Browse in Dark mode or Dark theme Note: This feature is called Dark mode on Desktop and Dark theme on mobile devices. When you browse in Dark mode or Dark theme in Chrome, your homepage, toolbar. Careful – a toxic combination: This Windows 7 premium theme combines a light green with a dark black. Well, this combination worked in The Matrix, so why shouldn't it work for a desktop themes? Exactly, if you can stand the colors then this is the perfect custom theme for you.
Every app these days seems to have a new dark mode or one in development. This is due in part to the appearance a slick black background can give but also due to recent research from Google that shows darker colors use up less battery power on devices with OLED screens. As more and more mobile devices are taking up the superior OLED displays, and even some high-end laptops have started to do the same, there are clear advantages available to developers for simply adding the option to fill the screen with dark colors instead of light ones.
This move has taken the dark mode from chic aesthetic choice on apps like Twitter to a required feature on almost every app out there. The ironic thing behind all of this is that just before Google published the research that led to the recent dark mode frenzy, it had introduced a new Material Design philosophy that was replete with a simple design layout and, you guessed it, brilliant white backgrounds.
Not one to cry over spilt milk, Google has since set about adding dark modes to all of its core products from the likes of Google Calendar and Keep to more established apps like Gmail and Chrome.
The Chrome dark mode is rather an interesting one. When activated Chrome looks a lot like it does when in incognito mode. The toolbars and taskbars are shades of grey all way down to black and the homepage is the same with darkened logos appearing in the center of the screen for your most visited websites. When you're using the web, however this is all just the periphery. Most of the screen space is taken up by the website you're looking at rather than the Chrome toolbars around it.
This is where the Chrome dark mode gets cool. Google has been working on a dark mode for Chrome that will force websites to darken their pages, thus saving your battery life. Even better, particularly with recent moves from laptop manufacturers like Dell and HP to give their laptops OLED devices, this new type of dark mode is also coming to Chrome on desktop.
According to a report by 9 to 5 Google, the Android specific classification that has allowed users on mobile to try out Chrome's new dark mode has been changed to an all systems classification. This means it will be available on desktop devices as well as mobile devices.
The feature isn't ready yet though, and still has long way to go along the development path before we'll even get to see screenshots of what it will look like. The 9 to 5 Google report does go into some details, however, so we can learn a little about the incoming feature even if we can't actually see it. The report says, 'Google is offering five prospective dark modes to choose from. 1) Simple HSL-based inversion, 2) Simple CIELAB-based inversion, 3) Selective image inversion, 4) Selective inversion of non-image elements, and 5) Selective inversion of everything.' The first two relate to the different types of ‘dark' that Chrome will display with CIELAB being the more advanced way of showing dark colors. The three selective options will all then offer a choice on what Chrome will paint black with all three using the CIELAB-based inversion.
If phrases like ‘inversion' and ‘selective non-image elements' don't sound like the types of buttons you'd normally see in the Google Chrome settings menu you'd be right. For now, these options are only available in the Google Chrome Canary build, which the developers use to try out advanced new features on developers and advanced web users. As we've already mentioned, it'll be quite some time before we see Chrome's dark mode become a regular part of the flagship Google web browser. When it does arrive there'll likely only be one type of dark mode.
'Windows Night Mode' is an accessibility feature provided by Microsoft Windows, the world's most popular computer operating system. When night mode is turned on in Windows, you see the dark themed user interface. Some people have begun to call it 'night mode' but there is nothing like a night mode in Windows as such. What people refers to as night mode is actually the high-contrast version of Windows UI for those who find it hard to read text on their screen.
Advantages of High Contrast Night Mode: People with certain eye-related medical conditions find it easy to read on high contrast screens. Such conditions include cataract and diabetic retinopathy. People with such vision have trouble reading text on screens where there is a lot of white space as it causes too much of light entering their eyes. So, all they see is glare and blurred text. 'Night mode' inverses the common background/text color combination and white/yellow/cyan text is shown on black background. Effectively, amount of light emitting from screen reduces by large extent.
People with normal vision also may sometimes find the night mode soothing because it reduces strain on eyes by minimizing screen glare. If you are planning to read ebooks or long Wikipedia articles on your laptop or PC, you may switch to night mode and see if you find it better for yourself. If you don't, you can always switch back to the normal mode.
How to Enable Windows Night Mode
There are two ways to enable night mode in Windows.
- Change theme of Windows desktop to a high contrast one
- Use Magnifier accessibility tool
Below we are giving instructions for using both of these ways.
