Dark vs Light Visual Studio Theme

Challenge:

This post is Not on any Technical Coding concept. But it is on Visual Studio – Lifeline of  all .NET Developers! You might think a post on Theme? Sounds funny?! But If you are a developer then you spent most of your time looking at your monitor and mostly Visual Studio! And few developers who are passionate about Code. Might do Code till midnight. In dim light! 🙂 (Yes, I am talking about you!)
If you have following questions:

  1. Why lot of Developers started using Dark theme of Visual Studio?
  2. What should I use Dark or Light theme?
  3. Why should I use Dark theme?

Then this post is for you!

Solution:

I noticed that lot of people have stated using Dark Theme of Visual Studio. I never thought I should try that. But people whom I admire and follow started using that. And I also thought to change it. When I changed it first time.  Haven’t liked it [You know ComfortZone!?] So, rolled back it, But after few days. Don’t know why thought o re-try it. And after that I never thought I should go back to light theme. I am enjoying Dark theme of Visual Studio.
I was just curious to know what people across the Globe uses and recommend. And for that did a quick search and found following articles. Which are really good to read:

  1. http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ChangingYourColorsInVisualStudioNETBlackVersusWhite.aspx
  2. http://weblogs.asp.net/infinitiesloop/Join-the-Dark-Side-of-Visual-Studio
  3. http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/8153/what-are-the-negative-and-positive-aspects-of-dark-color-scheme

Few excerpts:
The default scheme sports a bright white background color with dark text over it. But monitors these days are brighter than ever. You’re presumably a programmer, so you’ve no doubt had those late but productive coding nights, nights that are lit by only the glow of your monitor. The glow is bright enough to light up the room and cast shadows. Not unlike… a light bulb.
So there you are, staring straight into a strong light source, looking for the few pixels on it which are not illuminated. Can you read the wattage and manufacturer letters on the head a light bulb while it’s turned on? Ahhh… but what if the bulb were black, and only the letters on it were illuminated?
Another benefit someone pointed out to me once — if you’re on a laptop, it saves your battery life! Horray for an extra 20 minutes of mobile coding!
It seems to me the only reason a black-on-white background is so standard is because the GUI was invented to be an analogy to pen and paper. Paper is white. Your screen doesn’t have to be. Don’t conform to the status quo! Plus, it just looks really cool… I think.

Other links:

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/VisualStudioProgrammerThemesGallery.aspx
So, Which Color Theme you were using before reading this blog post? And which you will use after reading this blog post? What’s your Visual Studio environment settings?
Happy Coding! 🙂