Light or Dark theme?

arindamb · May 8, 2015

According to your experiences, which will work the best for an online business website, a lighter or a darker theme ?

why? please share honest answers

natemaingard · May 8, 2015

In my experience, both are the best. It mainly comes down to what your business is about and which colors work best for it. There was a time, and I'm not sure if it's still a thing, that people thought darker themes were less professional and not 'business-like'. In today's world, however, that is not is not the case most of the time. Compared to a few years ago you have one hand of people who love lighter colors, and on the other, darker colors. There are people who can't stand bright themes due to their eyes and always choose darker themes. Same in vice versa for dark themes. There is no 'lighter/darker' works better for a business, it's what you believe works best - light or dark. Both equally attract or repel people depending on the individual.

ron13315 · May 9, 2015

for me, a lighter theme is better. In my experience, I found most of people likes lighter theme than dark one.

MightWeb · May 9, 2015

I'd say it highly depends on the business itself. For a web hosting business, a dark theme would work just fine. For an online business such as PayPal - it would not. It simply depends on who you're targetting.

RDO Servers · May 9, 2015

I agree that for some sites, too dark of a theme can give the wrong impression.

Also remember that light font on a dark background is considered harder on the eyes. On a small/simple page, it may not make much difference, but not something you want to do on a blog where you expect people to read an entire article.

ElixantTechnology · May 9, 2015

Never been a fan of dark themes, I would personally be turned off from a site that utilizes one. A light, colorful theme will grab the attention of visitors.

MrGravyCakes · May 14, 2015

In my opinion and my opinion only, ie not a professional opinion or anything, I find that lighter themes are better at this. The reason that I think this are that, for me, lighter themes have a more positive approcah to me. If there is a darkness on a webiste, it seems to be giving off darker thoughts or emotions, which is what some websites do on purpose and they are supposed to be doing. I imagine a gaming website would be more dark than a professional website, but it may not be.

I would approach a professional website with a happier attitude if it was lighter. That would be my view on it. Of course there can be some balancing colours that can be dark, but I would make it lighter in my experience

Archana · May 28, 2015

Lighter theme is much better than darker theme because it attracts the people in their first visit only.

orangesweety · Jun 23, 2015

Now a days most of the people are preferring lighter theme because it looks simple and won't effect the eyes. So most of the designer would prefer light theme to get more number of visitors to their website.

arronmattwills · Jun 23, 2015

Web developers, software engineers, SEO experts, testing people, experience IT persons are comfortable with sleeky design with light colors. But common people, general public, most of my clients are asking for bright look and feel with more colors and gradient....

arronmattwills · Jun 24, 2015

I would like to give the best example for this:

See the adobe websites both are from Adobe only but designs are dark and light.
Dark: http://www.adobe.com/in/products/illustrator.html

Light: https://standout.adobe.com/slate/

So according to the user, device and other many aspects they will consider to design a website.

Nancy G · Nov 23, 2017

It is a matter of preference but take note that there are already studies that show what is easy on the eyes. Dark characters on a light background are visually better than light characters on a dark background.

We are aware of effects of colors on the mood of a person. There are also impressions that too dark a color may be perceived as "sinister" or mysterious or pure white as "too plain or lacking in character. Blending of colors will be better specially if you have images and variety of contents. What is important is the color and overall harmony resulting in an appealing look.

Also, we should not disregard the fact that we are promoting products to our target market and their color preference should also be given special consideration unless we would go with the safe universal or mass appeal.

ynnhoj24 · Dec 2, 2017

I personally prefer light over dark theme. Because readers will not get distracted by your background color and they will mainly focus on your content. Dark themes can give your site a bad impression while light theme give your site the confident.

Alexander_K · Dec 6, 2017

As for me light theme looks more attractive. Probably it depends on subject of webiste. You will fill website with some pictures and you should try different themes to understand which fits better for you.

trendjing · Dec 26, 2017

A lighter tone speaks of brightness, rich, glowing, luminous, and clear, while a darker tone presents gloomy, dull, shadowy, harsh, strong. In my opinion, lighter themes would go best for an online business website. Lighter themes seems to be welcoming compare to a darker theme which I presume to be edgier, inviting younger demographics. If I assume to be a client or a customer, I would visit a website that has lighter theme, for the reason that I presume the owner to be as transparent as his website is. If what you are after is an online business suitable for any generation, you should go for a lighter one.

DanielN · Jan 2, 2018

I would absolutely suggest a light theme from personal experience. I literally made 20+ websites at this point and at the end, lighter themes always looked better and was a better experience for my visitors.
That being said some niches demand a darker theme like gaming.

Vinsanity · Feb 7, 2018

If I were a reader and I went to your website with a dark themed layout design, I usually think of hackers, something that is not legit and it feels like there is someone watching me and looking at my IP address. But when you use a lighter theme to your site, it'll look more professional. Many people especially now when fake news is a big issue, they always look for a professional looking articles as well as professionally made site design.

GAchick · Feb 7, 2018

Just for me personally I prefer the lighter themes. For some reason they seem more professional and they are a lot easier on my eyes. I have seen some darker themes that were very well done and professional looking though.

Light or Dark theme?

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