
63% Prefer a Dark Themed Text Editor - joeybaker
http://paulrouget.com/e/colorssurvey/
======
billybob
I use the Solarized theme in Vim and find it's very nice:
<http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized>

It has a dark version, which I use for coding, and which I think works better
with syntax highlighting. It also has a light version, which I like for
regular text editing.

Both have nice contrast, and you can toggle between the two with a single
keypress.

~~~
JoshMock
I've been using Jellybeans for Vim
(<https://github.com/nanotech/jellybeans.vim>) for some time and, try as I
might, I can't make the switch to Solarized.

~~~
blaenk
Nice theme! All of the vim themes I tend to see are very simple in terms of
color. Understandable that some might find more than a couple colors to be
distracting, but I find it very helpful.

Syntax highlighting was the one last thing I regretted leaving TextMate for,
but yesterday I spent a day tweaking my own theme (based off of Tomorrow-Night
<https://github.com/ChrisKempson/Tomorrow-Theme> , which does have a vim theme
but I found it lacking and not at all like the TextMate version) and I like it
so far. But it's nice to finally know of another theme with nice colors.
Thanks :)

In fact I think I like the string highlighting on this one, I might try it on
mine :)

------
CoffeeDregs
I prefer white backgrounds when _reading_. Everything is consistent with a
white background and black text, and I can scan the text quickly.

With coding, my preference is exactly the opposite (I prefer a black
background). The difference is that the structure of a program is much more
complicated than the structure of prose and that structure is more apparent
with white/colors on a black background. Further, the colors of syntax
highlighting seem to be much more apparent when displayed on a black screen
rather than on white.

------
shasta
Given how opinionated the dark background folk I've met have been (possibly
just because they feel ignored by common windows editors) I'd worry about
selection bias in a result like this.

~~~
jpadvo
This is a really great point. In fact, _any_ survey with self-selecting
participants is highly susceptible to selection bias. What surveys like this
are good for is measuring the opinions of a group of people, weighted by
degree of explicit interest in the subject. Most people just use the default
light-backgrounded-schemes, and don't even think about it. The silent
majority.

However, this survey is useful in that it reveals that there is indeed a
passionate core of users who prefer dark backgrounds. The survey author seems
to understand all this, as his conclusion is that it is definitely worth
adding a dark background option, but that it may or may not be the default.

------
falcolas
I prefer light backgrounds, for one simple reason. Less eye strain.

If the majority of the screen is light, my pupils contract, which results in
less eye strain to keep everything in focus. I can use smaller fonts &
maintain readability. I used to love the Zenburn color scheme, but that just
doesn't work as well for me anymore.

Note - I'm not talking black on white. I'm talking dark grey (ebebeb) on light
grey (0f0f0f).

~~~
outworlder
Your pupils contract because you are being overwhelmed be the amount of light
coming out of your monitor. This doesn't sound so relaxing to me ;)

On the other hand, you could be myopic and under-corrected - and so suffer
more when the pupils are relaxed (similar to the Night Myopia effect).

I do find it almost impossible to use dark background IDEs (such as XCode and
Eclipse), because of the other GUI elements cluttering the screen (which are
usually light). And this causes a lot of eye strain, because the amount of
incoming light is still huge, while most of the screen is dark, relaxing the
pupils and burning the retina.

Since most of my time I'm on Emacs or the terminal, I'm cool. Switching to a
browser still hurts - one more incentive not to look at Hacker News while
working ;)

~~~
falcolas
Not myopic, but I do have some eye problems that limit the correction I can
get. This may make me in the minority, but it also means that dark background
defaults are not a positive experience for me. Text on light backgrounds is is
crisp, while dark backgrounds looks like it's been badly anti-aliased.

With regards to brightness of the monitors, I keep it reasonable - about 25%
of what the monitors could do.

~~~
outworlder
When I have no choice, I also tone down the brighness to ridiculous low
levels. On some monitors, even 0% is too bright (hint: change the contrast
then, some monitors will dim the backlight some more).

------
yesimahuman
I love a dark color scheme, but the chrome also has to be dark. For example, I
can't use dark browser themes because most websites have a white background
and the contrast is difficult to deal with.

~~~
hopeless
This is one thing that Sublime 2 gets wrong

~~~
jkmcf
Is this what you are looking for?

<https://github.com/buymeasoda/soda-theme>

~~~
hopeless
I'd tried that and it totally messed up the chrome because it could load the
required images. But this was on Windows. Perhaps I'll try again.

