Zotero 7 Beta: Suggestion for different contrasts with dark mode themes

KeZunjian

Greetings!

I've just started checking out the new Zotero 7 beta redesign and I think it was really nice! However, an issue I noticed was in regards to the dark theme's contrast level where it was too high of a contrast for comfort. I asked around people's opinions on the new dark mode's contrast and came to find that others also find this uncomfortable. It's why google opted to use dark grey for its dark mode implementation instead, a compromise between darkness and legibility (https://design.google/library/material-design-dark-theme).

However, I found out as well that high contrast modes actually serve to benefit people with photosensitivity (https://www.boia.org/blog/dark-mode-can-improve-text-readability-but-not-for-everyone). This was supported by some people I talked to in regards to the new Zotero dark mode implementation. High contrast can serve as a good accessibility option for those that need it.

Which is why I wanted to suggest if it was possible to implement different themes that make the contrast much more accessible to those that have a hard time with photo sensitivity or reading with dark modes. It could be a full menu with customizable options for either light or dark mode where we can adjust elements to our liking or a dropdown menu for different themes that we may find more comfortable.

dstillman

Are you referring to the UI or the reader? The UI uses dark gray already. The reader dark mode is black, but as I mentioned in the announcement, that's a preliminary implementation that we'll be continuing to refine. Various readers do use black for a background in dark mode, but offering other options (or exposing that configurability more easily to plugins) might make sense.

KeZunjian

Ah, my apologies for now clarifying. I meant the reader, since the UI does already use dark grey. Though I wonder, is it also possible to implement features that may make the UI dark black as well?

dstillman

No — dark gray is the design, and is standard for dark-mode UI.

cavalierex

+1 -- I think customizable themes would be a great addition. Each user could choose a preferred light theme and dark theme, ideally specified in settings rather than dragging a .css file to a directory somewhere.

I don't know how the Zotero colorization works, but it would be neat to configure through JSON, TOML/YML, or CSS. If there were a standard light and standard dark template, I'm sure the community would go nuts with themes.

Personally, my preferred dark mode is either Dracula (https://draculatheme.com) or the compatible Catpuccin (https://catppuccin.com). Of course, there are plenty of others.

Thanks for all the hard work making Zotero awesome.