https://github.com/jgthms/hacker-news-dark-mode

Hacker News Dark Mode
https://github.com/jgthms/hacker-news-dark-mode

css dark-mode dark-theme hacker-news

Last synced: about 1 month ago
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Hacker News Dark Mode

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/jgthms/hacker-news-dark-mode
• Owner: jgthms
• Created: 2020-05-16T13:02:28.000Z (over 4 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2020-05-16T13:47:47.000Z (over 4 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-10-01T01:23:08.219Z (about 2 months ago)
• Topics: css, dark-mode, dark-theme, hacker-news
• Language: HTML
• Homepage: https://jgthms.com/hacker-news-dark-mode/
• Size: 441 KB
• Stars: 19
• Watchers: 4
• Forks: 5
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md

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README

        
# Hacker News Dark Mode



## Process

I took the [original CSS file](https://news.ycombinator.com/news.css) and applied as few as possible changes in order to set up a Dark Mode.

I took the original literal color values (like `#000000`) and used them to set up a list of initial [CSS Variables](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Using_CSS_custom_properties):

```css

:root {

  --black: #000000;

  --dark-grey: #222;

  --light-grey: #828282;

  --lightest-grey: #eee;

  --white: #ffffff;

  --orange: #ff6600;

  --beige: #f6f6ef;

}

```

I then set up semantic variables by referencing initial variables:

```css

:root {

  --page-background: var(--white);

  --accent: var(--orange);

  --text: var(--light-grey);

  --text-strong: var(--black);

  --border: var(--dark-grey);

  --background: var(--beige);

  --input-background: var(--white);

  --input-border: var(--lightest-grey);

}

```

At this point, the site should look exactly the same.

For Dark Mode, we could use the CSS media query [`prefers-color-scheme`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@media/prefers-color-scheme).

However, the user might prefer Hacker News in light mode, whilst having his OS in Dark Mode.

Since there is no way to setup a color scheme preference per website, we'll be using a `data` attribute on the `` element:

```html

```

This also makes it easier me to force the Dark Mode for demonstration purposes.

This theme attribute can be targeted with CSS:

```css

:root[data-theme="dark"] {

  --page-background: var(--darkest-blue);

  --accent: var(--blue);

  --text: var(--light-blue);

  --text-strong: var(--lightest-grey);

  --border: var(--light-blue);

  --background: var(--dark-blue);

  --input-border: var(--dark-blue);

  --input-background: var(--darkest-blue);

  --input-border: var(--accent);

}

```

There were also some additional changes I had to make for the Dark Mode to work.

## Dark Mode detection

For demonstration purposes, the Dark Mode is forced here by setting a `data` attribute on the `` element.

Ideally, this preference would be a user one, and the server would return the appropriate HTML.

It is possible to detect the user's OS preference in JS:

```js

window.matchMedia("(prefers-color-scheme: dark)").matches; // True if useOS preference is dark

```

But swapping the theme client-side causes **flickering** on load, so it should be avoided.

It could however be used to detect a user's OS preference and set a default value server-side.