How to Enable Dark Mode on Your WordPress

Working late into the night is often unavoidable. If that's the case, the eyes usually get tired easily and feel sore. However, work deadlines must be met.

Fortunately, many applications, social media, and web services are equipped with a dark mode. This includes WordPress. This feature will at least help you work comfortably, without pain and fatigue in the eyes.

This article will show you how to enable dark mode on a WordPress-based website. Before that, this article will also mention a little about what dark mode is and its benefits.

What is Dark Mode and What Are Its Benefits?

Dark mode or night mode is the name for the front-end display with a dark background. Using this feature causes text and other small visual components to turn lighter in color.

This feature is actually the opposite of what is generally used, light backgrounds and dark text. Even so, this feature has been quite popular for the last three to five years. Various popular applications YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, to Gmail offer a dark mode or night mode display.

The popularity of dark mode is not without reason. That said, the dark mode feature does have a number of benefits compared to the appearance in general. University of Cambridge research mentions some of the benefits of using dark mode, namely:

  * Reduces the possibility of eye fatigue. Display screens that are too bright often dazzle the eyes. Not infrequently, to adjust it, the eyes have to be squinted at the screen. Over time, the eye muscles are too tense and make the eyes tired.

  * Reduces the possibility of screen flickering (flickering display). Flickering displays in the form of lines often distract you. With dark mode, this annoying display can be reduced.

  * Facilitate the programming process (coding). Dark mode makes the color difference of each syntax more visible. In other words, dark mode helps reduce programming errors.

  * Reduces the possibility of changing the biological clock. Blue light from screens often causes changes in sleep hours. In the long term, staring at a screen without dark mode can alter sleep patterns and biological clocks.

  * Save laptop battery and electricity. Dark mode helps you save laptop power. To be able to run well, the dark mode must also be accompanied by a dim environment. This is where you can also save electricity.

  * Simplify the design process. The dark look helps you focus on the main design components. When the design margins appear darker, you can be more alert and avoid major components crashing into the design area boundaries.

Although night mode has many benefits, its use still needs to be considered. Some conditions actually make the use of night mode counterproductive. For example, when the screen actually reflects on you or in other words like a mirror. Because this way, you actually can't see clearly what is displayed on the screen.

A work environment that is too bright also makes dark mode ineffective. In addition, fonts that are too thin and small in size often make the text unreadable when dark mode is used.

How to Enable Dark Mode in WordPress

The easiest way to enable dark mode in WordPress is with a plugin. Therefore, you need to install the Dark Mode plugin.

In the Dashboard, select the Plugins menu and click the Add New option. After that, you will be taken to a page that contains a large selection of plugins.

Enter the keyword “Dark Mode” into the field provided and click Install Now on the desired plugin. Wait a minute and click Activate at the same button location.

Once the plugin is active, you need to go back to the Dashboard and look for the Users menu and click on the Your Profile submenu.

Then, look for the Dark Mode option and tick Enable Dark Mode in the dashboard. Don't forget to click Update Profile at the bottom of the page. That way, the dark mode on the back-end of your WordPress website is active.

Night mode display is quite consistent across various Dashboard menus, except in the Post and Page sections which have a text editor.

When the Gutenberg editor in WordPress is activated, the bright display dominates the WordPress page. Especially in the writing section and customization options on the right.

For some people, this kind of display may not be effective. The original goal to get a dark look that is comfortable on the eyes, can not be achieved.

For that, we tried installing the Classic Editor plugin to find out how it differs from the Gutenberg editor.

After activating the Classic Editor, we found that the light was only in the text editor. Publish options and content formats on the right remain in dark mode.

Compared to the Gutenberg editor, this one view may be more comfortable for the eyes. It's just that, a display like this is less able to provide user-friendly selection buttons like in Gutenberg.

Then which one is better? It comes back to your choice.

If you are a blogger, web developer, or web agency administrator who often works late at night, dark mode is definitely a necessity. Luckily WordPress has a plugin to add a dark mode feature to the Dashboard.

In addition to how to install plugins and dark mode settings, the article above also describes how dark mode looks different in Gutenberg and Classic Editor. That way, you can also choose the right text editor for your WordPress website at the same time.

Now, say goodbye to tired eyes. Thank you, dark mode!