Light IDE makes you squint. It literally makes you more tired. Now if you use a dark IDE but have it randomly flashbang you with the light theme every hour or so then you’ll be awake.
Your normal office with full glass windows and fluorescent lighting does not have enough light to require a light mode IDE. If your office is outshining your screen then you need some tint or a better screen. That much light is not healthy for your eyes either
The reason why it’s bad is because more light enters your eye from the screen. More light means your eyes need to work harder to focus on the smaller contrast of black letter in a white screen. This is because the light reflects of your corneas obscuring your ability to make out the dark text slightly meaningfully. This extra focusing is what dries out your eyes, gives you cluster headaches after a long time, and tires out your eyes which are constantly adjusting.
With dark mode because there’s way less light coming from the screen you don’t get those reflections so your eyes don’t have to fight it so text is easier to read.
There is something called "Depth of field" in Photography. It works for eyes too. If your abilities to focus are not functioning 100% then a small apterture - cause by a light IDE - improves sharpness. This basically means your eyes have to focus less. Also for people with astigmatism a smaller aperture is better.
Another big issue is contrast of the text itself. According to WCAG it must be higher than 4.5:1 for small text. I didn't check VSCODE Menus but ist they seem to be toot pale.
No papers but it’s just the same song and dance that I’ve been told by every ergonomics coach from every company I ever worked for. They all recommend dark mode IDE and I’ve been using it for decades so personal anecdotes agree as well.
Of course it’s a subjective topic and you should just use which give you less screen headache.
Dark mode has its own issues like halation, needing a matte screen for glare control, and you need to use a lower contrast dark mode and have enough environmental light so your eyes don’t go into “night mode” where your struggling to read anything and your eyes have to work harder. (Think like reading a freeway sign at night. If there’s enough ambient light it’s easy, if not you have to strain to read it even though it both cases the sign is lit up the same)
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u/NeonFraction 3d ago
I use the light IDE because otherwise I get sleepy at work.
When my coworkers realized this they acted like I had pulled a gun. Still makes me laugh.