In this post I’ve shared my research and views on how the extremely popular “Dark Mode” has moved beyond it’s initial label of “The App Design Fad of 2019”.

在這篇文章中，我分享了我的研究和看法，探討了非常受歡迎的“黑暗模式”如何超越其最初的標簽“ 2019年應用程序設計風尚”。

Dark Mode: A color scheme using light coloured text and icons on dark background.

深色模式：一種在深色背景上使用淺色文本和圖標的配色方案。

Light Mode: A color scheme using dark coloured text and icons on light background.

淺色模式：一種在深色背景上使用深色文本和圖標的配色方案。

Over a year ago, when Android and iOS enabled dark mode — one of the most requested features of the year — most critics labelled it as “The App Design Fad of 2019”. A bit skeptical of this “fad” and quite late to the party, I moved to the “dark side” only months later in 2020. My reasons were the same as that of most.

一年多以前，當Android和iOS啟用黑暗模式時，這是一年中最受歡迎的功能之一，大多數批評家將其稱為“ 2019年App設計風尚”。 對這種“時尚”持懷疑態度，晚了晚些，我僅在2020年幾個月后才搬到了“陰暗面”。我的理由與大多數理由相同。

“It’s better for the eyes and it saves battery life”.

“它對眼睛更好，并且可以節省電池壽命”。

Over a month later, my eyes don’t strain any less and nor has my phone’s battery performance improved. And yet…there’s no going back.

一個多月后，我的眼睛不再疲勞，手機的電池性能也沒有改善。 但是……沒有回頭路了。

黑暗模式的起源 (Origins of the Dark Mode)

Contrary to popular belief, the world isn’t really shifting from light-mode to dark-mode. It is actually shifting back to dark-mode.

與普遍的看法相反，世界并沒有真正從亮模式轉變為暗模式。 實際上，它正在變回暗模式。

Dark mode isn’t some new breakthrough discovery in user interface design, but rather simply a by-product of the technology of the old days. The monochrome CRT monitors of the old days contained phosphorus inside them which under normal conditions appeared dark. This would only light up when an electron beam would hit it. The common choice for phosphorus back then was the P1, which was green in color. Hence, the green text on the dark background a.k.a dark mode.

暗模式并不是用戶界面設計中的一些新突破性發現，而僅僅是過去技術的副產品。 老式的單色CRT顯示器內部裝有磷，在正常條件下磷是深色的。 這只有在電子束撞擊它時才會點亮。 當時磷的常見選擇是P1，其顏色為綠色。 因此，深色背景(也稱為深色模式)上的綠色文本。

The early user interfaces didn’t really have much going on for them and were thus predominantly dark in appearance.

早期的用戶界面實際上并沒有太多工作，因此外觀上主要是深色的。

走進光明 (Stepping Into The Light)

It’s hard to trace exactly when we moved towards light mode, but a strong case could be made for the Xerox PARC graphical user interface (widely believed to be the inspiration behind the Macintosh) to have influenced this shift. The more advanced RGB CRT monitors, which were capable of displaying color, became the forefronts of the light-mode revolution.

很難準確地了解何時進入光模式 ，但是可以為施樂PARC圖形用戶界面(被廣泛認為是Macintosh的靈感)提供了有力的依據來影響這一轉變。 能夠顯示色彩的更先進的RGB CRT顯示器成為光模式革命的前沿。

Any new advanced technology, in order to become successful amongst the masses, needs to appear friendly and non-intimidating.

為了在群眾中取得成功，任何新的先進技術都必須顯得友善而毫不畏懼。

Hence, not surprisingly many computer designers and programmers began shaping the advanced computer displays to emulate the age-old look of the written paper to lure the average Joe into the world of mobile computing. These advances in display technology helped usher us into the dominant phase of the “light-mode”.

因此，毫不奇怪，許多計算機設計師和程序員開始塑造高級計算機顯示器，以模仿書面論文的古老外觀，以吸引普通的Joe進入移動計算領域。 顯示技術的這些進步幫助我們進入了“光模式”的主導階段。

Ironically, it ended up being one of these advances in display technology itself — OLED — which sparked the public’s renewed interest in the dark mode.

具有諷刺意味的是，它最終成為顯示技術本身的一項進步-OLED-激發了公眾對黑暗模式的新興趣。

人們為什么要移到黑暗的一面？ (Why do people move over to the dark side?)

Ask people who have recently shifted to dark mode on why they made the shift and nine times out of ten you’ll get the same answer.

向最近轉為黑暗模式的人詢問為什么要進行這種改變，十分之九的人會得到相同的答案。

“Dark mode is better for my eyes and it improves my phone’s battery life”.

