Wikipedia talk:Dark mode

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Dark mode page.

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This page is not a good venue for suggesting improvements or fixes to any particular dark mode. Please instead provide your feedback on the talk page of the theme you are using, or in the case of the built-in theme, this reporting form. Suggestions here related to theme changes will very likely not be seen by the maintainers of the theme and are unlikely to receive any response.

Why no native dark mode?

What are the technical reasons why Wikipedia STILL does not have a native dark mode option for guests? Who is determining the priorities on the UI design and why don't they prioritize the #1 most requested feature? Onlyloggedinfordarkmode (talk) 18:41, 23 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I 100% agree. 31.17.92.45 (talk) 20:14, 12 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I have refused to donate to Wikipedia until this feature is available. 73.197.80.116 (talk) 09:52, 7 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The color choice for native dark mode

Guys, the shade of the background color and font color must be changed. The background is black. That's too dark. You know that sensation where you look at white text on a black screen, and the text sticks out like a sore thumb? That weird visual distortion effect that makes it harder to read the text? That can be eliminated by 1) making the background dark but not black, and then 2) making the font color light but not completely white. Doing so reduces the contrast between the text and the background, which both reduces eye strain from bright screens while also making it easier to read the content. Derwos (talk) 13:08, 27 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed! And the blue link color is just a pain in the eyes. It's hard to believe Wikimedia is suffering from a lack of UI/UX engineers. Maduka Jayalath (talk) 01:45, 28 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Text: #fffc

Background: #19191c

Link border: #959595 Maduka Jayalath (talk) 02:13, 28 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

agreed, the blue is too blue

And... the background/body should be a shade of Dark Grey NOT black. (i refer you to your own article 'Dark Mode'

Also, the black body div is 'above' in z index, the image page. No images are visible on the image viewer page. If I click on the image and open, it is visible.

'dark mode' is shades of grey, NOT 'black out'

if you need help from someone who has been rewriting desktops to 'grey' for Decades, since pre 'NeXt' era, let me know. Landis is Right, the Left is Wrong. (talk) 03:04, 27 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Absolutely agree. Background color needs to be lighter and text perhaps a tad darker (with the possible exception of titles and headers). The screenshot posted above is definitely an improvement over the current version. Come on guys, it's such an easy fix. Throast ^{{{ping}} me!} (talk | contribs) 18:59, 13 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I love #000 background, AMOLED. Vitaly Zdanevich (talk) 23:30, 13 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I share your opinion in preferring #000, pure black. Been using the Dark Mode Gadget for a while now and it seems to do that.

The "Color (beta)" Dark Mode option on the right side is too bright/grey for my tastes, but I see on this Talk page that there are different opinions.

Some apps on my phone actually distinguish the two. AccuWeather has "Dark" and "Black" as two different options. Reddit has "Night" and "Midnight (AMOLED)" as well. Letting the pixels turn totally off on OLED saves power, too.

Any Dark Mode is certainly better than no Dark Mode, but a true "black" mode is what I'd prefer, so I'll stick with the Gadget for now. BlindingDarkness (talk) 02:17, 15 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The current color (#202122) is already difficult enough to deal with if you're trying to have sufficient color contrast for accessibility purposes. Snowmanonahoe (talk · contribs · typos) 11:27, 14 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Are you saying any reduction in contrast compared to what we currently have would cause accessibility issues? Throast ^{{{ping}} me!} (talk | contribs) 11:58, 14 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

No, but the lighter we make the background, the fewer text/foreground colors we have available. At the current background color we already have to make the contrast of links slightly below WCAG AA because we can't have that and sufficient contrast against the white text simultaneously. Snowmanonahoe (talk · contribs · typos) 12:02, 14 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If WCAG bars us from having anything approaching, say, dark-mode Google Search (#1F1F1F background, #BEBFC3 prose, #E8E8E8 titles), then WCAG are the problem. Throast ^{{{ping}} me!} (talk | contribs) 12:18, 14 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia articles have way more colors to worry about. Snowmanonahoe (talk · contribs · typos) 13:27, 14 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Forgot to add link color, my bad. Way more though? I don't think that's true. As far as I can tell, we have colors for text, background, and links (including red and visited), and shades derived from the background color for elements like infoboxes/buttons. It really shouldn't be too hard to come up with a color scheme that's both pleasant to the eyes and accessible. Throast ^{{{ping}} me!} (talk | contribs) 14:31, 14 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, wait, are you talking about the gadget or the web team dark mode? Snowmanonahoe (talk · contribs · typos) 19:25, 14 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm talking about the official beta feature you can activate under Special:Preferences > Beat features. I'm all confused now though because that dark mode indeed seems to be just an inverted version of light mode contrary to what Tollens says below. I've never used the gadget. Throast ^{{{ping}} me!} (talk | contribs) 20:33, 14 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

