Dark themes

Posted by Chris Thompson
Feb 28, 2018 at 11:13 PM

Part of the problem is that as screen technology has improved, contrast ratios have increased substantially. Better contrast specs are desirable for watching media and a number of other applications, but for reading all the research I’ve seen suggests that too much contrast (either with the text and the background or between the screen and the passive bezel) actually increases eyestrain and difficulty reading for long periods. This also probably explains the popularity of low contrast color schemes like Zenburn for programmer’s text editors… there are usually both light and dark mode variations of these themes.)

Not many people know about this, but there is an accessibly option on newer iOS devices called “reduce white point” that alters the screen’s contrast ratio. You can add this to the Control Centre for quick access. I find this makes a huge difference in terms of fatigue reading long PDF documents.

Other features are useful too (True Tone, night modes, adjusting your reader to a lower contrast theme). But “reduce white point” is probably the most useful for me.