Results: Using a dark theme in VS for a week

As I mentioned several days ago I’ve been seeing if a dark theme in VS would help my eyes a little. The short of it is – no, no it didn’t. The major sore point is that if you use a dark theme in VS then you find yourself constantly swapping between dark (VS) and light (web content, content in general). The latter of course doesn’t sound like its particularly good for you and I’d definitely concur with that.

I actually found that my background was slightly off-white in my VS settings and since changing it to pure white around 3 or so days ago I’ve found that my eye strain has just disappeared. Funny thing is I can never remember changing the background colour.

I’ve no doubt that the colour schemes used in VS are very subjective so I won’t announce that light themes are the best, but it seems to work well for me.

Published Fri, Sep 26 2008 18:20 by Granville Barnett
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Comments

# re: Results: Using a dark theme in VS for a week

I also found this:

"Green: A good all-purpose lens color, green provides a fair amount of contrast in low light conditions and reduces eye strain in bright conditions."

Source: www.athleticoptics.com/tips.asp

Friday, September 26, 2008 3:21 PM by Chris

# re: Results: Using a dark theme in VS for a week

Sorry. One last more I found on Green. Note: My color green is a very light green. Like an off white but with a green tint.

"Have you ever seen the default wallpaper of a Windows 95 installation? That horrendous, disgusting, depressing shade of gray-green that, for years, went mocked and scorned by many?... I have used for the longest period at a time....Interestingly enough, I have also noticed a great reduction in eye strain."

Source: www.oreillynet.com/.../that_depressing_shade_of_green.html

Friday, September 26, 2008 3:27 PM by Chris

# re: Results: Using a dark theme in VS for a week

@Chris - I'm just going to stick with white for the time being. Thanks for the links though. The O'Reilly post was interesting. I haven't seen that shade of green for years. Depressing would probably have been the label I would have associated with that shade of green as well. Thanks ;-)

Friday, September 26, 2008 5:29 PM by Granville Barnett

# re: Results: Using a dark theme in VS for a week

Hi ,

I was using the dark theme and found that it will increase eye strain. Now i am using www.codinghorror.com/.../exported-font-and-colors-for-jeff-atwood-sept-19.zip and it reduces my eye strain.

Saturday, September 27, 2008 12:50 AM by Shiju Varghese

# re: Results: Using a dark theme in VS for a week

@Shiju - I saw those themes a while ago, didn't do much for me. I should have said that I use the colouring that R# provides rather than the defaults in VS. Same for VA with C++.

Saturday, September 27, 2008 5:45 AM by Granville Barnett

# re: Results: Using a dark theme in VS for a week

What I'd really like is to be able to specify themes per-solution.

Mainly so that I can instantly see which branch of my product I'm working on - bug fixing on the production branch or new features on the development branch.

Is this possible?

Saturday, September 27, 2008 6:56 AM by Joe

# re: Results: Using a dark theme in VS for a week

@Joe - I've never heard of it being possible, at least not with VS out of the box.

Saturday, September 27, 2008 9:09 AM by Granville Barnett

# re: Results: Using a dark theme in VS for a week

I like a darker background; I've switched to a dark gray (not black) a while back. Since then I had to work with the default VS colors a few times and it felt like looking in the sun.

If your eyes strain easily taking some lutein supplements can help.

Saturday, September 27, 2008 6:12 PM by Peter

# re: Results: Using a dark theme in VS for a week

@Peter - Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

Saturday, September 27, 2008 6:26 PM by Granville Barnett

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