~~~
swah
You must have put the files on the wrong place. Works fine for me on Windows.
This is my path:

C:\Users\swah\AppData\Roaming\Sublime Text 2\Packages\Theme - Soda

~~~
hopeless
I'll try again. I just used the Package Manager

------
cleaver
I suspect it has something to do with when you started using computers. In the
VT-100 and MS-DOS days, you pretty much got light text on a dark background.
So when GUI environments came along, dark text on a light background became
the new cool thing. That's my story, so I grew to like a light background.

I'm guessing that the majority of coders today started out on Windows. Notepad
is dark on light, so that became associated with the "common" user. The first
peek under the hood would have been Windows command line or Linux. I could see
that a dark background would feel more 'tech'.

~~~
jff
Alternately, the current batch of programmers grew up on the Matrix movies and
associate green-on-black with leet hackerdom. At least, that's the only reason
I can come up with--use a VT220 for a while and everything will look purple
when you look away.

~~~
johnohara
Always preferred amber instead of green. Got spoiled with a VT240.

------
mixmastamyk
One size doesn't have to fit all...

The compiz negative (Super N) and brightness (Super B) plugins allow me to use
bright themes when the sun is pouring in and dark themes at night when
illuminated only by xmas lights. I also use a greyish theme with a redshift
type program on Windows.

When reading HN or other obnoxiously bright sites at night, +Super N and
kaboom, grey on black. Give it a try.

Remember that the ergonomic choice for many years was amber monochrome on
black and it was quite soothing.

------
videoappeal
Statistic is flawed. Most people who use the default white themes probably
dont read HackerNews, dont care to optimize their setup or routine. Those that
read hackernews with a woren out F5 key are likely to be heavily influenced by
the dark theme propaganda (screencasts etc..) that swamp HN. Just saying.. I
can draw any reasonable conclusions from your stats, or even my own devil's
advocate view.. Does it matter?

~~~
tlrobinson
_"influenced by the dark theme propaganda (screencasts etc..) that swamp HN"_

The thought of people consciously using screencasts to promote their dark
theme agenda made me chuckle.

~~~
mhartl
Shhh... Don't tell everyone! The editor screenshots and code samples in the
_Rails Tutorial_ book are light because dark was too jarring against the
surrounding text. The screencasts, on the other hand... _Mwa hah hah!_

------
bitsoda
You can take my life, but you can never take away my Monokai.

<http://www.monokai.nl/blog/2006/07/15/textmate-color-theme/>

~~~
oacgnol
I switched to vim and immediately found a vim colorscheme for my beloved
Monokai: <http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2340>

------
rcthompson
I would let the survey go over at least a full 24 hours. If you ask at night,
you might only get responses from the nocturnal people, and same problem for
asking during the day.

------
aresant
This feels like the old Coke vs. Pepsi blind-taste challenge.

Pepsi won a majority of the time on first taste because it is instantly
sweeter.

But long term people prefer the flavor and full experience of Coke.

In my experience this translates: the dark-theme instantly feels more clear
and crisp.

But over time I find that the dark creates too much contrast and slows me
down.

~~~
burgerbrain
Personally I'm a fan of dark backgrounds that use a dark grey background with
various earth tones for the foreground. Rather low contrast.

------
buster
For a long time now the first thing i do in a new text editor is to look for a
nice dark theme.. i don't know.. it's somewhat more relaxing :) Oblivion was
probably one of the first i used in all those gtk based editors.

edit: Also, default colorschemes on terminals are dark, why is that?

~~~
jkmcf
Probably historical, as CRTs are black by default and you could burn in a
solid white background.

------
jvdh
While I prefer a dark background, I'm in an office with sunlight coming from
behind my screen. I've noticed about six months ago that I was getting
headaches when using a dark editor. Since I've changed from dark to light
background the headaches have gone away.

------
andrewcooke
does anyone know of a simple (preferably one click) way to get eclipse or
intellij idea to work with a dark theme (on linux/kde)? i use a dark kde theme
and it causes chaos in eclipse (or at least used to when i last tried - black
text on dark backgrounds etc), while intellij idea at least works, but uses a
light theme. i'd love an ide for java/python that was easy to configure dark
(yes, i have emacs working fine white on black, but that's not what i am
looking for).

