Dark Mode Theme

[[Co...]]

Hi all,

I have worked up an alternative theme which should work better in low-light conditions and for evening viewing. It is imperfect, but intended as a stopgap measure until the new version of this software is released (some weeks or a few months away), as the new version will include an inbuilt dark mode theme.

Some of the colours are not adjustable through the theme generator, so this makes creating a dark theme more difficult (attempting to maintain reasonable levels of contrast). I have already changed some of the hard-coded colours, but I can change more if need be. If you find colours  which are not easily distinguishable, it is probably due to hard-coding (or my own ineptitude). If you post some screen captures and explain the difficultly, I'll see what I can do improve the theme.

Please be aware that the theme is not primarily intended for regular, daytime or well-lit viewing. Parts of it are fairly low contrast so that it causes less eye-strain in low-light conditions; for some people, it might actually cause greater eyestrain when ambient light levels ate higher (during the day). But I quite like using all the time.

You can switch between themes at the foot of any BB webpage. Just click 'Theme' and select 'Dark (beta)', or even the inbuilt 'IPS Theme' if you prefer.

And lastly, let me know what you think: the good, the bad, or ugly. You know you can be honest with me!  

Edited to add: there is a second dark theme, 'Dark (beta 2)'. You should use that because I will remove the first version soon.

[Guest [Do...]]

Hi @[Co...] i specially apreciate this cause i use dark mode whenever is availiable, chrome, gmail, youtube, etc so i am defenetely using it. I will let you know if i find anything "weird" about it.

Thanks

Actually i find the blue, purple, etc colours too much, i love full black mode.

Edited August 28 by Guest
Adding info

[[Co...]]

13 minutes ago, [[D...] said:

Hi @[Co...] i specially apreciate this cause i use dark mode whenever is availiable, chrome, gmail, youtube, etc so i am defenetely using it. I will let you know if i find anything "weird" about it.

Thanks

Actually i find the blue, purple, etc colours too much, i love full black mode.

Yeah. It does not follow best practices (such as they are) for dark mode themes. I'll take your comments on board - but I'll be looking for consensus views.

[Guest [Do...]]

1 hour ago, [[C...] said:

Yeah. It does not follow best practices (such as they are) for dark mode themes. I'll take your comments on board - but I'll be looking for consensus views.

It is already better than old white mode so improvement is done.

[[Js...]]

@[Co...] Thank you for continuing to improve BB with these new features. I certainly do like it more than the white and my eyes are thankful.

The blue and black works well, green and yellow too. The white text is perfect. 

The only slightly strange color is the purple in my opinion and lighter shade of purple. It takes a little to adjust, but not bad  

 

[[Co...]]

9 hours ago, [[J...] said:

The only slightly strange color is the purple in my opinion and lighter shade of purple. It takes a little to adjust, but not bad  

If you mean the second-level menu bar, please confirm and I'll think about changing that.

If by 'green' you mean the notice about this thread, they are only 5 or 6 hard-coded strong colours available for them. And the notice will be removed in a few days anyway. Or, do you mean green somewhere else?

[[in...]]

The dark mode theme would be great if it could be in two colors. Three at max. It would look so clean and it would be easier to navigate in my opinion 😊

[[Sh...]]

Thank you so much. How do we switch to it?

[[Co...]]

16 minutes ago, [[S...] said:

Thank you so much. How do we switch to it?

20 hours ago, [[C...] said:

You can switch between themes at the foot of any BB webpage. Just click 'Theme' and select 'Dark (beta)', or even the inbuilt 'IPS Theme' if you prefer.

;)

[[Co...]]

1 hour ago, [[i...] said:

The dark mode theme would be great if it could be in two colors. Three at max. It would look so clean and it would be easier to navigate in my opinion 😊

I'll see how I might simplify it. The template is designed more for multiple colours - I am not sure how paired-down I could get it and keep it logical and easy to distinguish between different types of conent (quotes, and the like). I'll see what I can do with the header and main menu bar first and see where that leads me. It might be a few days before I can get to it. So, if any of you would like to chime in with more suggestions, please do.

[[WU...]]

Just to mention you have to be logged in to see the dark mode feature

Edited August 29 by [WU...]

[[Co...]]

1 minute ago, [[W...] said:

Just to mention you have to be logged in to see the dark mode feature

Yeah. That was deliberate. Once we have ironed out any bugs and improved it a little, I'll add guest access.

