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Color UI?


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Meh. I could be alone on this one but a lot of people seem to just appreciate as dark a UI as possible in an effort to let the interface fade into the background and visually make the work the focus. It's also a lot easier on the eyes. Also, having a colored interface can cause perceptual issues with color. I forget the term, but as an example: putting something red next to something green will make the red appear to be a different chroma than if it were next to something, say, blue. Better to use neutral colors for the interface in order to keep all colors in the work appearing as accurate as possible.

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well not too wrong but well at the very least personally I'd like a little touch of color, you dont have to go full saturation anyway and you could for example if you use the light UI (in case the room is really bright that seems kinda easier to use at least for me) with a very light touch of a color you like or whatever, and it isnt like everyone gets forced to use it, same with the light UI, it is added but nobody has to use it.

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Surrounding your artwork-in-progress with darkness (or garish color) has been recognized as bad practice since long before graphics computers. It's why the prepress color houses went to great lengths to provide neutral gray environments illuminated by color-balanced lighting for client proof-approval of color-critical work.

 

Human vision seeks contrast and even exaggerates it where it is low. Dark software interface backgrounds cause your artwork to look more "brilliant" and higher-contrast than it really is, which is the last thing you want, especially if designing for reflective print. It's why it's also bad practice to work in low light rooms. The problem is bad enough given that monitors glow. That problem is just exacerbated by working with the lights off (or dim) or by surrounding your artwork with a black interface. And it is not easier on the eyes. It contributes to eye strain; the same reason the non-backlit grayscale reflective Nooks and Kindles were more comfortable for reading a novel.

 

All the self-proclaimed "highly visually sensitive and color-discerning" graphic artist who works in the moody dark (while, ironically, sweating blood over all the hair-splitting nuances of every color management setting) has to do to see the comparatively blunderbuss principle in action is:

 

1. In your low-light working environment, launch your favorite graphics program. Fill the page with a rectangle and color it with the darkest "rich black" you can muster.

 

Looks really black, doesn't it?

 

2. Now turn on the lights, shut down the computer and ask yourself: How dark is the monitor? Maybe 80% grey? How, then, can that same monitor be showing you a darker black while turned on and glowing than it actually is when it's turned off and not glowing at all? It can't and it's not. Your eyes are playing tricks on you even in proper lighting and you're just making the problem worse with dark interface surroundings.

 

What's one of the hallmarks of stunning professional-quality graphics and dead giveaways of amateurish work? The range of detail in the shadow areas. View RGB (which is what your eyes are seeing on your monitor, even when the document is in CMYK mode and you've sweat a gallon over color management settings) in dim light or with blackened surroundings in the interface, and your eyes will see more detail in the shadow areas of your artwork than will be there in the final. Then you'll look at the printed (worse, published) results and think the printer mucked up your masterpiece.

 

The same principle is at the root of why beginners so often think a red graphic on a black background makes a great logo.

 

No, this "blacked out" interface nonsense is just a trendy crowd fad, like dressing up in black leather pirate costumes while riding completely black motorcycles and wondering why drivers don't see you. I'll rejoice to see both fads finally fade away into the curiosity annals of laughably bad ideas. The only place for them is Halloween parties and Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not museum.

 

JET

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No, this "blacked out" interface nonsense is just a trendy crowd fad, like dressing up in black leather pirate suits while riding completely black motorcycles and wondering why drivers don't see you. I'll rejoice to see both fads finally fade away into the curiosity annals of laughably bad ideas. The only place for them is Halloween parties and Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not museum.

 

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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Yeah, I hate the dark UI.  It just looks amateurish.  And having to squint to see if an option is enabled or not is not something I intend on doing for very long.  Disabling the dark UI is the first thing I tried to change when I started Affinity Designer.  Still haven't found a way to do it.  Is it even possible?

 

Back in the day Microprose (if I remember correctly - might have been EA) had an art team who loved working in a darkened room all day long.  Their artwork looked amazing - in that room.  But when you looked at it pretty much anywhere else in the world, all the detail was immediately lost and everything was too dark.  They wasted months redoing everything in the end.

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