Client said my dark mode text looked 'washed out' and I fought it at first

A client in Austin told me my font color in dark mode looked like it was fading into the background. I was using pure white #FFFFFF because I thought that's what you're supposed to do. Turns out she was right - dropping it to a soft gray around #E0E0E0 made the text way easier on the eyes. Has anyone else gotten pushback on pure white in dark themes?

2 comments

2 Comments

rose_murray4d ago

Wait, were you me like a year ago? I had the exact same fight with a client over pure white in dark mode. I was pretty stubborn about it honestly. But they had me test it on my phone at night and yeah, my eyes were hurting after five minutes. I switched to #E5E5E5 and it made a huge difference. Now I just start every dark theme with a soft off-white and save myself the back and forth. Really glad I learned that one before I had to redo an entire project.

evan514d ago

Nah see I gotta disagree here. I know everyone says off-white is the way to go but I still use straight up #FFFFFF in dark mode and my clients have never complained. It's all about the background color you pair it with. If your bg is like #121212 then pure white looks fine cause the contrast is high enough. The issue isn't the white itself it's when people use a dark gray bg like #1E1E1E then yeah pure white will feel harsh. But like if you pick your bg right you don't need to tone down the text. Just my two cents.

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