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Serious question, should dark mode text be pure white or a light grey?
A designer friend in Austin argued pure white is too harsh on dark backgrounds, but I read a blog post that said light grey can hurt readability. What's your take?
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mark_fisher485mo ago
Oh man, I've wrestled with this. Pure white on pure black is brutal for long reading. I use a very light grey, like #E6E6E6, on a dark grey background, not true black. It cuts the glare way down without making you squint.
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elliotburns5mo ago
Wrestle with this every time I set up a new app. My eyes are getting old, so pure white on black feels like staring into car headlights. I go for a soft off-white, something like #F2F2F2, on a dark charcoal background. It keeps the text crisp but takes the edge off. The blog post has a point about grey hurting readability, but that's only if you go too dark.
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bailey.xena3mo ago
Funny you mention that. Buddy of mine set up his whole dev environment with pure white on black cause he thought it looked cool. Called me two days later saying his eyes felt like sandpaper. Now he's got that same off-white on charcoal setup and won't shut up about how much better it is.
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