Signal-android: Non-black dark theme

[Deedasmi]

I have:

• [X] searched open and closed issues for duplicates
• [X] read https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android/wiki/Submitting-useful-bug-reports

---

Very interested in this application, but have a bit of concern with the themes. My eyes are horrible, and light themes wear my eyes out. However, white text on black screens is pretty much proven to be worse for the eyes than light themes. Better to use one of the following:

• Solarized: http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized
• Dark on light on dark: https://imgur.com/mW8EDxr

[RiseT]

Agreed. It's all about contrast, e. g. text color vs. background color. If it's too low (e. g. dark gray on black), it's hard to decipher the text, if it's too high (e. g. white on black), your eyes will tire very quickly. If limited to a black to white scale, light gray on dark gray for example would be a good combination regarding contrast.
The present dark theme is not optimal in that regard.

[FeuRenard]

Black is ideal in regard of power consumption with OLED displays.

[Deedasmi]

I think eye health is worth a couple minutes off an 8+ hour battery life.

[RiseT]

Take a look at the images of this page for direct comparison between high contrast dark & light themes and a low contrast one.

[vdcbb]

I'm very much in support of Deedasmi's proposal. I hate all these light themes everywhere. And white on block is equally as bad in a different way. GNOME Shell's dark theme is very nice.

[smichel17]

IIRC, light yellow on blue-green is the best on the eyes. Here's lorem ipsum in my terminal:

That said, it's ugly as heck until you get used to it.

IMO, the best option would be to offer 3 themes: Light, Dark, and Black (OLED).

Light and Black (OLED) would be the current themes, and Dark would be a dark theme with lower contrast.

'Night' is an alternative name to 'Black'.

[automated-signal]

GitHub Issue Cleanup:
See #7598 for more information.