Dark backgrounds are easier on the eyes, especially on dimmer environments.

I don't want the full power of the LED backlight to hit me on the eyes with its full force in my editor screen which I look into for 8+ hours a day...

>I can't tell if people coding on dark backgrounds are hipsters, or just don't know any better.

Or perhaps you don't know any better...

This is often repeated nonsense. What is hard on your eyes is changing intensity. Switching between dark code and light email is the problem. The screen should also be about the same brightness as the room, so looking away from the computer doesn't require eye adjustment.

The transition from dark to light is mildly painful, so you have a false sensation that the dark background is better because switching away from it is irritating.

>The screen should also be about the same brightness as the room, so looking away from the computer doesn't require eye adjustment.

Well, I like my room quite dark too.

Besides that, that "what is hard on your eyes is changing intensity" is absolutely BS.

Do you get comfortamble with a strobe light on your eyes after a while if it doesn't "change the intensity"? Photo-sensitivity is a thing.

Oops, wrote "strobe", meant "spot light".

I switch back and forth. Each year or so the colors start to make code look like work, so I change it up and things look fresh again. So far, I've gone between Slush & Poppies, Cobalt, Monokai, Solarized Dark, Monokai, Solarized Light, and most recently Cyberpunk (the Emacs Live theme).

I can't explain why, but for me prose is easier to read on a light background and code is easier to read on a dark background. I imagine it has something to do with proportional fonts vs. monospace fonts and how the eye distinguishes the characters.

Edit: I think it may also have to do with the ability to distinguish colors used in syntax highlighting.

It might be a holdover from when I first learned to code, but I can't get into any sort of flow when trying to program on a light background.

It's less tiresome for your eyes, eventually your eyes will demand you to use dark color schemes.

I can recommend f.lux. With it the whole environment becomes of about the same light. Without it, and with a dark theme in your code editor you have one level of light, and when you switch to a web browser you can bombarded by photons. :-/

> I can recommend f.lux

Or the oss variant redshift: http://jonls.dk/redshift/

The opposite is true. The screen should match the ambient lighting of the room. Eye strain is caused by constant iris resizing. Looking at the screen, and the wall next to the screen shouldn't require you eye to adjust.

I actually had to switch to Solarized Light for awhile because my eyes couldn't stand white text on a dark background. I'm back to using a dark theme now though.

It's more l33t that way. We all just like pretending we're in swordfish.