But #202122 is nearly identical to #1F1F1F. Snowmanonahoe (talk · contribs · typos) 20:37, 14 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

#101418 is the background color I see in "my" dark mode. I'm not sure how but we seem to be talking past each other. I'll leave this be. Throast ^{{{ping}} me!} (talk | contribs) 22:17, 14 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm certain the beta feature applies colours directly (you can check the browser console if you like, not sure where the code lives). The gadget does a simple invert (see the stylesheet). Tollens (talk) 05:24, 15 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Just a quick note to mention that the colours are being changed, and that the colours can't be changed in the old gadget. If you follow the instructions under the "Special:Preferences" section of this page, you can see that the colours in the officially-supported dark mode will not be pure white-on-black. The reason for the gadget being that way is that it simply inverts the colours of the entire site, and doesn't actually "have" any set colours per se (so they can't be changed as you all seem to be suggesting). If you want to use a dark theme you are more than welcome to use any one of the multiple other options listed on the page, or if you don't like the set colours of any of them, mine allows you to easily change the colours to whatever you like. Tollens (talk) 18:42, 14 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the suggestion! I'll be sure to try it out. I assume OP and I were talking about the officially supported dark mode. If the colors aren't inverted as you say, they sure look like they're pretty close. I just thought I'd voice my criticism of the beta feature since I wouldn't want Wikimedia to roll it out for everyone with a color scheme this harsh. Throast ^{{{ping}} me!} (talk | contribs) 20:42, 14 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I am almost certain that the original comment of 27 April was not talking about the beta feature, I don't think it was released at that point in time (and it says the background is just black, which is only true in the gadget as far as I can tell). I assumed all the following comments were also talking about the gadget but clearly I was mistaken. Tollens (talk) 05:26, 15 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

On a semi-related note, this is probably not a good place to suggest improvements to the beta feature – mw:Talk:Reading/Web/Accessibility for reading would be a better location. Tollens (talk) 05:37, 15 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you and sorry for causing confusion. Throast ^{{{ping}} me!} (talk | contribs) 13:50, 15 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Add "Dark Mode" as an option to the "Appearance" sidebar

We are now forced to view an "Appearance" sidebar that lacks the one single appearance option that I want.

Ironically, people who need a large text size are physically unable to view that option. Ironically, people who desire a small text size have already enabled it through monitor resolution and/or operating system text size, and wiki options would only disrupt that.

"Width" shouldn't be an option at all. Why is there? Is there telemetry on that? It's not even a thing.

However, how many people have viewed Wikipedia after dark? Half or more, probably most.

Black background, dark grey foreground, light grey text. Easy peasy.

Bonus points for green or amber text options. 70.162.92.6 (talk) 08:41, 24 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That's being done, see mw:Reading/Web/Accessibility for reading/Updates/2024-04. Please keep in mind that this is not an easy change as you say: there are many very old pieces of code scattered throughout Wikipedia using hardcoded colors that need to be fixed before a rollout of this feature to the general public. If you create an account, you can enable the beta feature in your preferences and a dark mode option will appear in the Appearance sidebar. Tollens (talk) 18:54, 25 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that if there is an "Appearance" sidebar, dark mode should be on it, and now it is. (Or even better, have dark mode as the standard) However, I would much much rather have no such sidebar at all. In my opinion, people should first and foremost be allowed to just use the site, not be prompted to do things. It is great that customizations Can be made, but that should be an option for those that seek to do so, not something interruptingly asked of everyone who enters the site. FreeToDisagree (talk) 14:39, 25 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@FreeToDisagree: There is already a "Hide" button on that sidebar. Tollens (talk) 18:52, 25 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Tollens: Yes, there is. Does that solve the problem? No, it does not. The user is still being prompted for action. When most likely, all they want to do is look up some information. Furthermore, the user is being prompted for action in a way that changes the layout of the whole page. It's bad enough that that happens the first time anyone visits Wikipedia. Like, Welcome to our online encyclopedia! Before you do what you want to do, what you came here to do, we would like for you to uhm, redesign our website for us. What? Can you honestly tell me that is what you want to do the first time you visit any website? Now take the perspective of someone who, for whatever reason, doesn't have cookies enabled. Now they see that every single time they visit Wikipedia. Every time they go on the site, rather than just looking up what they are interested in, they first have to decide if they want to redesign the page, just hide the menu, or if they are okay to keep browsing in a smaller-than-normal size. FreeToDisagree (talk) 21:37, 25 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:dark mode

Regarding Wikipedia’s dark mode feature on the website settings. This feature would be more effective at preventing eye strain if dark mode also changed the colour palette used for hyper-links, banners and headlines. Blue rich colours should be avoided in dark mode. A palette of amber or red colours would improve the readability of the site in dark mode 209.171.85.194 (talk) 15:39, 11 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Pop-up modal on page load every single time I visit a Wikipedia link.

