Dark Themes versus Light Themes

[Shawn Gossman]

Which type of theme do you prefer?

A dark theme?

Or a light theme?

Vote and feel free to reply!

 

[B.F]

I voted dark because it’s easy on the eyes where winter was glooming and no sunlight I had to adjust my eyes to the everything bright even though winter was bad the fire in my heart remains.

 

[Cpvr]

I prefer light themes. I only use dark mode at night, but having both options for users can be a good idea.

 

[Tracy]

The answer is "yes".
You offer both to your users.. either on a selectable basis or following their device settings. With XenForo (and several others) it is really not that hard to do now.
For me, in my niche... using the system default is nicer as if it is bright out, I really don't want to be looking at a dark theme as the contrast can get tiring.
And if it's dark out, I sure as heck do not want a bright white screen shining in my face!

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I try to offer both.

But on my blog, I really just have one - light. I think that might be something that I (we bloggers) should consider!

 

[JWeb]

Overall, I prefer dark themes but depending on the environment I'm in I might switch to a light theme.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Overall, I prefer dark themes but depending on the environment I'm in I might switch to a light theme.

How do you like the dark theme here?

 

[JWeb]

How do you like the dark theme here?

I like it. Some themes I've come across don't have a good contrast ratio and makes it harder to read and navigate. But not the case here!

 

[Cedric]

Other.

It’s 2025. If you’re not offering both light and dark themes, you’re leaving part of your audience behind - plain and simple.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Other.

It’s 2025. If you’re not offering both light and dark themes, you’re leaving part of your audience behind - plain and simple.

Yeah, I think you're right about that.

 

[Tracy]

Other.

It’s 2025. If you’re not offering both light and dark themes, you’re leaving part of your audience behind - plain and simple.

hehehehe.
I take it a step further for my niche. In addition to a light and dark version... I offer a special one. Night vision. Mainly red/black and the prefixes tags have been toned down quite a bit. Need to do some tweaking on it as I noticed that the last upgrade messed a few things up.

 

[CodyCool]

I try to offer both. I want to give members a choice of which theme they want to use instead of forcing a particular theme on them.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I try to offer both. I want to give members a choice of which theme they want to use instead of forcing a particular theme on them.

I think it's the best approach to take.

 

[CodyCool]

I think it's the best approach to take.

Me too man!

 

[meetdilip]

Light for me. I like it that way.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Light for me. I like it that way.

I use light themes myself. I'm not much for the dark themes. But I definitely want to offer that option to others.

 

[meetdilip]

Open to dark themes. I have seen some very good dark themes on forums.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Open to dark themes. I have seen some very good dark themes on forums.

Now I wonder how niche forums that require a dark theme do it.

I'm talking about your Halloween forums, gothic-like forums, horror movie forums, etc.

These types of forum commonly use a dark theme as default as it goes with the dark-niche theme itself. I wonder if they offer a light version though.

 

[meetdilip]

Some use default themes with customisation. Not a great idea if you want to focus on UX.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Some use default themes with customisation. Not a great idea if you want to focus on UX.

Right plus everyone hates the default theme.