DAE see dark mode designs that use pure black (#000) backgrounds and think they look awful?

I was testing a finance app last week and the pure black background made white text look like it was floating and gave me eye strain in 10 minutes, why do devs keep doing this instead of using dark grays like #121212?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_lee4d ago

Bet these are the same devs that use white text on yellow buttons too. I swear someone out there thinks pure black is the "premium" option and won't let go of it like a kid with a security blanket. Dark gray looks way better and actually works, but nope, gotta go full void because it matches the logo or whatever. Just makes me want to throw my phone across the room every time I open one of these apps.

shanenguyen4d ago

Right, the "floating text" thing is a problem higher contrast doesn't fix. Pure black backgrounds basically make the letters look disconnected from the screen, like they're hovering. The real issue isn't brightness, it's depth perception - your brain can't anchor the text to anything. Dark grays like #121212 create a sense of a flat surface behind the text. That tiny bit of luminance gives our eyes a reference point so the words feel like they're sitting on something solid. Plus, pure black on an OLED screen creates those awful smearing artifacts when you scroll. It's like devs see "dark mode" and just go to #000000 without thinking about how we actually read.

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