HACKER Q&A
📣 tasoeur

Can we get a HN background color (dark mode)


Hi there, loving the ability to change my topbar pink, but I also would love to browse my favorite website late at night without the bright flashes.

PS: Also happy to hear people's favorite indie plugin to fix this! <3

  👤 roskelld Accepted Answer ✓
I use my own CSS to override the default look.

I added thumbs up emoji for voting, book emoji for read comments, larger user names, larger headers, and dark color scheme.

https://postimg.cc/f3nmR6DG

https://pastebin.com/zeXGi4WQ

👤 andrewfromx
firefox dark reader works perfect.
👤 srhtftw
Here is a Tampermonkey¹ script I've used for some ime to make HN look the way I want it to (plain white background). It should be easy to adapt for a dark preference. It also adds a "bookmark" at the top of each page which is also easily removed if you don't want that.

https://pastebin.com/fnf4CeBM

¹ https://www.tampermonkey.net

👤 AdieuToLogic
Perhaps Greasemonkey can do the customization(s) you would like:

  You can add styles that override existing styles, or styles 
  specific to new elements that your user script inserts.[0]
HTH

0 - http://greasemonkey.win-start.de/patterns/add-css.html

👤 hallman76
For desktop folks, I use the Stylebot Chrome Extension https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/stylebot/oiaejidbmk...

I crank up the font size and set a serif font on the index page to make it easier to scan.

👤 rbalicki
The Chrome extension Dark Hacker News (https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/dark-hacker-news/ib...) works pretty well.
👤 tapete
Everyone on HN should be able to write a custom stylesheet, this is really not an issue.
👤 unfixed
I use a custom config on Dark Reader extension in all my devices. Having the same color scheme in all webpages are much better UX than what any web can implement by themselves.
👤 3vidence
Before anyone comments chrome extensions.

These don't work on chrome mobile or safari mobile which make up a sizeable number of users.

Please, can we just have native dark mode?

I made a pretty mediocre HN client just for this feature https://github.com/rsimmons1/FlutterHnReader

I don't feel like working on it anymore, let's just have dark mode.

Edit: apologies spoke out of my domain on safari iOS, it supports extensions I'm an Android user.

👤 vednig
Built https://hacked.stream has default black BG rn
👤 nojvek
I would love this. Apple is notoriously bad at supporting dark mode extensions on their mobile browser.
👤 ronjouch
If you use Firefox, have my userContent.css DIY dark mode. Or you can massage it into the syntax expected by { Arc’s custom CSS, uBlock Origin, your CSS injecter of choice }:

  @-moz-document domain(news.ycombinator.com) {
    @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
      body {background-color: #111 !important;}
      #hnmain {background-color: #181818 !important;}
      .c00, a:link, .subtext a:link { color: #eee !important; }
      .comhead { opacity: 0.5 !important; }
      a:visited, .subtext a:visited, .pagetop, .reply a { color: #777 !important; }
      button, select, input, textarea { -moz-appearance: none !important; color: #eee !important; background-color: #444 !important; border: 0.5px solid gray !important; }
      pre, code { color: #9d9 !important; }
    }
  }
Obvious caveats apply: it’s mine, it’s certainly incomplete, yadayada. But hey, been working for me for years! Also, now that you know that the feature exists, you can probably search "Hacker News dark mode userContent.css" and find better / more complete ones :)

Always a pleasure helping tasoeur.

👤 kushie
please
👤 gamedever
My attempt at providing the CSS to do this. This is where it turns into bikeshedding (T_T);

    :root {
      color-scheme: light dark;

      --base-color: #828282;
      --admin-color: #000000;
      --top-color: #222222;
      --top-sel: #ffffff;
      --c00: #000000;
      --c5a: #5a5a5a;
      --c72: #737373;
      --c82: #828282;
      --c88: #888888;
      --c9c: #9c9c9c;
      --cae: #aeaeae;
      --cbe: #bebebe;
      --cce: #cecece;
      --cdd: #dddddd;
      --ca2: #a30000;
    }

    center>table {
      background-color: #f6f6ef;
    }
    table#hnmain>tbody>tr:nth-child(1)>td {
      background-color: #ff6600;
    }
    font {
      color: #3c963c
    }