Activate High Contrast Theme for Night Mode
The feature isn't ready yet though, and still has long way to go along the development path before we'll even get to see screenshots of what it will look like. The 9 to 5 Google report does go into some details, however, so we can learn a little about the incoming feature even if we can't actually see it. The report says, 'Google is offering five prospective dark modes to choose from. 1) Simple HSL-based inversion, 2) Simple CIELAB-based inversion, 3) Selective image inversion, 4) Selective inversion of non-image elements, and 5) Selective inversion of everything.' The first two relate to the different types of ‘dark' that Chrome will display with CIELAB being the more advanced way of showing dark colors. The three selective options will all then offer a choice on what Chrome will paint black with all three using the CIELAB-based inversion.
If phrases like ‘inversion' and ‘selective non-image elements' don't sound like the types of buttons you'd normally see in the Google Chrome settings menu you'd be right. For now, these options are only available in the Google Chrome Canary build, which the developers use to try out advanced new features on developers and advanced web users. As we've already mentioned, it'll be quite some time before we see Chrome's dark mode become a regular part of the flagship Google web browser. When it does arrive there'll likely only be one type of dark mode.
'Windows Night Mode' is an accessibility feature provided by Microsoft Windows, the world's most popular computer operating system. When night mode is turned on in Windows, you see the dark themed user interface. Some people have begun to call it 'night mode' but there is nothing like a night mode in Windows as such. What people refers to as night mode is actually the high-contrast version of Windows UI for those who find it hard to read text on their screen.
Advantages of High Contrast Night Mode: People with certain eye-related medical conditions find it easy to read on high contrast screens. Such conditions include cataract and diabetic retinopathy. People with such vision have trouble reading text on screens where there is a lot of white space as it causes too much of light entering their eyes. So, all they see is glare and blurred text. 'Night mode' inverses the common background/text color combination and white/yellow/cyan text is shown on black background. Effectively, amount of light emitting from screen reduces by large extent.
People with normal vision also may sometimes find the night mode soothing because it reduces strain on eyes by minimizing screen glare. If you are planning to read ebooks or long Wikipedia articles on your laptop or PC, you may switch to night mode and see if you find it better for yourself. If you don't, you can always switch back to the normal mode.
How to Enable Windows Night Mode
There are two ways to enable night mode in Windows.
- Change theme of Windows desktop to a high contrast one
- Use Magnifier accessibility tool
Below we are giving instructions for using both of these ways.
Activate High Contrast Theme for Night Mode
- Windows 10
- Type high contrast settings in the search box
- Select High contrast settings from the list of results.
- Choose a theme > Select a high contrast theme from the drop-down menu
- Click on Apply
- Windows 8 and Windows 8.1
- Swipe in from the right edge of the screen and tap Settings (or if you're using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer up, and click Settings)
- Select Change PC settings, and then select Ease of Access.
- High contrast > Select the button to turn high contrast on and off
- Windows 7
- Click the Start button
- Go to Control Panel. In the search box, type window color
- Click Change the theme
- Under Basic and High Contrast Themes, click a high-contrast theme that you like
- Windows 7 Home Basic
- Click the Start button
- Go to Control Panel > Appearance > Display
- In the left pane, click Change color scheme.
- Under Color scheme, select the high-contrast color scheme that you like
- Click OK
Use Magnifier Accessibility Tool for Night Mode
Windows 7 and later versions offer an accessibility feature called Magnifier. It is a tool that magnifies an area of computer screen to increase visibility.This small tool also has an option to turn on color inversion. If you select this option, the screen colors will be inverted — background will become black and text/border etc. will become yellow/white.
Open Magnifier Tool
- Magnifier in Windows 7
- Click on Start button
- Type magnifier in the search box
- Click on Magnifier to launch the tool
- Windows 8.1
- Press Windows key and + key
- Windows 10
- Go to Start > Settings > Ease of Access > Magnifier and then move the slider under Magnifier to turn it on
- Now click on the Wheel icon in Magnifier to open options
- Tick the 'Turn on color inversion' option
Chrome Dark Mode Windows 7
That's all… the so-called night mode will be activated in Windows. When you want to exit the Magnifier tool, just click on the cross button.
Chrome App Dark Mode
We hope that you liked this article on how to activate the night mode in Windows. Using high contrast mode is necessity for some and could be a useful option for others. Give it a try and see how you feel about it. Should you have any questions about this feature of Windows, please feel free to ask in the comments section. We will try our best to assist you. Thank you for using TechWelkin!