[edit: i just installed eclipse 3.7.1 and it picks up the general theme
correctly, but the editors have dark text on dark backgrounds and i don't see
any simple way to change that without changing each font setting in turn.]

~~~
wladimir
<http://www.eclipsecolorthemes.org/> can do this.

~~~
andrewcooke
thanks. just to expand for others: the minimum you need to do is install the
plugin. that comes with some default schemes that are dark.

you can also build your own scheme on the site, building off someone else's.
that's easy too, and then can be loaded by the plugin. my own is at
[http://www.eclipsecolorthemes.org/?view=theme&id=5095](http://www.eclipsecolorthemes.org/?view=theme&id=5095)

------
elektronaut
I prefer a dark background in my text editor, but I think that would look out
of place when integrated with the browser chrome. Going with a light theme is
probably a good default.

------
bascule
I have vitreous floaters (see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floater>) which
are significantly more visible against a white background. This is especially
annoying while programming. I've always preferred a dark background though
tried switching to a white one a few years ago. Floaters made the decision for
me: dark it is.

------
kooshball
Son of Obsidian is currently my favorite

<http://studiostyl.es/schemes/son-of-obsidian>

I do not like the contrast of Solarized (low contrast) nor monokai (super high
contrast with bright pink). Son of obsidian is a good in between.

------
samwyse
I _love_ white on black when I'd actually using a product, but I really prefer
black on white when I'm taking a screenshot (such as the illustration in the
article). I think the issue is the non-linear response of the human eye to
illumination. Screenshots tend to get rescaled to make them fit on a page, and
this generally causes white-on-black to become (to the eye) dark-gray-on-
black. Black-on-white, when rescaled, becomes (to the eye) dark-gray-on-white,
which has better contrast.

In summary, I want it super-easy for me to reverse or otherwise change my
theme when I'm taking a screenshot, perhaps even embedding it into the
application.

------
roestava
I prefer white backgrounds out of habit. So my terminal is white, text editor
is white, browser is white, Linux desktop theme is brighter...

I must say that other users may well like it the other way, because when I
used to browse for GTK themes on the <http://gnome-look.org/> site, many of
the new themes were cooler when they were darker...

BTW, I just found out the <http://gnome-look.org/> itself is whiter and
brighter. Oh the joy! Cheers.

------
tvon
I find it depends on the environment. If it's a bright room (or the sun is
shining in the window) I might go to the light background, otherwise it'll
probably stay dark.

Related, I always figured the dark desktop UI themes (eg, for GNOME, KDE,
Windows, etc) were highly preferred by people working in dark rooms, like a
studio or college dorm at 3am. Once upon a time I liked these, but since I'm
less nocturnal these days I prefer lighter themes.

------
joshaidan
I remember having a discussion about this with a buddy who noticed I used a
dark themed editor. He cited some study, I don't know exactly what study it
was, that said our brains work better looking at a white background. (Perhaps
more neurons fire or something like that)

What do you think about this? Do you feel you work better with a black
background, or do you just use one because it's more cool/retro looking than a
white background?

~~~
lucian1900
In fact, there have been numerous studies that show we're much better at
reading white-on-black text, but because of historical reasons (paper) many of
us are conditioned to prefer black-on-white. That 63% would be higher with a
different cultural background.

~~~
ugh
I’m curious. Do you have links to those studies?

Looking superficially, I could only find articles claiming the exact opposite
– like [http://blog.tatham.oddie.com.au/2008/10/13/why-light-text-
on...](http://blog.tatham.oddie.com.au/2008/10/13/why-light-text-on-dark-
background-is-a-bad-idea/) – but they all seem to quote the same and old
(1980) research.

~~~
lucian1900
I'll try to find the titles.

Note that not all such studies look at the same thing. I should've been more
precise: on paper and with training, people were much faster at quickly
reading a page if it was light-on-dark than dark-on-light or dark-on-white.

------
richardg
Been using the Dark scheme on Komodo Edit. Its easier on the eyes and is a big
factor especially if you sit in front of your monitor most of the day (or
night).

See here - [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/498698/white-light-vs-
bla...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/498698/white-light-vs-black-dark-
backgrounds-health-effects)

------
kreek
I use both, I think it came out of not being able to edit eclipse's themes
easily. So static languages I code in light themes and dynamic I go to the
dark side. I've converting to one or the other but I think it helps with the
mental mode switching, light theme ok I'm in static land.

------
tikhonj
I don't know about other operating systems, but Firefox respects KDE's system
colors. Unless this new addition randomly breaks the trend, I'll be able to
have the editor in a color scheme of my choice immediately.

------
philwelch
I used to actually use the red background Apple offers in one of their
Terminal themes, but after combining that with vimdiff my coworker described
the effect as "psychedelic overload".

------
jff
<http://news.ycombinator.com> or <http://hackaday.com>

Which one do you find easier to read?

------
ryanjodonnell
I'm doing rails and use the same dark theme featured at railscasts by Ryan
Bates: <http://railscasts.com/about>

------
pspeter3
I use the tomorrow theme with gedit <https://github.com/ChrisKempson/Tomorrow-
Theme>

------
MaysonL
I decided we need a definitive HN poll, so see:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3374755>

