Ask HN: Are there any studies on if and how are dark or light themes better?

3 points by qwerty456127 ↗ HN

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Yes, a Google Scholar search provided some experimental results:

* "The impact of color combinations on the legibility of text presented on LCDs" ("Dark text generally leads to greater legibility when contrast ratio is greatest."): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000368701...

* "Night Mode, Dark Thoughts: Background Color Influences the Perceived Sentiment of Chat Messages" (not directly applicable, but interesting: "Those who rated the messages against a black background perceived them more negatively than those who worked against a white background"): https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-67684-5_...

There's probably more, but I'd guess it's highly dependent on personal preference, vision, and ambient lighting, among other things.