Mind the dark theme

Operating systems and many software applications have been supporting dark mode visual styles for years.

Many articles already explain the advantages and disadvantages of dark mode design in visual health and people's moods; as well as how to offer automatic or manual dark theme switching on your site or software.

I am more interested in pointing out four things that other writers have forgotten to inform you:

The first and most important one is that dark does not equal black… or numberless shades of grey. You can use other colours for a dark theme. I use purple, for example. I have seen beautiful dark themes using blue and brown too.

The second one is that you should always give people the option to choose. CSS allows you to enable dark theme by default (prefers-color-scheme) when a user is using dark theme in his computer, but I suggest you not to use that option. Just let them choose. It is much better.

The third one is that implementing a dark theme on a website must not hinder any objective that you may have for your web pages. If your objective is to be read, then they should be able to read comfortably; and so if your objective is to get sign ups, registrations, inquiries, requests for proposals, or other. You cannot afford the luxury of achieving less from your site just because of a dark theme. Your business is more important.

Last but not least, remember that a computer's dark mode also affects your e-mail marketing. Not everybody uses a webmail service. Millions use e-mail clients. So be careful and test your e-mails with dark mode activated before sending them to your subscribers. If you forget, you may end up sending black text over a black background and make your e-mails illegible. Also, include a text-only version of your message for those who prefer to read that way, like me.