Hi,

there are lots of visual artifacts that can result from
background/foreground contrast and the surround lightness adaptation.

Please note that :

  * darktable UI is currently under clean-up to wire every color and
    font-size to the CSS sylesheet :
    https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable/pull/2037
  * there is a new option in master to switch between themes (hence CSS
    sheets). Thanks to Pascal !
  * a grey theme will be added once everything is settled, so you might
    not need to bother about CSS anymore.

The general recommendation is to use middle grey (50 % Lab) or light
grey (70 % Lab) backgrounds during editing to minimize the contrast
between image and surround, in order to avoid tricking your eye.
Basically, dark surrounds make images look brighter than they are, but
less contrasted at the same time, which may result in under-exposing
them and crushing their blacks (expect a bad surprise when you print),
but also affects color saturation perception (they look more saturated).
Ignoring that, most photo editors choose to have a dark background, for
marketing reasons : images look prettier (more saturated) out of the box
(so the software should be better, right ?), and interfaces look sexier
(me likes sexy).

More details :

 1. https://xritephoto.com/documents/literature/en/StandardViewingNTK_EN.pdf
 2. Chapters 6-7-8 of
    
http://last.hit.bme.hu/download/firtha/video/Colorimetry/Fairchild_M._Color_appearance_models__2005.pdf
    and more specifically, sections 6.1 (p.111) 6.9 (p.126)

The brightness of your screen should be such that a fully white screen
matches the brightness of a white paper sheet sitting next to your
computer and lit by surround light. Be carefull at night because
domestic lights have a color temperature between 5000 K (high-end
daylight balanced LED lights) and 3000 K (tungsten light bulbs), so they
won't match the D65 illuminant (temperature and light spectrum) on which
your screen should be set and can be very misleading.

Also, don't lose too much time figuring out what your pictures will look
like on other people's display, because it's a lost cause.

Good luck,

Aurélien.

Le 19-02-24 à 07 h 16, KOVÁCS István a écrit :
> Hi,
>
> I've posted this on the users' list a week ago, but have not received
> any reply.
>
> Could you please provide a recommendation for general-purpose
> processing? I mainy post online (on Smugmug, which uses dark
> backgound, but the primary surface are our family blog and Facebook,
> which are both on light background). I mostly edit at night, in a
> quite dark room, with a 'warm-white' LED desk lap illuminating the
> white wall behind the monitor.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Kofa
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: *KOVÁCS István* <k...@kovacs-telekes.org
> <mailto:k...@kovacs-telekes.org>>
> Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2019 22:38
> Subject: Grey theme
> To: Darktable Users List <darktable-u...@lists.darktable.org
> <mailto:darktable-u...@lists.darktable.org>>
>
>
> Hi,
>
> A question has come up on Facebook
> (https://www.facebook.com/groups/darktable/permalink/1200810193417890/)
> about theming. I answered with a link from the announcement of 2.6.0
> (https://www.darktable.org/2018/12/darktable-26/), which provides the
> CSS for a white and a grey theme, adding the following:
> "[regarding the white theme] Note that with such setup, images will
> look darker, hence the aspect of the GUI may push the user to
> over-expose the images. A white background is interesting for people
> working on images meant to be displayed on white background, though.
> To avoid being influenced towards over- or under-exposing pictures, a
> grey theme like the following is much more advisable" - and then the
> article provides a grey theme.
>
> So, returning to the question: if this a recommendation for
> print-oriented people (whom a white theme may push to overexpose
> images)? The text mentions underexposure, too, which I'd link to a
> very dark UI.
>
> If it's for everyone, and it is "much more advisable" (than the
> default black or a custom white theme), why is it not the default with
> 2.6?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Kofa
>
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