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  • Thread starter Reameb
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TJ13
I think @Jordan should implement a dark theme mode.

Not just for desktop but for mobile too.
(Helps on the battery)

Maybe it's the new feature for this year?
Click to expand...
I think you should design and maintain it. :P

In all seriousness, the site's next major update is in development now and I do plan to implement a "dark mode" for it, but I'm not going to make any promises. I have experimented with dark themes for as long as I've been designing GTPlanet (18 years now!) and have never been happy with any of them. 'Dark' sites are very challenging to create, and generally end up looking janky, disorganized, and cluttered — and that doesn't include the hundreds (if not thousands) of extra lines of CSS that have to be written, tested, and maintained, nor the custom icon sets that are required.

In general, only the simplest web designs of plain text and images/video can pull off dark themes. Once you get a lot of small links, buttons, icons, and images jumping off a dark background, as is required on feature-packed forum pages, it becomes a mess. I just had a look at @Reameb's custom style, and with all due respect to his/her efforts, it proves the point.

Of course, this is all besides the fact that research has shown dark-text-on-light-background is easier to read for users of all ages, and I've seen statistics that show only small percentages of users (<10%) actually use dark modes on sites which offer them. It is true that dark modes can save battery life, but only on devices that have OLED screens. For a one-man-band like myself with an infinite to-do list, it's difficult to justify the additional time and work.

Having said all that, I definitely understand the desire for a dark mode and I like/prefer it myself when I'm using my phone or computer in certain lighting conditions. Personally, I think it's more important for mobile devices, as we generally hold them closer to our faces and use them in a much wider range of locations and lighting conditions than computers. So, as I said, it's something I do want to provide, but reality is not so simple.
 
Jordan
I think you should design and maintain it. :P

In all seriousness, the site's next major update is in development now and I do plan to implement a "dark mode" for it, but I'm not going to make any promises. I have experimented with dark themes for as long as I've been designing GTPlanet (18 years now!) and have never been happy with any of them. 'Dark' sites are very challenging to create, and generally end up looking janky, disorganized, and cluttered — and that doesn't include the hundreds (if not thousands) of extra lines of CSS that have to be written, tested, and maintained, nor the custom icon sets that are required.

In general, only the simplest web designs of plain text and images/video can pull off dark themes. Once you get a lot of small links, buttons, icons, and images jumping off a dark background, as is required on feature-packed forum pages, it becomes a mess. I just had a look at @Reameb's custom style, and with all due respect to his/her efforts, it proves the point.

Of course, this is all besides the fact that research has shown dark-text-on-light-background is easier to read for users of all ages, and I've seen statistics that show only small percentages of users (<10%) actually use dark modes on sites which offer them. It is true that dark modes can save battery life, but only on devices that have OLED screens. For a one-man-band like myself with an infinite to-do list, it's difficult to justify the additional time and work.

Having said all that, I definitely understand the desire for a dark mode and I like/prefer it myself when I'm using my phone or computer in certain lighting conditions. Personally, I think it's more important for mobile devices, as we generally hold them closer to our faces and use them in a much wider range of locations and lighting conditions than computers. So, as I said, it's something I do want to provide, but reality is not so simple.
Click to expand...

Maybe I should. :lol:
If I still remembered like 90% of the stuff I did back in school instead of fixing the insides of the computer.
But I think it improves battery life in all devices OLED or LCD, because the screen doesn't have to be as bright to use, again saving on battery life.

I know I would use dark mode, especially at night. (When night starts at like 4 pm)

Can I test the new update?
Please Please?
 
TJ13
But I think it improves battery life in all devices OLED or LCD, because the screen doesn't have to be as bright to use, again saving on battery life.
Click to expand...
No, for LCDs, the inverse is true: it actually takes more electricity for an LCD screen to create a black pixel than a white one (see how LCD screens work):

How pixels are switched off
  1. Light travels from the back of the TV toward the front from a large bright light.
  2. A horizontal polarizing filter in front of the light blocks out all light waves except those vibrating horizontally.
  3. Only light waves vibrating horizontally can get through.
  4. A transistor switches off this pixel by switching on the electricity flowing through its liquid crystals. That makes the crystals straighten out (so they're completely untwisted), and the light travels straight through them unchanged.
  5. Light waves emerge from the liquid crystals still vibrating horizontally.
  6. A vertical polarizing filter in front of the liquid crystals blocks out all light waves except those vibrating vertically. The horizontally vibrating light that travelled through the liquid crystals cannot get through the vertical filter.
  7. No light reaches the screen at this point. In other words, this pixel is dark.
Click to expand...
LCD screen "brightness" — or the amount of light emitted by the LCD backlight — is independent of the colors (or lack thereof) of the pixels. An LCD screen displaying a black image appears "less bright" to you, the viewer, because the screen is electrifying the liquid crystals in such a way as to block the backlight from behind the screen, which does not change.

