Ask HN: Can we get a HN background color (dark mode)

48 points by tasoeur 4 days ago

Hi there, loving the ability to change my topbar pink, but I also would love to browse my favorite website late at night without the bright flashes.

PS: Also happy to hear people's favorite indie plugin to fix this! <3

unfixed 2 days ago

I use a custom config on Dark Reader extension in all my devices. Having the same color scheme in all webpages are much better UX than what any web can implement by themselves.

andrewfromx 4 days ago

firefox dark reader works perfect.

  • greenmartian 4 days ago

    There are two wins in this. 1) Firefox. Which means you also get the extension on mobile. 2) Dark Reader works on all websites (and you can turn it off for sites don't play well, which isn't many).

srhtftw 4 days ago

Here is a Tampermonkey¹ script I've used for some ime to make HN look the way I want it to (plain white background). It should be easy to adapt for a dark preference. It also adds a "bookmark" at the top of each page which is also easily removed if you don't want that.

https://pastebin.com/fnf4CeBM

¹ https://www.tampermonkey.net

tapete 2 days ago

Everyone on HN should be able to write a custom stylesheet, this is really not an issue.

3vidence 4 days ago

Before anyone comments chrome extensions.

These don't work on chrome mobile or safari mobile which make up a sizeable number of users.

Please, can we just have native dark mode?

I made a pretty mediocre HN client just for this feature https://github.com/rsimmons1/FlutterHnReader

I don't feel like working on it anymore, let's just have dark mode.

Edit: apologies spoke out of my domain on safari iOS, it supports extensions I'm an Android user.

  • yjftsjthsd-h 4 days ago

    Firefox has extensions on Android. I appreciate that switching your browser is potentially a whole thing, but the option is there.

    • 3vidence 4 days ago

      Went to Firefox on mobile for a while, just found the overall experience slower and less performant.

      I know thats kind of a personal thing based on which websites are used but it was still my experience.

  • gabrielsroka 3 days ago

    Chrome on Android supports this flag. It works pretty well.

    chrome://flags/#enable-force-dark

    Also this one

    chrome://flags/#darken-websites-checkbox-in-themes-setting

    The UI might even support it.

    Also this has been asked many times over many years. I just don't think it's going to happen

  • tapete 2 days ago

    Just use a proper browser that lets you add custom stylesheets, it literally takes 5min in CSS to invert the colors.

  • knubie 4 days ago

    I've been using dark reader on mobile safari for years.

  • TingPing 4 days ago

    Safari mobile supports extensions.

nojvek 3 days ago

I would love this. Apple is notoriously bad at supporting dark mode extensions on their mobile browser.

  • runjake 2 days ago

    > Apple is notoriously bad at supporting dark mode extensions on their mobile browser.

    How so? There are several Safari extensions (Noir, Dark Reader, etc) for this that are compatible with Safari on Mobile.

  • flarion 2 days ago

    dark-reader-for-safari works well. mobile add-on

ronjouch 4 days ago

If you use Firefox, have my userContent.css DIY dark mode. Or you can massage it into the syntax expected by { Arc’s custom CSS, uBlock Origin, your CSS injecter of choice }:

  @-moz-document domain(news.ycombinator.com) {
    @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
      body {background-color: #111 !important;}
      #hnmain {background-color: #181818 !important;}
      .c00, a:link, .subtext a:link { color: #eee !important; }
      .comhead { opacity: 0.5 !important; }
      a:visited, .subtext a:visited, .pagetop, .reply a { color: #777 !important; }
      button, select, input, textarea { -moz-appearance: none !important; color: #eee !important; background-color: #444 !important; border: 0.5px solid gray !important; }
      pre, code { color: #9d9 !important; }
    }
  }
Obvious caveats apply: it’s mine, it’s certainly incomplete, yadayada. But hey, been working for me for years! Also, now that you know that the feature exists, you can probably search "Hacker News dark mode userContent.css" and find better / more complete ones :)

Always a pleasure helping tasoeur.

gamedever 4 days ago

My attempt at providing the CSS to do this. This is where it turns into bikeshedding (T_T);

    :root {
      color-scheme: light dark;