[[Co...]]

Hi all,

I've made two quick changes. I've created an alternative Dark Mode theme ('Dark (beta 2)). I've simplified the main colours. let me know what you think.

And I've moved the announcement to the top of the site - this type can clicked off at the right.

[[WU...]]

I like Beta 2 better

[[Co...]]

3 minutes ago, [[W...] said:

I like Beta 2 better

I thought you might. I've tweaked another couple of things to match the other changes. I'll be back later to see what you all think.

[[Id...]]

On 28/08/2024 at 16:24, [[C...] said:

And lastly, let me know what you thin

I think: an overwhelming thank you!!!! 
late night plagued by insomnia ok cell phone is bad but insomnia is worse and this is so incredibly thoughtful, like everything in here.

so I think “thank you very much; everything else is falling down but  ‘little’ things are here thoughtful and functioning” 💚

Mind too fried for more technical input, Sorry 🤷🏼‍♀️

going full black background is usually best but I’m not here to be picky.

@ every other user: if you have an iPhone you can go just once to the “settings->accessibility” menu and select the setting that will let you to lower or upper your screen white point by clicking the right button three times any time you want. Also you can add an amber filter simply by lowering the menu from the right upper corner, select for a second the brightness bar and touch the little sun icon that will appear. I hope this helps, it does a lot for me 

 

Edited August 29 by [Id...]
Clarity

[[in...]]

57 minutes ago, [[C...] said:

Hi all,

I've made two quick changes. I've created an alternative Dark Mode theme ('Dark (beta 2)). I've simplified the main colours. let me know what you think.

And I've moved the announcement to the top of the site - this type can clicked off at the right.

"Beta 2" is waaaay better in my opinion! It looks SO clean, and I love the colors! Very, very well done sir 🫡 💯 👑

[[Co...]]

1 hour ago, [[I...] said:

I think: an overwhelming thank you!!!! 
late night plagued by insomnia ok cell phone is bad but insomnia is worse and this is so incredibly thoughtful, like everything in here.

so I think “thank you very much; everything else is falling down but some ‘little’ things are here thoughtful and functioning” 💚

Mind too fried for more technical input, Sorry 🤷🏼‍♀️

going full black background is usually best but I’m not here to be picky.

Thank you your comments, @[Id...]. Blacks and shades of dark grey, I know, are more in line with best practices (such as they are). But I expect that the impending new version of this software (which includes a dark mode theme) will be more along those lines. This compromise theme actually works pretty well in daylight conditions too, so it is worth preserving (I think). It will be interesting to see what's actually delivered in the updated software.

1 hour ago, [[I...] said:

@ every other user: if you have an iPhone you can go to the “settings->accessibility” menu and select the setting to lower or upper your screen white point by clicking the right button three times any time you want. Also you can add an amber filter simply by lowering the menu from the right upper corner, select for a second the brightness bar and touch the little sun icon that will appear. I hope this helps, it does a lot for me 

Thank you for the posting this tip for members.

[[Co...]]

1 hour ago, [[i...] said:

"Beta 2" is waaaay better in my opinion! It looks SO clean, and I love the colors! Very, very well done sir 🫡 💯 👑

Thank you, @[in...]. I've tweaked more of the minor colours for consistency. It does not always go the way I ideally would like, because most settings control more than one element. But in the round, the tweaks I made (moments ago) have improved things further.

But keep your eyes pealed. As I said, these settings typically affect many elements - I might not have spotted everything. But I as I wrote before, with some digging around, I can target an individual element through CSS if need be.

[[Co...]]

@mentions and the badge which appears next to some avatars (typically, team members) are controlled by the same setting. When I try setting it to the bronze colour (the large buttons and main menu bar colour), the badge becomes too muddled. If I were to try to set the black glyph within the badge to white, this would affect other elements. For now, I have compromised on the yellow tone for the two elements. When I have time, I'll probably target one of them through CSS so @mentions use the bronze colour.

[[Fa...]]

This was really helpful.  Thank you very much.

[[Co...]]

14 minutes ago, [[F...] said:

This was really helpful.  Thank you very much.

You are very welcome!

[[Co...]]

I've fixed the @mentions/badges issue.

[[Co...]]

Another small tweak or two. I'll detail here anything major.

[[Co...]]

34 minutes ago, [[F...] said:

This was really helpful.  Thank you very much.

You are welcome, @[Fa...].