    @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
      :root {
        --base-color: #909090;
        --admin-color: #ffffff;
        --top-color: #dddddd;
        --top-sel: #000000;
        --c00: #ffffff;
        --c5a: #a5a5a5;
        --c72: #8c8c8c;
        --c82: #7d7d7d;
        --c88: #777777;
        --c9c: #636363;
        --cae: #515151;
        --cbe: #414141;
        --cce: #313131;
        --cdd: #222222;
        --ca2: #a30000;
      }

      center>table {
        background-color: #222;
      }
      table#hnmain>tbody>tr:nth-child(1)>td {
        background-color: #a74300;
      }

      font {
        color: #639663
      }
    }

    body  { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size:10pt; color: var(--base-color); }
    td    { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size:10pt; color: var(--base-color); }

    .admin td   { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size:8.5pt; color: var(--admin-color); }
    .subtext td { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size:  7pt; color: var(--base-color); }

    input    { font-family:monospace; font-size:10pt; }
    input[type='submit'] { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; }
    textarea { font-family:monospace; font-size:10pt; resize:both; }

    a:link    { color: var(--admin-color); text-decoration:none; }
    a:visited { color: var(--base-color); text-decoration:none; }

    .default { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: var(--base-color); }
    .admin   { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size:8.5pt; color: var(--admin-color); }
    .title   { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: var(--base-color); overflow:hidden; }
    .subtext { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size:  7pt; color: var(--base-color); }
    .yclinks { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size:  8pt; color: var(--base-color); }
    .pagetop { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: var(--top-color); line-height:12px; }
    .comhead { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size:  8pt; color: var(--base-color); }
    .comment { font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size:  9pt; }
    .hnname  { margin-left:1px; margin-right: 5px; }

    #hnmain { min-width: 796px; }

    .title a { word-break: break-word; }

    .comment a:link, .comment a:visited { text-decoration: underline; }
    .noshow { display: none; }
    .nosee { visibility: hidden; pointer-events: none; cursor: default }

    .c00, .c00 a:link { color: var(--admin-color); }
    .c5a, .c5a a:link, .c5a a:visited { color: var(--c5a); }
    .c73, .c73 a:link, .c73 a:visited { color: var(--c73); }
    .c82, .c82 a:link, .c82 a:visited { color: var(--c82); }
    .c88, .c88 a:link, .c88 a:visited { color: var(--c88); }
    .c9c, .c9c a:link, .c9c a:visited { color: var(--c9c); }
    .cae, .cae a:link, .cae a:visited { color: var(--cae); }
    .cbe, .cbe a:link, .cbe a:visited { color: var(--cbe); }
    .cce, .cce a:link, .cce a:visited { color: var(--cce); }
    .cdd, .cdd a:link, .cdd a:visited { color: var(--cdd); }
    .ca2 { color: var(--ca2); }

    .pagetop a:visited { color: var(--admin-color); }
    .topsel a:link, .topsel a:visited { color: var(--top-cel); }

    .subtext a:link, .subtext a:visited { color: var(--base-color); }
    .subtext a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }

    .comhead a:link, .subtext a:visited { color: var(--base-color); }
    .comhead a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }

    .hnmore a:link, a:visited { color: var(--base-color); }
    .hnmore { text-decoration:underline; }

    .default p { margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 0px; }

    .pagebreak {page-break-before:always}

    pre { overflow: auto; padding: 2px; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap:anywhere; }
    pre:hover { overflow:auto }

    .votearrow {
      width:      10px;
      height:     10px;
      border:     0px;
      margin:     3px 2px 6px;
      background: url("triangle.svg"), linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) no-repeat;
      background-size: 10px;
    }

    .votelinks.nosee div.votearrow.rotate180 {
      display: none;
    }

    table.padtab td { padding:0px 10px }

    @media only screen and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2), only screen and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) {
      .votearrow {
        background-size: 10px;
        background-image: url("triangle.svg"), linear-gradient(transparent, transparent);
      }
    }

