APEX. APEX in its newest versions added a dark theme to be used for applications (18.1), but also a dark mode for the development environment (19.2 ea).
First this is how we are used to the application screen in page builder (light mode)
And this is the same page using dark mode
You can change it with a small little switch in your user settings.
Ok dark mode is not perfect for any scenario.
I tried to read up a bit about it. Usually it is recommended if there is lots of text on a screen or if there are graphical elements. Also it depends on the surrounding light. In bright daylight light mode would be better suited – because the difference to surrounding light seems to put some stress on your eyes. But do you program in bright daylight or in darker office light or even at night?
I think dashboard pages profit most from dark mode. Here is an example from the Sample Demo packaged application.
This application works very well in dark mode. Charts do look so much better on a dark background!
But we also see that it was developed in light mode and that there are several elements that are not optimized yet. In the screenshot the legend text is not readable and the tooltip still has a light gray background. Other charts have similar issues. If we do development in “dark mode first” then those issues should disappear.
Why do I claim it is good for the climate?
Dark mode uses less brightness, which means it uses less power on Laptops. The effect is especially noticable on OLED displays.
A study by google showed energy savings up to 60%:
https://www.xda-developers.com/google-wants-developers-to-add-dark-themes-to-save-battery-life/
- Brightness affects power usage, and battery life, in a mostly linear fashion.
- A dark theme can reduce battery usage, even with max brightness, by up to 63% on AMOLED displays.
- Pixel color value can also affect power usage quite a bit, with white being the most power-hungry color.
Recommendation
Give dark mode a try!
PS: For blog posts I still do prefer light mode.
Links about dark mode
https://blog.weekdone.com/why-you-should-switch-on-dark-mode/
scientific research about effect of contrast and colors on humans: https://lite.mst.edu/media/research/ctel/documents/LITE-2003-04.pdf
dark mode for google maps announced: https://www.googlewatchblog.de/2019/10/google-maps-der-dark/
svenweller 