This is completely different from OLED displays in which each pixel emits its own light and can be literally "turned off" to display blackness, thus saving power.

Here is some additional data from a Google I/O presentation in which they compare power consumption using a "night mode" app on a Google Pixel with an AMOLED screen vs. an iPhone 7's LCD:

2power.jpg
 
Last edited:
Jordan
No, for LCDs, the inverse is true: it actually takes more electricity for an LCD screen to create a black pixel than a white one (see how LCD screens work):


LCD screen "brightness" — or the amount of light emitted by the LCD backlight — is independent of the colors (or lack thereof) of the pixels. An LCD screen displaying a black image appears "less bright" to you, the viewer, because the screen is electrifying the liquid crystals in such a way as to block the backlight from behind the screen, which does not change.

This is completely different from OLED displays in which each pixel emits its own light and can be literally "turned off" to display blackness, thus saving power.

Here is some additional data from a Google I/O presentation in which they compare power consumption using a "dark mode" app on a Google Pixel with an AMOLED screen vs. an iPhone 7's LCD:

2power.jpg
Click to expand...
My brain hurts.
 
With Windows 10, Android 10, and macOS all supporting a native night mode, I feel like it's probably time for more developers to support it too despite the extra work that needs to be done
 
Jordan
I think you should design and maintain it. :P

In all seriousness, the site's next major update is in development now and I do plan to implement a "dark mode" for it, but I'm not going to make any promises. I have experimented with dark themes for as long as I've been designing GTPlanet (18 years now!) and have never been happy with any of them. 'Dark' sites are very challenging to create, and generally end up looking janky, disorganized, and cluttered — and that doesn't include the hundreds (if not thousands) of extra lines of CSS that have to be written, tested, and maintained, nor the custom icon sets that are required.

In general, only the simplest web designs of plain text and images/video can pull off dark themes. Once you get a lot of small links, buttons, icons, and images jumping off a dark background, as is required on feature-packed forum pages, it becomes a mess. I just had a look at @Reameb's custom style, and with all due respect to his/her efforts, it proves the point.

Of course, this is all besides the fact that research has shown dark-text-on-light-background is easier to read for users of all ages, and I've seen statistics that show only small percentages of users (<10%) actually use dark modes on sites which offer them. It is true that dark modes can save battery life, but only on devices that have OLED screens. For a one-man-band like myself with an infinite to-do list, it's difficult to justify the additional time and work.

Having said all that, I definitely understand the desire for a dark mode and I like/prefer it myself when I'm using my phone or computer in certain lighting conditions. Personally, I think it's more important for mobile devices, as we generally hold them closer to our faces and use them in a much wider range of locations and lighting conditions than computers. So, as I said, it's something I do want to provide, but reality is not so simple.
Click to expand...

It's easier to implement dark mode if you use global variables in the CSS for the colors, that way you can switch the whole colors / look of the site in just 5-6 changes to the global variables V:

Could even work for other themes, not just dark. I could make it better, tbh I made it mostly for myself, so it was done very quickly with "it just works" mentality.
 
I dunno if it's because I've changed browsers to a faster one (from Firefox to Waterfox 64-bit), or because I ended up picking a different custom CSS add-on, or because your script is more efficient -- but the last time someone offered this solution the page would display normally for a moment before updating the CSS, and now it loads instantly as dark. Thanks @Reameb, I'll give this a shot and see if it'll work to stick with it. :)

I appreciate all the hard work that @Jordan puts into this place, but I wish GTP had not switched from its previous distinctive color to a stark white, which turns into a total white-out when the post boxes blend into the background from the wrong angles on my laptop screen.

I don't care about "jank" -- I prefer the command-line-esque look of a dark theme, jank and all, and it is much more comfortable to read. It makes the site feel "calmer" and more inviting.
 
Sorry, it won't be available to test. :P

I can't resume work on the update until December, after I return home from the FIA GTC World Finals. It's much more than just a "re-skin" and requires significant testing, development, and staging. I hope to be completed in the first quarter of 2020.
 
Jordan
Sorry, it won't be available to test. :P

I can't resume work on the update until December, after I return home from the FIA GTC World Finals. It's much more than just a "re-skin" and requires significant testing, development, and staging. I hope to be completed in the first quarter of 2020.
Click to expand...

I see significant testing.
I will test. :P

So can we bring up the christmas lights then? :lol:
 
DesertPenguin
Holiday lights*. Don't get me started on that again :lol:
Click to expand...

Okay okay.
"Holiday" lights.

@Jordan can we have an option to have them on or off along with that dark theme? :lol:
I think it would be nice to see the holiday lights up right about now.
As the Christmas music is a playing, the snow is a falling and the tree's are a picking.
 

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