• nyahlathotep
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    3027 months ago

    Books with white pages don’t emit light, a screen with white backgrounds does

    • Neato
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      357 months ago

      Yep. And a soft, warm desk lamp is a lot easier in a dark room that a bright white one.

    • plz1
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      177 months ago

      They do reflect it, though…

      • kase
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        77 months ago

        As someone with sensory issues, absolutely they do. I used to struggle so hard in school when I was supposed to stare at white paper in a well-lit room. I’m not sure if most people notice just how fucking bright paper can be xD

        • @dingus@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Yeah for whatever reason, textbook paper always has a glossy finish to it. Combine that with bright overhead fluorescent lights in a school and I could see how that could be irritating as fuck.

          Other types of written material don’t seem to have a glossy sheen like works of fiction and dictionaries. Do you still have issues with those or no?

        • plz1
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          37 months ago

          I’m with you. I’ve been using invert colors before dark mode became cool. If only I could do it in real life…

    • @SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml
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      7 months ago

      I’ve been reading a dark mode book on an OLED screen and it’s such a treat. The background is pitch black but I crank the brightness up so there is a high contrast and the white letters look really sharp. It actually makes it easier to read

          • @CoggyMcFee@lemmy.world
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            27 months ago

            I use my e-reader’s dark mode when I am reading in the dark and the backlight is on. So, in the one instance where it is actually emitting light.

            • 𝕽𝖔𝖔𝖙𝖎𝖊𝖘𝖙
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              27 months ago

              Even with the “backlight” it’s far less harsh than an LCD or OLED panel because it’s not actually a back light, e-ink display have a “frontlight” that actually directs the light back at the display instead of from behind it facing outward towards the user

            • @max@lemmy.world
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              17 months ago

              FYI ereaders don’t emit light even with the light on. They use lights hidden on the sides under the bezels, and that light gets distributed above the screen using a kind of gel layer. The screen then reflects that light back.

              • @CoggyMcFee@lemmy.world
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                27 months ago

                Isn’t the device emitting light though, if not the screen itself? I don’t know if there is a technical definition of “emit” that is narrower, but I just meant that there is one time where the device itself is the brightest thing in the room and dark mode reduces that.

                • @max@lemmy.world
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                  17 months ago

                  Yeah I guess that’s fair, but I think that the fact that the light isn’t directly shining in your eyes but is reflected, makes quite a difference. Still, use whatever mode feels most comfortable to you! Just sharing knowledge.

    • AFK BRB Chocolate
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      37 months ago

      Plus doing dark mode with a physical book requires a crap ton of ink - it would be very wasteful.

        • @helo@lemmy.world
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          27 months ago

          I think the point is that reflecting is ultimately just a form of emitting

          it’s possible to have harsh brightly lit white paper, as well as dim white screens

  • @aelwero@lemmy.world
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    1607 months ago

    White paper and black text is the norm because until relatively recently, it was much more cost effective… This could be done cheaply with modern tech, and should 100% be a thing…

    I’d buy the hell out of dark mode books.

    • GigglyBobble
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      747 months ago

      That question was just as stupid as that “you wouldn’t download a car” ad. Hell yeah, I would! And read dark mode books!

        • @WraithGear@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Its context was that it was a plea from media companies to stop pirating movies/music. Its more “You wouldn’t steal a car, well downloading pirated content is the same”

          Ot played during movie previews

          • @ObsidianBlk@lemmy.world
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            207 months ago

            I was in college for Computer Science when these ads must have just started because in a Computer Ethics class, I remember the teacher actually using “you wouldn’t download a car, would you” argument.

            I recall answering… “Would the original owner still have their copy? Yes? Then yes, yes I would download a car.” The teacher did not like me.

      • @aelwero@lemmy.world
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        47 months ago

        Bleaching is to mainly remove tannins, to make the paper white, and to stay white over time. It also makes the paper better able to absorb and retain ink. You don’t need any of those properties if you’re printing in white, because you can’t use absorbent type ink in something like this, it won’t show well. You could dye in lieu of bleaching (and this might be cheaper actually).

        Printing the text is the challenge. The ink has to be on the paper instead of in the paper… The methods required to do that and come up with a quality product have existed for a very long time, but they’d be methods used to create high end things like wedding invitations and greeting cards and not bulk products like books. I believe the first tech that could do this economically at scale was the photocopier (maybe mimeograph?), which basically melts plastic onto the surface, and could apply clear white text onto black paper as easily as black on white.

