Use Light Mode when Presenting

Whilst presenting some code to an group of colleagues on Teams last week I switched my Visual Studio Code session from dark mode to light mode, but was met with a flurry of comments in the chat about my poor choice of colour scheme. This post is a bit of an opinion piece from me, but this choice was intentional. I believe light mode is better for presentations, especially when you’re showing code or documents.

Dark mode has it’s place, and it is my usual setup in applications like Visual Studio Code where I’m concentrating on lots of text for extended periods of time on my own monitor. But light mode is easier to read if you’re watching on a projector-sized display in a well lit office, or on an internet call where the image has been compressed, transmitted, and is then being displayed on a screen which nine times out of ten isn’t the same size as the one the presenter is using.

If you’re sat in your meeting in a darkened basement, sure a bit of a white background might bring out cries of “my eyes, it burns!”, but take the opportunity to open a curtain, or turn on a light. Unless you’re of the vampiric persuasion, it’ll probably do you some good.

And it’s not just pages of code that suffer here. Documents and diagrams fall prey to the same failings. The extra contrast of a light-mode scheme is clearer on the screen. In Microsoft Word, the following colours are used by default in the two modes:

Notice how one is black and white, where the other is dark grey and light grey. More contrast makes it easier to see on the screen, especially when it’s been resized and pumped round the internet.

So, the moral of the story. Use whatever colour scheme you like when you’re on your own, as long as it’s not the Windows 3.1 Hot Dog Stand theme - that’s an affront to nature. But consider using light mode when presenting, and encourage any cave-dwelling colleagues on your Teams call to move to a better lit location once in a while.