It seems from my previous readings that there’s a non-negligible proportion of the population on both sides that can read much more easily with light on dark or dark on light and has trouble with their respective reverses.
Personally, if the room I’m in is very brightly lit, I tend to prefer dark-on-light, but otherwise under most normal lighting conditions or dim light (like in my apartment) I prefer light-on-dark. In both cases, this preference is due to eye strain during prolonged reading and ease of finding words I’m looking for when I’m “seeking” (i.e. finding the spot where I paused reading, or finding a specific thing in a piece of code, or something similar), measured by how long it takes to find whatever I’m looking for.
(also anecdotal quip re the above link: That thing about the refresh rate isn’t just random for me—if the refresh rate of a traditional monitor drops anywhere below 50hz, I will reliably get a harsh migraine within an hour, and if also reading dark-on-light text on it, this time drops to within ten minutes. LCD / LED tend to be less punishing and I’ve never had this problem with them even as low as 30hz. )
Surely it is black text on white backgrounds that is more likely to actually contribute to retinal damage.
This is either a parody of a common nerdly failure mode, or it’s an honest example of a common nerdly failure mode; too close for me to call.
Failure mode?
It seems from my previous readings that there’s a non-negligible proportion of the population on both sides that can read much more easily with light on dark or dark on light and has trouble with their respective reverses.
Personally, if the room I’m in is very brightly lit, I tend to prefer dark-on-light, but otherwise under most normal lighting conditions or dim light (like in my apartment) I prefer light-on-dark. In both cases, this preference is due to eye strain during prolonged reading and ease of finding words I’m looking for when I’m “seeking” (i.e. finding the spot where I paused reading, or finding a specific thing in a piece of code, or something similar), measured by how long it takes to find whatever I’m looking for.
(also anecdotal quip re the above link: That thing about the refresh rate isn’t just random for me—if the refresh rate of a traditional monitor drops anywhere below 50hz, I will reliably get a harsh migraine within an hour, and if also reading dark-on-light text on it, this time drops to within ten minutes. LCD / LED tend to be less punishing and I’ve never had this problem with them even as low as 30hz. )
My guess is that it’s the latter.
Failure mode?!? Look, if you like this sort of discussion, I propose that the continuation should be somewhere where it is on-topic.