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Comment by sandworm101 | Hacker News Reader

It is strange that we are all still living an apple marketing decision. Back in the days of green-on-black CRTs, apple decided to make their screens look like the paper it emulated. (A more extreme part of this was the tilting CRT screens to also mimic the aspect ration of paper). The human eye sees light. So reading illuminated text on a dark background is generally easier. But Apple did it first, MS followed, and white backgrounds seem here to stay.

It took some googling because I didn't know the terminology, but this is what I am talking about: A "Pivot" screen for the Mac by Radius.

http://lowendmac.com/wp-content/uploads/radius-pivot-display...

Another example of this is street signs. The oldest sign standards (speed limits, street names) are black text on white backgrounds. But the newer ones (highway information signs) are normally white on a dark green background, which is much easier to read at night.

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> The human eye sees light. So reading illuminated text on a dark background is generally easier.

The scientific literature on readability does not back this up. Results show large individual variability with a small overall preference for dark-on-light.

Some old papers cited here: https://www.joedolson.com/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inve...

EDIT: Also here is a good example of how reading white on black is hard: http://www.ironicsans.com/owmyeyes/

Last link (http://www.ironicsans.com/owmyeyes/) probably makes the greatest point here.

After coming back to HN from that site, I've been seeing text superimposed everywhere.

Well, that isn't actually "white" on black. Assuming you have an LCD screen illuminated by leds, or florescent tubes, you are seeing some amalgamation of colours that, together, you recognize as white. This isn't blackbody colour.

Furthermore, white-on-black isn't really the best. It's just the inverse of what we see on most sites/devices. Try green, or red on black. It has a very different effect as it is better tuned to the biology of the human eye, which is why it works better in low-light conditions such as driving.

the biggest problem with that last link is the spacing and weight of the text - not the color scheme. I had a hard time with both the light and dark versions

Apple copied the Xerox Alto both in black-on-white and the aspect ratio, they didn't come up with this themselves.

That's why called it a marketing decision. Apple didn't invent the tablet computer either, but they were the ones to push the idea and spend millions on marketing it to the public. They didn't legally invent it, but they did "own" it.

And protects your eyesight too. I couldn't live without the 'Negative' Compiz plugin which I use as a workaround for the many applications that don't have a "Night mode".

And is easier on people with limited vision. And is better for mobile devices at night as it maintains night vision. And saves on electricity (a tiny tiny bit). There is no downside, which is why I laugh at why we still expect everything to be white.

>And is easier on people with limited vision

This is an unfortunately common misconception. Sometimes yes, sometimes not. It is highly dependent on condition, in particular with what part of the field is obscured/impaired. I lack around 90% of my FOV - no central vision - resulting in ~20/200 acuity and while I find black on white to be incredibly discomforting I also don't get on with many 'high contrast' dark schemes. At the same time many of my friends with similar acuity but different conditions would be driven screaming from the room by some of my color scheme choices.

The contrast/color sweet spot varies (anecdotally, at least) greatly across both conditions and individuals.

In what sense does it protect your eyesight?

Now we need a light switch for hn.

https://github.com/dparpyani/HackerNews-DarkTheme

https://userstyles.org/styles/22794/a-dark-hacker-news

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