      --base-color: #828282;
      --admin-color: #000000;
      --top-color: #222222;
      --top-sel: #ffffff;
      --c00: #000000;
      --c5a: #5a5a5a;
      --c72: #737373;
      --c82: #828282;
      --c88: #888888;
      --c9c: #9c9c9c;
      --cae: #aeaeae;
      --cbe: #bebebe;
      --cce: #cecece;
      --cdd: #dddddd;
      --ca2: #a30000;
    }

    center>table {
      background-color: #f6f6ef;
    }
    table#hnmain>tbody>tr:nth-child(1)>td {
      background-color: #ff6600;
    }
    font {
      color: #3c963c
    }

    @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
      :root {
        --base-color: #909090;
        --admin-color: #ffffff;
        --top-color: #dddddd;
        --top-sel: #000000;
        --c00: #ffffff;
        --c5a: #a5a5a5;
        --c72: #8c8c8c;
        --c82: #7d7d7d;
        --c88: #777777;
        --c9c: #636363;
        --cae: #515151;
        --cbe: #414141;
        --cce: #313131;
        --cdd: #222222;
        --ca2: #a30000;
      }

      center>table {
        background-color: #222;
      }
      table#hnmain>tbody>tr:nth-child(1)>td {
        background-color: #a74300;
      }

      font {
        color: #639663
      }
    }

    body  { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size:10pt; color: var(--base-color); }
    td    { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size:10pt; color: var(--base-color); }

    .admin td   { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size:8.5pt; color: var(--admin-color); }
    .subtext td { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size:  7pt; color: var(--base-color); }

    input    { font-family:monospace; font-size:10pt; }
    input[type='submit'] { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; }
    textarea { font-family:monospace; font-size:10pt; resize:both; }

    a:link    { color: var(--admin-color); text-decoration:none; }
    a:visited { color: var(--base-color); text-decoration:none; }

    .default { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: var(--base-color); }
    .admin   { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size:8.5pt; color: var(--admin-color); }
    .title   { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: var(--base-color); overflow:hidden; }
    .subtext { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size:  7pt; color: var(--base-color); }
    .yclinks { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size:  8pt; color: var(--base-color); }
    .pagetop { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: var(--top-color); line-height:12px; }
    .comhead { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size:  8pt; color: var(--base-color); }
    .comment { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size:  9pt; }
    .hnname  { margin-left:1px; margin-right: 5px; }

    #hnmain { min-width: 796px; }

    .title a { word-break: break-word; }

    .comment a:link, .comment a:visited { text-decoration: underline; }
    .noshow { display: none; }
    .nosee { visibility: hidden; pointer-events: none; cursor: default }

    .c00, .c00 a:link { color: var(--admin-color); }
    .c5a, .c5a a:link, .c5a a:visited { color: var(--c5a); }
    .c73, .c73 a:link, .c73 a:visited { color: var(--c73); }
    .c82, .c82 a:link, .c82 a:visited { color: var(--c82); }
    .c88, .c88 a:link, .c88 a:visited { color: var(--c88); }
    .c9c, .c9c a:link, .c9c a:visited { color: var(--c9c); }
    .cae, .cae a:link, .cae a:visited { color: var(--cae); }
    .cbe, .cbe a:link, .cbe a:visited { color: var(--cbe); }
    .cce, .cce a:link, .cce a:visited { color: var(--cce); }
    .cdd, .cdd a:link, .cdd a:visited { color: var(--cdd); }
    .ca2 { color: var(--ca2); }

    .pagetop a:visited { color: var(--admin-color); }
    .topsel a:link, .topsel a:visited { color: var(--top-cel); }

    .subtext a:link, .subtext a:visited { color: var(--base-color); }
    .subtext a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }

    .comhead a:link, .subtext a:visited { color: var(--base-color); }
    .comhead a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }

    .hnmore a:link, a:visited { color: var(--base-color); }
    .hnmore { text-decoration:underline; }

    .default p { margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 0px; }

    .pagebreak {page-break-before:always}

    pre { overflow: auto; padding: 2px; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap:anywhere; }
    pre:hover { overflow:auto }

    .votearrow {
      width:      10px;
      height:     10px;
      border:     0px;
      margin:     3px 2px 6px;
      background: url("triangle.svg"), linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) no-repeat;
      background-size: 10px;
    }

    .votelinks.nosee div.votearrow.rotate180 {
      display: none;
    }

    table.padtab td { padding:0px 10px }

    @media only screen and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2), only screen and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) {
      .votearrow {
        background-size: 10px;
        background-image: url("triangle.svg"), linear-gradient(transparent, transparent);
      }
    }

