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.

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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

[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.