"All serious chess players use a White background. Eye strain occurs over a short time with Black."
Yeah... A little education helps here. Like understanding that you have to relax your eye muscles to take in more light (i.e. trying to see something at night), and they tighten-up to limit the amount of light input (forcing iris contraction, such as squinting while looking at bright lights or staring at the sun).
Tighter eye muscles taking in more light == less strain?
That's not the way it works.
If you use an obscene font (i.e. neon) against a flat black background, this will cause as much eyestrain as lighter colors with normal text. If you inspect the HTML behind LiChess, you'll notice that it is a "dark" theme (but not flat black). And, the font is not white-on-black. The font is contrasted appropriately with offset background colors such that it produces less eye-strain. Less eye strain since you have less white/blue light coming from the monitor to filter. Remember from basic chemistry/physics class (i.e. grade school): Black, darker colors, are an absence of light, and white, or lighter colors reflect or output more of the spectrum (which then needs to be processed neurologically).
Then there are other matters to get into, such as the nits of brightness an individual's screen is set to give-off, which also changes the perception of the (adjusted) color contrast and whether or not that causes eye-strain. (Hint/Suggestion: Get a printer's color card to set exact RGB, CMYK and brightness/contrast on a monitor; you'll notice most graphics pros have one on these cards at or near their desk, or within reach.)
And, then you have individual's with different genomes, and various degrees of sensitivity to light (which can include sensitivity to particular colors and contrast ratios). Some people have defective cones, and some people are missing a few (or all) cones. Just about everybody's cones adjust to changes in light and contrast differently. (Some of this is personalized conditioning over long-term; but it's mostly neuro-physiological having to do with the optical cortex, rods and cones in the eyes, and translation to the V1-6 centers at the back of your skull.)
But, generally speaking, the "dark" theme here has better contrast. The "light" theme isn't bad. (IMO)
I agree with the OP. Especially since most streamers are using the "dark" theme -- it helps identify the site better if the "dark" theme were the default. (And you could turn-on the light theme if the dark theme bothers you.)
Yeah... A little education helps here. Like understanding that you have to relax your eye muscles to take in more light (i.e. trying to see something at night), and they tighten-up to limit the amount of light input (forcing iris contraction, such as squinting while looking at bright lights or staring at the sun).
Tighter eye muscles taking in more light == less strain?
That's not the way it works.
If you use an obscene font (i.e. neon) against a flat black background, this will cause as much eyestrain as lighter colors with normal text. If you inspect the HTML behind LiChess, you'll notice that it is a "dark" theme (but not flat black). And, the font is not white-on-black. The font is contrasted appropriately with offset background colors such that it produces less eye-strain. Less eye strain since you have less white/blue light coming from the monitor to filter. Remember from basic chemistry/physics class (i.e. grade school): Black, darker colors, are an absence of light, and white, or lighter colors reflect or output more of the spectrum (which then needs to be processed neurologically).
Then there are other matters to get into, such as the nits of brightness an individual's screen is set to give-off, which also changes the perception of the (adjusted) color contrast and whether or not that causes eye-strain. (Hint/Suggestion: Get a printer's color card to set exact RGB, CMYK and brightness/contrast on a monitor; you'll notice most graphics pros have one on these cards at or near their desk, or within reach.)
And, then you have individual's with different genomes, and various degrees of sensitivity to light (which can include sensitivity to particular colors and contrast ratios). Some people have defective cones, and some people are missing a few (or all) cones. Just about everybody's cones adjust to changes in light and contrast differently. (Some of this is personalized conditioning over long-term; but it's mostly neuro-physiological having to do with the optical cortex, rods and cones in the eyes, and translation to the V1-6 centers at the back of your skull.)
But, generally speaking, the "dark" theme here has better contrast. The "light" theme isn't bad. (IMO)
I agree with the OP. Especially since most streamers are using the "dark" theme -- it helps identify the site better if the "dark" theme were the default. (And you could turn-on the light theme if the dark theme bothers you.)