Optimizing Display for My Wonky Eyes & Brain

[jesse_the_k]

When I began computing, everything was dark mode: green pixels on a gray-green screen.

I was thrilled when the Mac showed up with black on white! So much easier on the eyes! I was mystified and repelled when Adobe products began showing a dark UI. Now it’s the hot new thing--the next version of iOS will offer it.

I learned a lot from TidBITS’s deep dive into why dark mode isn’t actually that much easier on the eyes.

https://tidbits.com/2019/05/31/the-dark-side-of-dark-mode/

The full article discusses the science of visual perception, and acknowledges its conclusions are relevant to typical eyesight. Some people’s vision requirements are different, and I’m very glad that modern computer systems let us change displays to optimize for what we can see.

Last week when I was kvelling about my new glasses, killing_rose explained how rose-colored glasses minimized migraine

The TidBITS article linked me to Charles Mauer’s earlier in-depth exploration of optimizing display for easy reading. He includes a technique for identifying a helpful tint and then applying that tint through software controls:

https://tidbits.com/2018/03/15/better-than-the-printed-page-reading-on-an-ipad/

To see if you may be helped by a tinted screen, I created this test using colours that Wilkins suggested. backup It’s a rough electronic equivalent of a test he developed using transparent plastic overlays. Click through its different colours. If one of them makes the text clearer or more stable or easier to read in any other way, then tint your iPad’s screen. Don’t expect to duplicate the colour of the test exactly — it’s just a starting point — but fiddle with the hue and intensity sliders in Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations > Color Filter.

I used Mauer’s tint test and learned that overlaying a light pink on my screen made my eyes just sigh with relief. I used the Inspect element command on my browser’s context menu to identify this friendly color and I’ve been applying it everywhere I can. I use it for the background on web pages and my ereader. Following Mauer’s suggestions. I’ve now adjusted the color temperature of my screen on both my Mac and iPad. It’s really made computer work and reading more pleasant.

---

My winning color: Hex: #FFEBF7
RGBA(255, 235, 247, 1)
HSL(324, 100%, 96%)
CMYB(0%, 8%, 3%, 0%)

ETA Feb 2021:

• Setting Color Filters on iOS 14
• Adjusting Screen Color Calibration in macOS

Comments

[seascribble]

Oh, interesting! I started using Flux on my screens several years ago, which controls the blue light, and I can't imagine life without it now. I had to install it on my work computer at my dayhab job the first day they gave it to us, because I had a headache before the morning was out looking at a normal screen!

[niqaeli]

I've also been using f.lux for a very long time for this exact reason! I've got it set to orange-shift everything even during the day, with more significant shifting at night. It makes very little difference to my sleep patterns, but it makes a huge difference in my migraine frequency.

(I do also personally use dark mode on pretty much every screen I can, pretty much exactly because the light-emitting aspect of dark-on-light in screens is a nightmare for me personally. In terms of visual processing, dark-on-light is still better... except on screen devices, all gains in productivity/processing are not only mooted but overtaken by the headache. The second I switch my screen devices to something like dark mode, my eyes relax and I get back a lot of processing power back. I truly wish e-ink were more universally applicable!)

[pauraque]

I've got it set to orange-shift everything even during the day, with more significant shifting at night. It makes very little difference to my sleep patterns, but it makes a huge difference in my migraine frequency.

Same here. Working at the computer at night used to be a migraine trigger for me but I can do it just fine with f.lux.

[recently_folded]

I parted ways with f.lux because, first, the red made me feel as though I were reading sitting on the edge of the glowing pits of hell. And, second, because the versions that I tried wouldn't let me adjust for latitude, and it's just crazy-making when your screen goes dim while the sun is high in the sky.

I've come to greater peace with black-on-grey, having discovered myself to be a monochrome sort of person. Who knew? But it's nice to relax my forehead and eye muscles.

[mdlbear]

I tried redshift on Linux and encountered similar problems. I found that I was always having to turn it off, so...

[esteefee]

wow, I'm enchanted with rgb(255, 247, 235) and have switched my zapcolors bookmarklet to that.

thanks.

[vass]

Wow, that article's "humans prefer this" and "the human eyes and brain evolved to do this" tone is offputting.

Whether I prefer light mode or dark mode depends so much on time of day, the lighting where I am, how I'm feeling and what I've been doing, and what sort of app I'm working with and how it handles dark or light mode, what its text and fonts are like apart from that, etc. There are trade-offs involved.

The worst case is the ones who try to do it adaptively, so if I move my phone slightly and the light sensor registers a change, it changes lighting mode and then changes it back, all while I'm trying to do a fucking sudoku.

"in the real world, the background of any scene around you is usually bright"

orly? Personally I frequently read my phone in the late evening in a dim room, but I guess I don't live in the real world and am not a human.

I hate when health and science reporters take research on the mode or the median and reify it into "what is best for all humans". The consequences can be so harmful.

I’m very glad that modern computer systems let us change displays to optimize for what we can see.

I'm glad of this too, when they do.

Tumblr, earlier this year: "In order to make our site more accessible, we're going to change the site scheme to be HIGH CONTRAST EVERYWHERE. You can't set a scheme that works for your needs, or toggle it on and off. Accessibility!"
Tumblr, starting years ago and to this day: "Our 404 page is a random selection of very bright rapidly flickering images which are a migraine/epilepsy/sensory integration disorder trigger. People have pointed out the harm this causes, but we don't care."

I used Mauer’s tint test and learned that overlaying a light pink on my screen made my eyes just sigh with relief.

*tries it* Thank you for that. Light red seems to be most soothing for my eyes. #FFEBEB was the nicest. I'm a little rueful about this, since aesthetically it's not my preference at all. Hmm, I wonder if there's a way to change the background in Firefox's Reading Mode.

Screen colors

[mdlbear]

Interesting!

For optimum readability at small sizes, nothing I've found works better for me than green-on-black. Green is right in the middle of the eye's peak sensitivity, and because it only uses one of an RGB display's colors, the characters are sharper.

I also prefer a black background (with white or off-white characters) for text editors and terminal windows -- Emacs and most command-line programs use colors that seem to work best on a dark background.

Disclaimer: I'm nearsighted and over 70 years old. Your mileage may vary.

[kaberett]

thanks for links!

[jadislefeu]

Very interesting! I appreciate things having dark modes, but most of them I don't use 24/7--I specifically switch them on when I'm on my computer/phone in a dark room with the brightness all the way down and the white background is still glaringly unpleasant. I've got an extension in firefox that makes every webpage white-on-black that I only turn on late at night.

The pink tint thing for migraines is also interesting to me, because ten or fifteen years ago my dad (who is severely dyslexic) read somewhere that a magenta background made it easier to read for dyslexic people, and as far as I know has had one set up in Word and so on ever since. I didn't realize it was recommended for multiple things!

My last pair of glasses were rose tinted, and they were surprisingly easy to get used to and forget about the color shift, though it was only iirc ~10% color. I had bought them as a gimmick for a halloween costume and then discovered the frames fit me so vastly better than my previous pair that I couldn't possibly bear to go back to them (turns out arm length is a very important measurement), so I just kept wearing them, until the frame broke and I had to buy a replacement pair and I couldn't afford a tint, and thus was spared the decision of whether or not to get one again.