Going Dark(themed)

My website is going dark for Halloween! Last week I finally managed to find a nice (free) dark theme for WordPress, which had been surprisingly difficult. There are A LOT of really overpriced themes out there which don’t look that great, but I guess they are aimed at businesses who don’t want to hire a designer.

I didn’t really go with a dark theme for Halloween, I used one because they are way easier on the eyes and I use them everywhere else. Hackaday for example uses a black background with white text and I read it all day. I also use dark themes in text editors and IDE’s where ever possible. Sublime and Visual Studio both have really good built in dark themes and the Eclipse Moonlight UI theme looks really nice. Office even comes with a dark theme, although this doesn’t change the page colour. I don’t bother changing the page colour in word because I print on white paper and I need to see how it will actually look.

If you spend many hours per day staring at a screen and find you get tired or even get headaches you might benefit from a darker background. Technically black on white is easier to read (see this answer), especially if you have astigmatism, but over long periods I find it fatiguing to stare at a bright screen. If I have any issues reading text on a PC I can always zoom in/change font.

I also use f.lux which adjusts the colour spectrum of you display to give off less blue light. As they say on their website:

During the day, computer screens look good—they’re designed to look like the sun. But, at 9PM, 10PM, or 3AM, you probably shouldn’t be looking at the sun.

If you aren’t convinced that it matters, try using it one night and disable it at some point. Prepared to be blinded! It’s one of those things you don’t realise you need until you see it in action. It is starting to become more popular on smartphones since most people stare at them long into the night, which can prevent you getting to sleep easily.