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Does anyone program with white text against black background? I have heard some rumors that it is better for your eyes. What's the case? Is it any better than the traditional black on white? What are the pros and cons?

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indeed, interesting question. –  arthurprs Jun 6 '10 at 17:44
"traditional black on white"? Kids these days... –  Michael Mrozek Jun 6 '10 at 17:45
@Tower: Ever seen a computer running DOS? –  Andreas Rejbrand Jun 6 '10 at 17:47
duplicate question is no longer available it seems. –  ThatGuy Feb 26 '12 at 21:35
For whatever reason the question this duplicates no longer exists. This question should be re-opened. –  Endophage Jul 27 '12 at 22:13
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7 Answers

up vote 22 down vote accepted

He, he... It's actually white on black, or rather green or amber on black, that is the traditional way. I've used them all. :)

I believe that the use of black on white started in word processors, because it's a lot easier on your eyes when you alternate between looking at the screen and looking at source material printed on paper.

Also, the contrast between the screen background and the surrounding lighting should be small, so a white background works best with the well lit room most people use computers in most of the time. If you are programming in the darkness a black background would give less contrast, but then it's more a question of why you don't have proper lighting in your room...

There are of course personal preferences than can affect your choise of color setting, and your eyesight (or lack thereof) might also make one setting better than the other.

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There is an endless debate on slashdot one can go through for all the unintelligible technical details (the more technical analyses seems to favour dark on light side though).

This article, though about web designing, warns about the hazards of mindless black theming. The important aspect I understand is that the font is more important than coloring schemes. There is also disadvantage for black (not dark in general, but just pure black) background with white font if font is thin, since black creeps on to white and font would look a lil' blurry.

Despite all that, personally I find reading on darker background much easier for eyes. I don't think there is a definite answer for "light font on darker background" or vice versa. It will have to depend on personal tastes and habits more importantly. For sure, the right scheme lets the font (the writing) to project to fore and subdues the background. Now ask yourself is it dark on light that does this or light on dark? Here is the key, in that advocates who vouch for similarity with print suggesting that black outshines the white on paper, is blind to the fact that it is not the situation when it comes to electronic screen. Here the intensity of white beams on your eyes is much higher when compared to black.

And there is nothing like a best background color or fore color, but its the combination that matters. Right combination gives the right contrast, and contrast matters. And contrast should be sufficiently high, but not enough to be straining. Pure white on deep black can be hurting (the contrast being significantly high) but at the same time white on dark green is soothing. The same goes with amber on black.

Also when having a dark background it should be pale and not intense, so something like dark grey or teal will be better than black which in turn will be better than blue, red etc. Black on grey is excellent.

The solarized theme actually is after some good round of testing, going after their website. The good thing I love about Notepad++ is that some of the better known themes like solarized, zenburn, vibrant ink are available built in with the style configurator. Obsidian is the best without a doubt btw! :) Catch it for Visual Studio here.

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It seems to be a preference thing and possible environmental thing, honestly. You'll find people who believe each method is superior.

I know that personally, I have coded since the green-on-black and amber-on-black terminals were around, and now I use light gray text on black backgrounds wherever possible. I find black backgrounds to be extremely comfortable on my eyes even for very long sessions, but white backgrounds are very fatiguing. I have heard it described as "staring into a 100 watt lightbulb" and that's how it feels to me.

Room lighting can potentially have a significant effect also. Brighter rooms may lend themselves to brighter backgrounds, and darker rooms to dark backgrounds. It reduces the need for your eyes to struggle to switch between wide and narrow pupils required for bright then dark then bright as you occasionally look away from the monitor to relax your eyes (you should always do this, right?).

The best advice is to just try both, give it a week or so, and decide which you like better. If you find both the extremes are glaring, try using a more subdued theme than pure whites and pure blacks, try some softer grays.

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well if you are programming when it is already dark outside then yes that rumor might be true becuase it is better for your eyes if the contrast between your monitor and room is smaller.

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Even if it's dark outside, that doesn't mean that it has to be dark inside... –  Guffa Jun 6 '10 at 18:05
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I'm sure that plus of programming and using white on black layouts causes less energy using. Example of site saving energy by black layout is http://blackle.com/

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It only uses less energy if you are using an old CRT screen. An LCD screen is back-lit and the liquid crystals blocks the light, so it uses the same amount of energy (or even slightly more) when the screen is black. –  Guffa Jun 6 '10 at 17:50
"In 2013 the majority of monitor sales are LED backlit LCD's which do not light up the parts of the screen that are black. Some older CCFL LCD monitors worked by wastefully backlighting the entire screen. Since 2005 manufacturers have moved away from CCFL's." –  Jori Aug 17 '13 at 16:59
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The quick answer is "dark text on white background suits more people".

My answer refers to this one: http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/15142/which-is-easier-on-the-eyes-dark-on-light-or-light-on-dark

As a person with astigmatism, I find white background with dark text is easier to read as the reference suggested. (I specifically experienced this after using the dark theme in visual studio 2013. It is so fuzzy to me that I had to change back to its 2012 default theme.)

Below are the quotes:






Jason Harrison – Post Doctoral Fellow, Imager Lab Manager – Sensory Perception and Interaction Research Group, University of British Columbia The "fuzzing” effect that Jason refers to is known as halation.



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Below mixed with my own thoughts and others.

  • Pure Black:

    Pure white text on pure black is awful for reading (it's looks awesome on some graphs). Contrast is too high, and pure black may looks unnatural. So Visual Studio is using dark grey, just like Photoshop.

  • Visual Studio Team Says:

    According to The Visual Studio Blog, dark editor themes are overall more preferred, reduced strain over long time usage is the top reason.

  • Emotional Expectation:

    Emotionally, at least for some I guess: things related to creation with a dark theme may feels better, like those software; things books alike, e.g. blog or something, light background may better, since it's more expected.

  • Black for Colors:

    For eyes, generally, I'm fine for both light and dark theme, since I'll always make sure the backlit not too light. As for Visual Studio, I guess the strain for eyes comes from the scanning of colors. You know, it's already hard to recognize all those colors (okay not that hard, you got the point), then there's that big fat white on the way, all the way. Guess eyes just have a "color sensitive mode", like people may not enjoy two white bars even if it's a light colored cartoon.

    Light background easily makes things look clean, leads to higher readability for articles; dark background helps emphasize the color, leads to higher readability for codes.

    One difference between blog and code text is that, codes are generally colored in a way it can standout its construction. Read an article will focused more on its meaning behind the words, but reading codes focus more on its visual construction and color, focus more on words itself. In photo editing and movie playing, dark colors provides less distraction. We treat codes actually more like a photo or video where visual matters more or even lots. Dark background fades away and makes the visual construction stand out.

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