I would like to know why dark themed apps have become so popular? I'm 30 and use black on white themes whenever possible, only exception being when there are no other light sources, like reading from bed.
There is no fundamental difference between one bits and zero bits. This should be self-evident to any programmer. After all, you can apply a "not" function to any binary string to turn it into another string with all the bits reversed.
Light pixels and dark pixels each convey the same amount of information. Light themes vs. dark themes is not a question of which one lets photons carry more information, it's the same information either way.
The real difference is how our far-from-perfect human eyes perceive them.
For an inverted color scheme (light information on a black background) on a display where black pixels don't emit light-- the only emissions your eyes have to take in are information.
Your digital logic analogy is sanitized. If the high logic level is at 10kV your equipment is going to have a hard time.
We're talking about staring into a light source, there's a difference in total energy your eyes have to absorb.
Maybe your argument is self-evident to any theorist, but it completely ignores the physical world.
I'd also add that when reading with reflected light (such as reading on paper), your eyes are going to be taking in the same amount of light regardless of where they look in your environment because you're just reading ambient light. Completely different than staring into a light source.
Try programming while looking through an LCD directly at the sun and have it display characters by darkening pixels of direct sunlight aimed at your retinae then tell me there's no difference between a lit pixel and a dark pixel.
Hey, there's no difference between a one bit and a zero bit, here's a great computer interface idea: Transmit binary data to the user with gamma rays. The only difference is in how their far from perfect human body experiences them.
There are two kinds of dark themes: low-contrast, washed-out dark themes that use various shades of greys, and high-contrast, white-on-black dark themes that are good for people with poor eyesight or poor quality hardware, and for use in an actually dark environment.
Naturally there are things in between the two, but by and large there’s a pretty clear division between the two and which is provided, and the latter are pretty rare.
I still prefer those themes to black-on-light but I do not love them.
Blacking out the screen in those conditions reduces that strain. But you still have to maintain a good brightness and contrast between the elements otherwise you trade one issue for another.
There's no one size fits all unfortunately. Which is why it's great when developers allow for customization.
That's a really good point.
If I have to use a computer or phone under poor lighting, I turn down the display brightness to match.
Otherwise, I prefer to be in a space where I can read something written on paper. And then I adjust the brightness to match that - not cranked up too bright like I see sometimes.