~~~
duck
Why? <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3373018>

------
miohtama
Why on Earth Turbo Pascal used yellow on blue theme? That was pretty popular
in 90s.

------
whatgoodisaroad
I thought everyone at Hacker News used green text on a black background...

------
epaga
Wow, I no longer feel as alone and weird for using a dark background.

------
bnegreve
Your result image does not work for me (ff, gnu/linux debian stable)

------
thom
Light theme on a glossy screen, dark on a matte one.

------
bzalasky
Cobalt FTW!

------
warmfuzzykitten
How odd that virtually all editors are doing it wrong. I don't believe that
result for a second. 1600 replies, self-selecting.

~~~
Terretta
What makes you say you don't believe it? Once upon a time "everyone" knew
amber text on black screen was the easiest on the eyes.

// A lot has changed since.

~~~
warmfuzzykitten
I see I'm losing points by not taking seriously this survey with a handful of
respondents. Well, so be it. People haven't changed. We've all been raised
reading black text on a white background.

"Everyone" didn't know any such thing about amber text, it was just a less bad
choice given the technology of the day. It was cheaper to manufacture a
display that produced bright text on a black background - fewer pixels to
light. Green text was very popular in dumb terminal days. Didn't make it
readable (or unreadable). It was just a step in the inevitable transition to
more book-like displays. If you enjoy reading light text on dark backgrounds,
go back a few years and peruse the mostly unreadable issues of Wired Magazine.

~~~
Terretta
On the contrary, the research studies done in the mid 80s showed conclusively
that amber text on black was superior, though those monitors cost far more.
They also showed that though green was cheap, it performed better than black
on white, which performed about the same as white on blue (think WordPerfect
for DOS).

Yes, the "technology of the day" was one factor -- part of the problem with
the light backgrounds was the flicker of CRTs, which was extremely fatiguing
to those of us who can see fluorescent bulbs flicker.

However, amber also performed better for a key reason that remains true today
for driving glasses or ski goggles -- amber offers the human visual system
better contrast discernment, so much so that amber is used correctively for
human visual system contrast loss from brain injury or diabetic vision[1].
It's used indoors, and notably, for reading.

Wired magazine is a poor example. Paper and ink work by indirect lighting,
while with monitors, the information itself is lit. Your brain processes these
differently. Furthermore, as a subscriber to wired, I know their dark
backgrounds are shiny, dramatically reducing contrast.

As my grandparent comment remarked, technology has changed. Today's LCDs have
high enough contrast they can offer a less fatiguing contrast. For reading the
web, I prefer Safari's Reader button (black on white) or the Readability
bookmarklet (set to black on ivory). With the high contrast screen, I can run
at 30% brightness backlighting and get a brightness and contrast very similar
to well lit ink and paper.

Moderate brightness black on white crisp text does give the fastest reading
and most retention, as studies in the mid 00s have found. It's not been shown
if this is natural, or the result of, as you noted, our upbringing with
traditional books.

For terminal windows, IM, and coding, I prefer syntax colored text on black.
In IM I use greens, sky blues, and ambers for others, self, and group text;
code is white on black with colored syntax, terminals are amber on black for
glance-able contrast even with very small print. That it is easier to pick up
text colors on black than on full spectrum white is noted by the overwhelming
majority of coders here.

Significantly, when you're creating terminal commands, IM messages, or code,
you don't need the fast reading and high retention of ink and paper, because
you are generating the information structure in your own mind. This frees you
to deploy your color use for the visual contrast and syntax clarity of colors
on black instead.

1\. <http://www.hemianopsia.net/contrast-sensitivity-loss/>

