It’s impressive how many misconceptions can fit into a single argument. Books are not a user interface—they’re a physical medium with entirely different design constraints. Comparing a printed page to a self-illuminating digital screen is like comparing a billboard to a TV screen one reflects ambient light, while the other generates its own.
Screens must account for brightness, contrast, and prolonged exposure in ways books never do. Also, UI elements are more than just text, in fact they almost have no text at all! Viewport, icons, buttons, and dynamic content behave differently than static ink on paper.
This is the exact reason why the old computers you mentioned used light text on dark backgrounds, exactly the opposite of books.
My remark on books was not meant to be taken too seriously.
I have used computers now for about 40 years, with all the available light/dark combinations. The monitor is just a part of a good ergonomic work environment. As @bmaxim said: “Dark mode can reduce eye strain, especially in low-light environments.” A normal office environment is not low-light and a monitor that somewhat matches the luminosity of its surroundings is perhaps the ideal, and in this the early “dark mode” monitors were terrible, and glare from the environment was a constant problem. We normally do not work in darkened rooms. But as I said before, this is a matter of personal preference.
I believe on my machine SKP is the ONLY program NOT on dark mode. I typically work in a darker office and dark mode on the machine is much easier on the eyes. In a well lit room, it makes less difference addressing Anssis comment but I, personally, prefer dark mode in all my apps.
Separately, I love the idea of the devs even just opening it up so the users can do it skunkworks style or unofficially as well. We could then potentially just make a theme for the viewport and the unofficial method for icons and everything else.
I wonder how much of the “eye strain” is caused by the monitors’ brightness and contrast settings being set too high. My brightness setting is set to 2.
Perhaps, however for those detected by Sketchup as unsupported, these icons or UIs can default to a specific color scheme that will blend with dark mode. I think this is possible to do as well.
