Sorry, but they're complete rubbish.Originally Posted by prwilson
Using dark themes or adjusting colour temperature won't have any effect on eye strain. As already mentioned, screen distant, height, text size, taking breaks and importantly, your eye health, are factors in eye strain. None of which are mentioned in the link above.
People have already mentioned PWM - that is the bigger issue for eye strain than the native monitor refresh rate generally. www.TFTcentral.co.uk do excellent in depth reviews of IPS/high end monitors, and were one of the first to raise the issue of PWM flicker. Other review sites have started to discuss and test for this recently too so it is easier to find information on this than it used to be. Most decent monitors no longer use PWM to control brightness but older models are still available as new so do check before you buy.
I'm not the general case, due to some eye issues, but for me, themes DEFINITELY affect strain. I can say, for an absolute certainty, that there is no doubt at all. Undue glare is a very definite no-no, and black text on a high-contrast white screen is FAR harder to read, than white (bright, like yellow) text on a dark background.
Not only that, but surrounding environmental conditions matter too, such as bright backlight, even if it's bright natural light. But similar, environmental light being too low also gives me eye strain, because it emphasises screen glare. For any long periods of screen work, I need a background lighting at about 20% of daylight (except e-readers), and the screen contrast not too high.
This is one reason why I NEVER read books using, say, Kindle app on a tablet, or on a laptop, due to transmissive screens, but will read for hours on a Kindle, even a backlit one.
I'm not saying I'm a srandard case. I'm sure I'm an outlier. But screen setup, and environmental conditions, for me, make a huge difference to strain. Enough difference thar it can be the difference between being able to do it, or having eyes streaming and a collossal headache for trying.
My bet is that the same factors are true for most people, but to a much lesser degree, to the point of barely or not noticing.
I've just ordered my new work specs with a mid-colour tint for this exact reason - there are some programs I use at work that either don't use dark/high contrast themes or just look plain horrible when using them, and I'm getting increasingly photo-sensitive.
As with most things, of course, there are multiple causes of eye strain and fixing it isn't a one-size-fits-all job; but for me having a usable dark/high contrast theme is hugely beneficial...
Well it will do if you have the brightness turned up too high, dark colours are dimmer.
Turning the backlight down to a sensible level is a much better solution though.
On photo-senditivity, coming out of the eye clinic a few months ago, after they'd used those drops that fully dilate the pupils, it wasap a really, REALLY bright day. Strong sunlight was reflecting off of everything. It felt like the world was full of tiny aliens, and every single one of the thousands around me were firing lasers directly into my eyes. Light reflected off, or aliens were sitting on, office windows, car paintwork, car windows, concrete paying, hell even blades of grass had their own damn alien.
Next time I went I took dark sunglasses, even though it was cloudy. I think everybody thought I thought I was a celebrity trying to go unrecognised.
As for multiple causes of eye strain, for sure. A big one, I suspect, is people gaving the wrong prescription lenses in glasses, or none st all when really they should have. But any problem that makes eye muscles work overly hard trying to focus is going to be tiring.
A pet hate of mine, on TV, is the dramatic tool of using some sort of visual device the actor is reading, be it letter, note, phone, tablet computer, monitor display, or whatever. I have to try to refocus to read it, by which time they've moved on. So I have to pause and rewind a few moments, to find out whether whatever was being read was important to understanding the plot, or as happens about half the time, meaningless. Arghh.
It's like a camera with slow autofocus, and subject matter that's moving just to fast for autofocus to cope .... my eye muscles get tired 'hunting' for focus lock. Which they do if I have to struggle to read, for example, dark text on a bright background, due to the glare. I can feel the eye muscles tiring, never mind having to squint because of the brightness.
My firm recommendation to anybody who squints reading a screen, or whose eyes tire easily or water, is get your eyes checked. Don't take good vision for granted, but do evetything you can to protect it.
I went to a gig in the Bridgewater Hall (yes, a gig. It was Apocayptica. In the Bridgewater Hall. Completely awesome) a few weeks ago and had to spend the last quarter of an hour with my eyes shut as the on stage lighting was so bright it gave me a headache.On photo-sensitivity, coming out of the eye clinic a few months ago, after they'd used those drops that fully dilate the pupils, it was a really, REALLY bright day. Strong sunlight was reflecting off of everything. It felt like the world was full of tiny aliens, and every single one of the thousands around me were firing lasers directly into my eyes. Light reflected off, or aliens were sitting on, office windows, car paintwork, car windows, concrete paying, hell even blades of grass had their own damn alien....
Picked up the new glasses yesterday. The real test will be when I'm in work next week, but just doing web browsing this morning is night and day. Might finally be time to admit I'm getting old...
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