“黑暗模式對我的眼睛更好，它可以延長手機的電池壽命”。

Promotion around dark mode is everywhere. Apple’s own website says that the dark-mode on macOS is “easy on the eyes in every way”. Google once said that YouTube’s dark mode could save between 15 to 60% of the phone’s battery depending on the screen brightness.

黑暗模式下的促銷無處不在。 蘋果自己的網站表示，macOS上的暗模式“從各個方面都很容易”。 谷歌曾經說過，根據屏幕亮度的不同，YouTube的暗模式可以節省手機電量的15％至60％ 。

But is dark mode really better for the eyes and does it really improve battery life?

但是，黑暗模式真的對眼睛有好處嗎，真的可以延長電池壽命嗎？

神話破壞 (Mythbusting)

Let’s try something. Try googling for images of “prehistoric paintings”. Notice the thing in common among most of the images shown? They are dark sketches on a light background.

讓我們嘗試一下。 嘗試谷歌搜索“史前繪畫”的圖像。 注意顯示的大多數圖像中的共同點嗎？ 它們是淺色背景上的深色草圖。

We have evolved over the centuries to see dark on light.

我們已經進化了數百年，看到了黑暗的光明。

Now, I’m not making my case on the basis of a random google search but if you are interested in learning more on this subject, there are enough studies conducted which reason that our over 200,000–300,000 year old homo sapiens species, being a diurnal species (mostly active throughout the day) had to adapt over the centuries to effectively distinguish food, useful tools, dangers and objects of interest from the blindingly bright background of the savannah.

現在，我不是基于隨機Google搜索來說明我的情況，但是，如果您有興趣學習更多有關此主題的內容，則進行了足夠的研究，原因是我們超過200,000–300,000年前的智人物種晝夜物種(大部分時間全天活躍)必須適應多個世紀，才能有效地將食物，有用的工具，危險和感興趣的物體與稀樹草原的明亮背景區分開。

黑暗模式真的對眼睛更好嗎？ (Is Dark Mode really better for the eyes?)

Reading in dark mode actually opens our pupils more in order to capture the necessary visual information. This is in contrast to reading in light mode, where our pupils actually narrow in order to get used to the increased brightness.

在黑暗模式下閱讀實際上可以使我們的學生更多地打開，以便捕獲必要的視覺信息。 這與在光線模式下閱讀相反，在光線模式下，我們的瞳Kong實際上變窄了，以適應增加的亮度。

This is the reason behind sharpness actually being better when dark text is written on a light background a.k.a light mode, as compared to when light text is written on a dark background a.k.a dark mode.

這就是與在深色背景(也稱為暗模式)上寫入淺色文本時相比，在深色背景(也稱為淺色模式)上寫入深色文本后，清晰度實際上更好的原因。

Have a look.

看一看。

Unless you have sworn fealty to the dark side, it’ll be apparent that the image on the left is easier to read. Furthermore, if you focus for a bit longer on the image on the right, you may start noticing “halos” around the white characters on the black background. This halation effect is a real problem in the dark mode and is one of the main reasons why patients of astigmatism are cautioned against using their devices in dark mode.

除非您向黑暗面宣誓效忠，否則顯而易見，左側的圖像更容易閱讀。 此外，如果您在右側的圖像上聚焦更長的時間，則可能會開始注意到“光暈” 在黑色背景上的白色字符周圍。 這種光暈效應在暗模式下是一個實際問題，并且是提醒散光患者不要在暗模式下使用其設備的主要原因之一。

But maybe dark mode is good because it helps us from the harmful “blue light”?

但是也許暗模式是好的，因為它可以幫助我們擺脫有害的“藍光”？

As with most things in life, the answer is both yes and no. Contrary to popular belief, it is actually the spectrum of light not just the brightness that makes blue light damaging. Dark mode can only make so much of a difference. Most researchers attribute that the discomfort we feel in our eyes after staring at the screen for too long is more due to the lack of blinking.

對于生活中的大多數事物，答案都是肯定的。 與普遍的看法相反，實際上是光譜造成的損害不僅是造成藍光損壞的亮度。 黑暗模式只能起到很大的作用 。 大多數研究人員認為，長時間盯著屏幕觀看后，我們的眼睛感到不適的原因更多是因為沒有眨眼。

Most researchers believe that the discomfort we feel in our eyes after starting at the screen for too long is more due to the lack of blinking.

大多數研究人員認為，從屏幕開始觀看太長時間后，我們的眼睛會感到不適，更多是由于缺少眨眼。

節省電池壽命呢？ (What about the battery life savings?)

