I use the Solarized theme in Vim and find it's very nice: <a href="http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized" rel="nofollow">http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized</a><p>It has a dark version, which I use for coding, and which I think works better with syntax highlighting. It also has a light version, which I like for regular text editing.<p>Both have nice contrast, and you can toggle between the two with a single keypress.
I prefer white backgrounds when <i>reading</i>. Everything is consistent with a white background and black text, and I can scan the text quickly.<p>With coding, my preference is exactly the opposite (I prefer a black background). The difference is that the structure of a program is much more complicated than the structure of prose and that structure is more apparent with white/colors on a black background. Further, the colors of syntax highlighting seem to be much more apparent when displayed on a black screen rather than on white.
Given how opinionated the dark background folk I've met have been (possibly just because they feel ignored by common windows editors) I'd worry about selection bias in a result like this.
I prefer light backgrounds, for one simple reason. Less eye strain.<p>If the majority of the screen is light, my pupils contract, which results in less eye strain to keep everything in focus. I can use smaller fonts & maintain readability. I used to love the Zenburn color scheme, but that just doesn't work as well for me anymore.<p>Note - I'm not talking black on white. I'm talking dark grey (ebebeb) on light grey (0f0f0f).
I love a dark color scheme, but the chrome also has to be dark. For example, I can't use dark browser themes because most websites have a white background and the contrast is difficult to deal with.
I suspect it has something to do with when you started using computers. In the VT-100 and MS-DOS days, you pretty much got light text on a dark background. So when GUI environments came along, dark text on a light background became the new cool thing. That's my story, so I grew to like a light background.<p>I'm guessing that the majority of coders today started out on Windows. Notepad is dark on light, so that became associated with the "common" user. The first peek under the hood would have been Windows command line or Linux. I could see that a dark background would feel more 'tech'.
One size doesn't have to fit all...<p>The compiz negative (Super N) and brightness (Super B) plugins allow me to use bright themes when the sun is pouring in and dark themes at night when illuminated only by xmas lights. I also use a greyish theme with a redshift type program on Windows.<p>When reading HN or other obnoxiously bright sites at night, +Super N and kaboom, grey on black. Give it a try.<p>Remember that the ergonomic choice for many years was amber monochrome on black and it was quite soothing.
Statistic is flawed. Most people who use the default white themes probably dont read HackerNews, dont care to optimize their setup or routine. Those that read hackernews with a woren out F5 key are likely to be heavily influenced by the dark theme propaganda (screencasts etc..) that swamp HN. Just saying.. I can draw any reasonable conclusions from your stats, or even my own devil's advocate view.. Does it matter?
You can take my life, but you can never take away my Monokai.<p><a href="http://www.monokai.nl/blog/2006/07/15/textmate-color-theme/" rel="nofollow">http://www.monokai.nl/blog/2006/07/15/textmate-color-theme/</a>
I would let the survey go over at least a full 24 hours. If you ask at night, you might only get responses from the nocturnal people, and same problem for asking during the day.
This feels like the old Coke vs. Pepsi blind-taste challenge.<p>Pepsi won a majority of the time on first taste because it is instantly sweeter.<p>But long term people prefer the flavor and full experience of Coke.<p>In my experience this translates: the dark-theme instantly feels more clear and crisp.<p>But over time I find that the dark creates too much contrast and slows me down.
For a long time now the first thing i do in a new text editor is to look for a nice dark theme.. i don't know.. it's somewhat more relaxing :)
Oblivion was probably one of the first i used in all those gtk based editors.<p>edit: Also, default colorschemes on terminals are dark, why is that?
While I prefer a dark background, I'm in an office with sunlight coming from behind my screen. I've noticed about six months ago that I was getting headaches when using a dark editor. Since I've changed from dark to light background the headaches have gone away.
does anyone know of a simple (preferably one click) way to get eclipse or intellij idea to work with a dark theme (on linux/kde)? i use a dark kde theme and it causes chaos in eclipse (or at least used to when i last tried - black text on dark backgrounds etc), while intellij idea at least works, but uses a light theme. i'd love an ide for java/python that was easy to configure dark (yes, i have emacs working fine white on black, but that's not what i am looking for).<p>[edit: i just installed eclipse 3.7.1 and it picks up the general theme correctly, but the editors have dark text on dark backgrounds and i don't see any simple way to change that without changing each font setting in turn.]
