Why I like to use Darker themes

[domineaux]

I've built numerous sites and forums for the past 5+ years.

Commercial sites usually wind up with white or light colored backgrounds, similar to this current theme.  Color selection for fonts is always difficult, because so many colors wash out or just don't fit with pastel/light theme backgrounds.

Light colored sites aren't necessarily boring, but they do need a lot of perky graphics and splashes of color to keep user interest.

Dark themes have their drawbacks, because if you aren't careful the may have a morbidity about the way they look.  You have to be careful with your graphics and fonts. 

Most people equate dark with clan or gamer sites, which is usually the case.  IMO, you can do a lot more with dark background themes with color and graphics to make the site more user friendly.  By that I mean the contrast is always broad.  You put photos on dark backgrounds they look better, no washout.  You can use a very broad array of colors for fonts with dark backgrounds, and you can also perk things a great deal with graphics and enlarged fonts.

I can't stand grey or mid range colors for backgrounds.  I realize some say it is better on the eyes, but it's not been proven to me.

It is important in forums to have background color contrast between postings or the page just looks like a hodge-podge of unrelated stuff.

If you're trying to convey some feeling of quality and value of the verbiage themes like manuscript certainly fit that to a tee.  I wouldn't use a theme like the manuscript, because it just seems a little too much of a good thing.  Don't get me wrong in some cases for some sites...it's what the doctor ordered. 

Site owners, the people who are paying for sites...well they can have anything they want.  Green on Green, Green on Red, Green on White, etc.  Usually best to give'em what they want first, an let things work out.

There are some excellent dark themes available on this site. Overall, the consistency of quality of themes is the highest for any CMS or forums I've ever used.  I've never gotten support on themes that ever approached Blocs site and forums.

If you aren't using dark themes, you might rethink things abit and give'em a go with some good graphics and color fonts within the content.  Leave off the darn Flash front-ends and let people into the content quickly.  If your sites don't excite you, don't expect them to excite others.

     

[mnichols7]

There's some very good advice in your comment.  I think I have found the perfect theme as far as color and contrast and that is Stormlrd 'Artificial Intelligent theme.  I love this theme, I get bored with sameness and with his theme, you don't because it changes often without disrupting the flow or feel of the pages.

[Ianedres]

Certainly some merit to the above posts.

I, however, prefer blues/grays on a personal level, and the Core theme is cool with me, though admittedly, it isn't the most appealing. But I try to place graphics on a page with shadows to portray some 3D perspective, which lighter backgrounds make this much easier.

Have been looking at the darker themes lately. And I agree that support for TP themes (and all of SMF, in general) is truly outstanding.

[bloc]

Agreed that pictures in general look a lot better on dark themes/backgrounds than light. But light themes also have their merit, especially for sites with alot of texts. Reading a long piece with white on black, usally tire you(well, if you are over 20 lol ), so rather black on white is better then.

But thats just the extremes. There are themes in all sorts of shades, neither pure dark or light really. 

[Crip]

I like the Dark pages with a font color not white but maybe an #EEE or #ccc - Even a #999, it's really all about preferences, hence so many theme color variations.

[Gargoyle]

I prefer the dark ones... The monitors are so "super bright" now a days that I find I always have them set as dark as they go and they are still to bright... LOL!!!

[Shadow]

I love to use the dark theme's for my forum.  I just love the color's for dark theme's not all of them. 

If I change my theme over to a light theme it's hurts my eyes bad.

[domineaux]

I had a couple of long documents to read in pdf.  I changed the background color to a brown with black letters.  The brown wasn't dark brown, but nevertheless it was alot darker than the boards.  I'd say they were closer to the background of the Leviathan theme brown.

The documents were 500+ pages long in technical jargo.  It was hard reading at best.

Anyway, I think light backgrounds are probably alright if you're reading for a short while. 

ALso,  one big area I found that helps... set monitor refresh rate 85+ hz. 60 hz, the standard will definitely give you headaches.   Often, when I notice I'm bothered with what I'm reading I check my monitor refresh rate.  I know it's crum to say, but somehow I reset that darn thing back to 60Hz and don't even know it. 

[bloc]

oh, getting it to 85hz is the first thing i do whenever new drivers are installed, or a fresh install. thats one thing that really makes a difference, and do not tire the eyes in the long run. Since I stare at code most of my time, its really needed.

[Shadow]

Anyway, I think light backgrounds are probably alright if you're reading for a short while.

Yes, I do agree with you about that one.  But it's kindly hard sometime to read with light background's