Battery savings are one of the main reasons OLED screens became popular. When OLED screens display black, the respective pixels are turned off, which saves some battery. This is in sharp contrast to LED displays which would draw the same amount of battery whether you look at a beautiful polaroid image or simply stare at a pitch black screen.

節省電池電量是OLED屏幕受歡迎的主要原因之一。 當OLED屏幕顯示黑色時，相應的像素將關閉，從而節省了一些電池。 這與LED顯示器形成鮮明的對比，無論您看到美麗的寶麗來圖像還是只是注視著黑色的黑色屏幕，LED顯示器都會消耗相同數量的電池。

While enabling dark-mode on your phone device, equipped with an OLED display might not double or triple or your battery life, it may well increase your daily battery life by 1–2 hours and that is something valuable to a lot of people.

在配備OLED顯示屏的電話設備上啟用暗模式可能不會使電池壽命增加一倍或兩倍，也可能會使您的日常電池壽命增加1-2小時，這對于很多人來說都是很有價值的。

There’s just one problem….most devices don’t have OLED displays.

這只是一個問題……大多數設備沒有OLED顯示屏。

Apple’s iPhone XS, XS Max, and X use OLED panels but Apple’s other iPhones and iPads don’t — not even their best-selling iPhone XR. On the other side of the spectrum, while Samsung’s latest flagship Galaxy phones are coming equipped with the OLED displays, the majority of the Android phones still don’t come equipped with an OLED display. It’s worse in the case of laptops.

蘋果的iPhone XS ，XS Max和X使用OLED面板，但蘋果的其他iPhone和iPad則不使用OLED面板-甚至連他們最暢銷的iPhone XR也不是。 另一方面，雖然三星最新的旗艦Galaxy手機配備了OLED顯示屏，但大多數Android手機仍未配備OLED顯示屏。 對于筆記本電腦，情況更糟。

Neither Apple’s best selling phone nor the MacBooks come equipped with an OLED display.

蘋果最暢銷的手機和MacBook都沒有配備OLED顯示屏。

Depending on who or what you choose to believe, the reason behind the low market penetration of OLED displays is anything from high time to reach market for new technologies to the higher costs compared to the chearper LED displays.

取決于您選擇的是誰或什么，OLED顯示器市場滲透率低的原因有很多，從新技術進入市場的時間到高昂的時間，再到與更廉價的LED顯示器相比，成本更高。

那么，為什么暗模式如此受歡迎？ (So then why is dark mode so popular?)

More than a year post being labelled “The App Design Fad of 2019”, the “dark mode” rages on with more and more users moving over to the dark side every single day. If it’s not truly “better” for the eyes and if the resulting “battery savings” aren’t significant for most , then what really is the reason behind this ongoing trend of going black?

在被貼上“ 2019年應用程序設計風尚”一年多的消息后，“暗模式”風靡一時，每天都有越來越多的用戶轉向陰暗面。 如果對眼睛而言，這并不是真正的“更好”，而對于大多數人而言，由此產生的“電池節省”并不重要，那么，這種持續的變黑趨勢背后的真正原因是什么？

Maybe at the end of the day, it comes down to something as simple as the fact that dark mode is cool.

也許歸根結底，歸結為黑暗模式很酷的事實。

Staring at my Instagram or Twitter on a dark screen just feels better than on a light screen. Perhaps, the black and grey makes us feel less conscious of how long we have been staring at the screen. Maybe the average smartphone user like me was just in need of a fresh outlook and some change, which is sometimes the most overlooked aspect of any product.

在黑暗的屏幕上盯著我的Instagram或Twitter 感覺比在明亮的屏幕上感覺好 。 也許，黑色和灰色使我們對盯著屏幕多久的意識有所減弱。 也許像我這樣的普通智能手機用戶只需要嶄新的面貌和一些變化，這有時是所有產品中最被忽視的方面。

People love a refresh. Even if it’s just a theme switch.

人們喜歡刷新。 即使只是主題切換。

Perhaps it’s no surprise then that despite knowing all of this, I’ve decided to stick with the dark mode and have no plans of switching back to light mode anytime soon. As one of my friends says — “Once you go black, you’re not going back”.

也許就不足為奇了，盡管知道了所有這些，但我還是決定堅持使用暗模式，并且沒有計劃在任何時候立即切換回亮模式。 正如我的一位朋友所說：“一旦您變黑，您就不會回頭”。

Or maybe just until the next trend arrives.

或者也許直到下一個趨勢到來。