I prefer a dark background in my text editor, but I think that would look out of place when integrated with the browser chrome. Going with a light theme is probably a good default.
I have vitreous floaters (see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floater" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floater</a>) which are significantly more visible against a white background. This is especially annoying while programming. I've always preferred a dark background though tried switching to a white one a few years ago. Floaters made the decision for me: dark it is.
Son of Obsidian is currently my favorite<p><a href="http://studiostyl.es/schemes/son-of-obsidian" rel="nofollow">http://studiostyl.es/schemes/son-of-obsidian</a><p>I do not like the contrast of Solarized (low contrast) nor monokai (super high contrast with bright pink). Son of obsidian is a good in between.
I <i>love</i> white on black when I'd actually using a product, but I really prefer black on white when I'm taking a screenshot (such as the illustration in the article). I think the issue is the non-linear response of the human eye to illumination. Screenshots tend to get rescaled to make them fit on a page, and this generally causes white-on-black to become (to the eye) dark-gray-on-black. Black-on-white, when rescaled, becomes (to the eye) dark-gray-on-white, which has better contrast.<p>In summary, I want it super-easy for me to reverse or otherwise change my theme when I'm taking a screenshot, perhaps even embedding it into the application.
I prefer white backgrounds out of habit. So my terminal is white, text editor is white, browser is white, Linux desktop theme is brighter...<p>I must say that other users may well like it the other way, because when I used to browse for GTK themes on the <a href="http://gnome-look.org/" rel="nofollow">http://gnome-look.org/</a> site, many of the new themes were cooler when they were darker...<p>BTW, I just found out the <a href="http://gnome-look.org/" rel="nofollow">http://gnome-look.org/</a> itself is whiter and brighter. Oh the joy! Cheers.
I find it depends on the environment. If it's a bright room (or the sun is shining in the window) I might go to the light background, otherwise it'll probably stay dark.<p>Related, I always figured the dark desktop UI themes (eg, for GNOME, KDE, Windows, etc) were highly preferred by people working in dark rooms, like a studio or college dorm at 3am. Once upon a time I liked these, but since I'm less nocturnal these days I prefer lighter themes.
I remember having a discussion about this with a buddy who noticed I used a dark themed editor. He cited some study, I don't know exactly what study it was, that said our brains work better looking at a white background. (Perhaps more neurons fire or something like that)<p>What do you think about this? Do you feel you work better with a black background, or do you just use one because it's more cool/retro looking than a white background?
Been using the Dark scheme on Komodo Edit. Its easier on the eyes and is a big factor especially if you sit in front of your monitor most of the day (or night).<p>See here - <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/498698/white-light-vs-black-dark-backgrounds-health-effects" rel="nofollow">http://stackoverflow.com/questions/498698/white-light-vs-bla...</a>
I use both, I think it came out of not being able to edit eclipse's themes easily. So static languages I code in light themes and dynamic I go to the dark side. I've converting to one or the other but I think it helps with the mental mode switching, light theme ok I'm in static land.
I don't know about other operating systems, but Firefox respects KDE's system colors. Unless this new addition randomly breaks the trend, I'll be able to have the editor in a color scheme of my choice immediately.
I used to actually use the red background Apple offers in one of their Terminal themes, but after combining that with vimdiff my coworker described the effect as "psychedelic overload".
<a href="http://news.ycombinator.com" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com</a> or <a href="http://hackaday.com" rel="nofollow">http://hackaday.com</a><p>Which one do you find easier to read?
I'm doing rails and use the same dark theme featured at railscasts by Ryan Bates: <a href="http://railscasts.com/about" rel="nofollow">http://railscasts.com/about</a>
I use the tomorrow theme with gedit <a href="https://github.com/ChrisKempson/Tomorrow-Theme" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/ChrisKempson/Tomorrow-Theme</a>
I decided we need a definitive HN poll, so see:<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3374755" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3374755</a>