        I would imagine though, that the tech that could do this in the most economically viable way, would be to ablate the text in with lasers, similar to thermal printing. That would actually reduce the consumables used, maybe even by a lot. likely would overall entail much less hazardous/caustic consumables too… Dark mode printing could possibly be incredibly “green” :)

  • @Synthead@lemmy.world
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    1147 months ago

    Books don’t light up. They reflect light, but it’s different. Light mode is like staring into a flashlight, almost literally.

    • @slampisko@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I prefer light mode in light environments and dark mode in dark environments. I find it’s easiest on my eyes when the background of the text matches the room ambience. (of course this has to be paired with matching screen brightness)

      • @ShortFuse@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Poor contrast is what kills your eyes. You should adapt your screen to your environment.

        Problem is, not many screens can compete with the of light of a sunlit room for daytime viewing. That makes dark (text) on dim (background) on light (environment) very rough. Even for daytime viewing light (text) on dark (background) on light (environment) can feel better.

        But dark (text) on (light) background on light (environment) is excellent if you can accomplish it, since it’s only single step of high contrast because your monitor blends into the environment.

  • @uis@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Remember that in the beginning of computer era there was no dark mode, it was just called a display:

  • @TallonMetroid@lemmy.world
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    827 months ago

    Books use the color scheme they do because it’s cheaper to print black ink on white paper than white ink on black paper. Digital displays don’t have that limitation.

      • @HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml
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        467 months ago

        Every software needs a “just turn off the pixels that aren’t displaying anything” mode for OLED. Way too many “dark modes” are just dark grey which still keeps the background pixels powered.

        • @MellowSnow@lemmy.world
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          257 months ago

          Yes, because full black/white contrast is harsher on the eyes than a dark grey with white or light-grey text. For power/efficiency, black pixels definitely makes sense, but concerning user experience and eye strain, there are many good reasons certain color palettes are used.

          • @Grass@sh.itjust.works
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            147 months ago

            Obviously not every single OLED panel can be tested for this if the manufacturers don’t do it themselves, but a few places tested OLED/AMOLED phones and found slate grey is close enough to full black in power savings. Since then I just choose the most visually pleasing theme as some full black themes are really poorly designed.

        • @cabb@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          17 months ago

          No because the white parts are what will burn in. Black is the off state for OLED. This is also why many apps for Lemmy (and previously reddit) have a dark theme option for OLED devices that uses full black instead of grey so that the pixels not in use are fully off.

          • @mellejwz@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Exactly, and because the rest is off you’ll notice it earlier. It still depends on how long those pixels are on though. The longer they’re on the more they degrade.

            If the whole display is on all of the pixels would degrade eventually, but you’ll notice it less because they all degrade.

            • @cabb@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              17 months ago

              If you have the same pixels on all the time then yes you’d have faster burn in. However, since you’d be looking at different text, this degradation would be spread over the different pixels. Not uniformly, but good enough that it doesn’t matter for practical usage.

      • @HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml
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        117 months ago

        In all seriousness that’s not usable because the ink will have a tendency to bleed and fill the voids that make up the letters.

      • @stillwater@lemm.ee
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        57 months ago

        It takes more energy, and therefore battery, to draw everything but the letters and words.

        • @HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml
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          157 months ago

          E-ink actually doesn’t as it only uses power when pixels change between black and white and not when it’s displaying a static image. E-ink uses the same amount of power rendering white text on black as black text on white. However, white text is more common since e-ink is specifically meant to imitate printed pages, and assuming it’s not backlit, also doesn’t have nearly as bad eye strain issues when in light mode as a glowing screen does.

        • @nexussapphire@lemm.ee
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          57 months ago

          It only has to update the parts where the words changed and it only uses the energy to initially change the screen. It literally uses more energy doing full screen wipes (flashing between black and white three or four times) to avoid ghost images. It would significantly reduce the need for a refresh if it was mostly black.

          Our eyes are more sensitive to variations in lighter colors after all.

  • kamen
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    297 months ago

    Imagine reading black text on white background, but the background emits light.

  • DreamButt
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    267 months ago

    I would pay double the hard cover cost for a book like this

  • @greenskye@lemm.ee
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    267 months ago

    Kindle e-readers come with a night mode, which I use regularly and it doesn’t look too different from this. Very useful when reading at night next to your partner

  • @Rhoeri@lemmy.ml
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    257 months ago

    A while back, I actually got absolutely wrecked by a bunch of kids who took offense to me saying I didn’t like dark mode in apps. Like, they downvoted everything I had to say on it regardless of my saying that I had nothing against dark mode.

    Polarization is just part of life now. You either love things or you hate things.

  • Karyoplasma
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    247 months ago

    I would read that book. I also would download a car. The thing stopping me is the possibility.