    .rotate180 {
      -webkit-transform: rotate(180deg);  /* Chrome and other webkit browsers */
      -moz-transform:    rotate(180deg);  /* FF */
      -o-transform:      rotate(180deg);  /* Opera */
      -ms-transform:     rotate(180deg);  /* IE9 */
      transform:         rotate(180deg);  /* W3C complaint browsers */

      /* IE8 and below */
      -ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Matrix(M11=-1, M12=0, M21=0, M22=-1, DX=0, DY=0, SizingMethod='auto expand')";
    }

    /* mobile device */
    @media only screen
    and (min-width : 300px)
    and (max-width : 750px) {
      #hnmain { width: 100%; min-width: 0; }
      body { padding: 0; margin: 0; width: 100%; }
      td { height: inherit !important; }
      .title, .comment { font-size: inherit;  }
      span.pagetop { display: block; margin: 3px 5px; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal }
      span.pagetop b { display: block; font-size: 15px; }
      table.comment-tree .comment a { display: inline-block; max-width: 200px; overflow: hidden; white-space: nowrap;
        text-overflow: ellipsis; vertical-align:top; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='40'] { width: 12px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='80'] { width: 24px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='120'] { width: 36px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='160'] { width: 48px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='200'] { width: 60px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='240'] { width: 72px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='280'] { width: 84px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='320'] { width: 96px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='360'] { width: 108px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='400'] { width: 120px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='440'] { width: 132px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='480'] { width: 144px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='520'] { width: 156px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='560'] { width: 168px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='600'] { width: 180px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='640'] { width: 192px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='680'] { width: 204px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='720'] { width: 216px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='760'] { width: 228px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='800'] { width: 240px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='840'] { width: 252px; }
      .title { font-size: 11pt; line-height: 14pt;  }
      .subtext { font-size: 9pt; }
      .votearrow { transform: scale(1.3,1.3); margin-right: 6px; }
      .votearrow.rotate180 {
        -webkit-transform: rotate(180deg) scale(1.3,1.3);  /* Chrome and other webkit browsers */
        -moz-transform:    rotate(180deg) scale(1.3,1.3);  /* FF */
        -o-transform:      rotate(180deg) scale(1.3,1.3);  /* Opera */
        -ms-transform:     rotate(180deg) scale(1.3,1.3);  /* IE9 */
        transform:         rotate(180deg) scale(1.3,1.3);  /* W3C complaint browsers */
      }
      .votelinks { min-width: 18px; }
      .votelinks a { display: block; margin-bottom: 9px; }
      input[type='text'], input[type='number'], textarea { font-size: 16px; width: 90%; }
    }

    .comment { max-width: 1215px; overflow-wrap:anywhere; }



    @media only screen and (min-width : 300px) and (max-width : 389px) {
      .comment { max-width: 270px; overflow: hidden }
    }
    @media only screen and (min-width : 390px) and (max-width : 509px) {
      .comment { max-width: 350px; overflow: hidden }
    }
    @media only screen and (min-width : 510px) and (max-width : 599px) {
      .comment { max-width: 460px; overflow: hidden }
    }
    @media only screen and (min-width : 600px) and (max-width : 689px) {
      .comment { max-width: 540px; overflow: hidden }
    }
    @media only screen and (min-width : 690px) and (max-width : 809px) {
      .comment { max-width: 620px; overflow: hidden }
    }
    @media only screen and (min-width : 810px) and (max-width : 899px) {
      .comment { max-width: 730px; overflow: hidden }
    }
    @media only screen and (min-width : 900px) and (max-width : 1079px) {
      .comment { max-width: 810px; overflow: hidden }
    }
    @media only screen and (min-width : 1080px) and (max-width : 1169px) {
      .comment { max-width: 970px; overflow: hidden }
    }
    @media only screen and (min-width : 1170px) and (max-width : 1259px) {
      .comment { max-width: 1050px; overflow: hidden }
    }
    @media only screen and (min-width : 1260px) and (max-width : 1349px) {
      .comment { max-width: 1130px; overflow: hidden }
    }
I get, it's long. Just taking the css that was served and editing it.
  • gamedever 4 days ago

    There's some, pretty oldskool HTML in there. There are font tags, bgcolor="", color="" .. I guess you can say if it ain't broken don't fix it.