I browse in private mode. Every time I visit Wikipedia or follow a Wikipedia link, I now get a modal pop-up that stops me in my tracks to promote the dark feature.

Is promotion of this theme really worth interrupting every single visit? It’s annoying the hell out of me!

I am sure this can be handwaved away with “don’t use private mode”, or “log into Wikipedia every time you visit”… But I don’t feel the default no-cookie visit experience should be full cover-the-page interruption for promotion of minor features. 2600:1700:3D96:A060:A1B6:CE1C:4345:294B (talk) 18:32, 11 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Using the Cookie AutoDelete add-on has the same effect.

For other purposes Wikipedia uses a banner at the top of the page, which does not block the content. Wikipedia: please use that, it's far less annoying, and you don't have to annoy visitors just to point something out that is visible in the sidebar on the right anyway. 145.87.225.25 (talk) 05:50, 3 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

A bug with blue color

An area on the map is blue. On a dark mode, this color is changed to a dark blue, but in the file description the same color is changed to near white: [1] [2] MBH (talk) 00:31, 15 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Automatic toggle (prefers-color-scheme)

The default should be a stylesheet with both dark and light mode colors, using media selector "prefers-color-scheme: dark" to automatically enable dark mode for those users who have set their browser/device setting for dark mode. Then no further toggle/widget is needed, but if you insist, you can keep an override option in preferences. 179.51.60.239 (talk) 02:42, 18 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Contrast is too high to be comfortable

The contrast on this new dark mode feature for Wikipedia is too high. The background is too black while the text is stark white. In order to reduce eye strain while reading long articles, the background should be brought up in value and the text should be brought down in value. Having the elements closer together in value (while far enough to still distinguish them from each other) would be a huge benefit to all readers. For examples of good dark mode design, look at applications like Discord. 198.190.222.254 (talk) 13:33, 25 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

URL toggle not documented?

Is the withgadget=dark-mode token listed anywhere in the dark-mode documentation? Useful trick for one-off debugging that I don't see mentioned in Wikipedia:Dark mode or Wikipedia:Dark mode (gadget). DMacks (talk) 10:45, 29 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Highlights are not clear in Dark Mode

Whenever I would hit Ctrl+F on the Dark Mode of Wikipedia, the highlights are not clear on the page. It gives off a very faint color.

https://i.imgur.com/0FaQLa5.png

In contrast, the normal mode is a lot more clear: https://i.imgur.com/LC7dzMS.png

Note, I am using the most recent version of Google Chrome as my browser. Yoshiman6464 ^♫🥚 14:52, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Red links are blue

I use Wikipedia's dark mode on my phone, PC and iPad, and red links appear blue across all devices. Maxeto0910 (talk) 02:54, 20 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Maxeto0910: Hello, which dark mode are you currently using, and have you checked your js/css first? I am unable to reproduce this issue in the the native dark mode. Thanks. SCP-2000 03:46, 20 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm using Wikipedia's native dark mode as well, and JavaScript is enabled. I use Google Chrome on my phone and PC, and Safari on my iPad. Browser and OS versions are up to date on every device (except for my Galaxy S9+, which only runs Android 10). I'm using an adblocker on PC, but that shouldn't affect anything relating to this issue, should it? Maxeto0910 (talk) 05:14, 20 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Maxeto0910: Hello, could you please provide the screenshot if possible (you may upload the screenshot to imgbb.com), and have you tried to use the safemode? Thanks. SCP-2000 11:54, 23 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Messed up colors

When I use the dark mode, some colors in images (mostly svg images as far as I can tell) are slightly muted and look worse... this is most apparent with flags and other very bright and contrasting images. Nervelita :3🏳️‍⚧️ (talk) 07:05, 23 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Nervelita: Hello, which dark mode are you currently using? Could you please provide some of examples? Thanks. SCP-2000 11:55, 23 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I use the gadget. I went on the Wikipedia:Dark mode (gadget) page and it notes that images (and things like templates) are colorshifted which is a real shame because it works beautifully otherwise. I will try and find another method of dark mode. Nervelita :3🏳️‍⚧️ (talk) 06:46, 26 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]