• TallonMetroid@lemmy.world
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    1 year 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.

    • uis@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Except OLED. It’s better for OLED to show white text on black background.

      • Marxism-Fennekinism@lemmy.ml
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        1 year 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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          1 year 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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            1 year 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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          1 year 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.

      • stillwater@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

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

        • Marxism-Fennekinism@lemmy.ml
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          1 year 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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          1 year 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.