    .rotate180 {
      -webkit-transform: rotate(180deg);  /* Chrome and other webkit browsers */
      -moz-transform:    rotate(180deg);  /* FF */
      -o-transform:      rotate(180deg);  /* Opera */
      -ms-transform:     rotate(180deg);  /* IE9 */
      transform:         rotate(180deg);  /* W3C complaint browsers */

      /* IE8 and below */
      -ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Matrix(M11=-1, M12=0, M21=0, M22=-1, DX=0, DY=0, SizingMethod='auto expand')";
    }

    /* mobile device */
    @media only screen
    and (min-width : 300px)
    and (max-width : 750px) {
      #hnmain { width: 100%; min-width: 0; }
      body { padding: 0; margin: 0; width: 100%; }
      td { height: inherit !important; }
      .title, .comment { font-size: inherit;  }
      span.pagetop { display: block; margin: 3px 5px; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal }
      span.pagetop b { display: block; font-size: 15px; }
      table.comment-tree .comment a { display: inline-block; max-width: 200px; overflow: hidden; white-space: nowrap;
        text-overflow: ellipsis; vertical-align:top; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='40'] { width: 12px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='80'] { width: 24px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='120'] { width: 36px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='160'] { width: 48px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='200'] { width: 60px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='240'] { width: 72px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='280'] { width: 84px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='320'] { width: 96px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='360'] { width: 108px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='400'] { width: 120px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='440'] { width: 132px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='480'] { width: 144px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='520'] { width: 156px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='560'] { width: 168px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='600'] { width: 180px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='640'] { width: 192px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='680'] { width: 204px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='720'] { width: 216px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='760'] { width: 228px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='800'] { width: 240px; }
      img[src='s.gif'][width='840'] { width: 252px; }
      .title { font-size: 11pt; line-height: 14pt;  }
      .subtext { font-size: 9pt; }
      .votearrow { transform: scale(1.3,1.3); margin-right: 6px; }
      .votearrow.rotate180 {
        -webkit-transform: rotate(180deg) scale(1.3,1.3);  /* Chrome and other webkit browsers */
        -moz-transform:    rotate(180deg) scale(1.3,1.3);  /* FF */
        -o-transform:      rotate(180deg) scale(1.3,1.3);  /* Opera */
        -ms-transform:     rotate(180deg) scale(1.3,1.3);  /* IE9 */
        transform:         rotate(180deg) scale(1.3,1.3);  /* W3C complaint browsers */
      }
      .votelinks { min-width: 18px; }
      .votelinks a { display: block; margin-bottom: 9px; }
      input[type='text'], input[type='number'], textarea { font-size: 16px; width: 90%; }
    }

    .comment { max-width: 1215px; overflow-wrap:anywhere; }



    @media only screen and (min-width : 300px) and (max-width : 389px) {
      .comment { max-width: 270px; overflow: hidden }
    }
    @media only screen and (min-width : 390px) and (max-width : 509px) {
      .comment { max-width: 350px; overflow: hidden }
    }
    @media only screen and (min-width : 510px) and (max-width : 599px) {
      .comment { max-width: 460px; overflow: hidden }
    }
    @media only screen and (min-width : 600px) and (max-width : 689px) {
      .comment { max-width: 540px; overflow: hidden }
    }
    @media only screen and (min-width : 690px) and (max-width : 809px) {
      .comment { max-width: 620px; overflow: hidden }
    }
    @media only screen and (min-width : 810px) and (max-width : 899px) {
      .comment { max-width: 730px; overflow: hidden }
    }
    @media only screen and (min-width : 900px) and (max-width : 1079px) {
      .comment { max-width: 810px; overflow: hidden }
    }
    @media only screen and (min-width : 1080px) and (max-width : 1169px) {
      .comment { max-width: 970px; overflow: hidden }
    }
    @media only screen and (min-width : 1170px) and (max-width : 1259px) {
      .comment { max-width: 1050px; overflow: hidden }
    }
    @media only screen and (min-width : 1260px) and (max-width : 1349px) {
      .comment { max-width: 1130px; overflow: hidden }
    }
I get, it's long. Just taking the css that was served and editing it.