The author really sets his screen to yellow text on a black background? Makes my...

nkassis · on Aug 15, 2011

I write all my code with a black background and green text (well except for syntax that's highlighted). Much better than staring at the sun(white screen) for hours ;p

electromagnetic · on Aug 15, 2011

I used to do this. I could write at 4am with no lights on and I wouldn't get eye strain. Now I'm married and there's much less application for being able to write in the wee hours.

_frog · on Aug 15, 2011

Or even better, use something like Flux[1] to subdue the tones of that glaring white screen just enough to reduce eye strain.

[1]: http://stereopsis.com/flux/

airlabam · on Aug 15, 2011

Oh wow, thanks for this one. Immediately noticed a reduction in eyestrain. If you're found the GUI buggy (as I did), try the command line interface (xflux). The CLI app works fine for me.

mitchty · on Aug 15, 2011

I need to try out the linux version of flux, but the mac version is seriously awesome.

Has helped fix me off of getting off the computer at night with the color/gamma changes.

rtg · on Aug 15, 2011

F.lux is indispensable on Mac and PC (when I still had a PC.) Absolutely required if you code at all during evening/nighttime.

Unfortunately I couldn't get it to work* on my Ubuntu box and found another app, Redshift, that seems to jive better with Linux: http://jonls.dk/redshift/

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* Ran without errors, but didn't tint my screen. I chalked it up to oddities of video card drivers on Linux.

xyzzyb · on Aug 15, 2011

The solarized color scheme is great too.

dredmorbius · on Aug 15, 2011

Gold text on black background is very, very readable and easy on the eyes.

It's been my standard for well over a decade. Preferable even to green-on-black.

The only downside is that a colorized 'ls' output is typically difficult to read (the blues used for directories are typically too dark).

ordinary · on Aug 15, 2011

You can customize ls' colours. Look into the environment variable LS_COLORS.

shabble · on Aug 15, 2011

I usually just configure the terminal to brighten up the blue a little.

dredmorbius · on Aug 16, 2011

That's the trick.

You need to configure the colors as presented by the terminal, and I haven't mucked with that yet. Given that you're working with variations based on the ANSI color set, your initial set of values is limited.

There's a similar trick for vim color highlighting, though I've found the different color settings all involve tradeoffs, not all favorable.

dredmorbius · on Aug 16, 2011

That's the trick.

You need to configure the colors as presented by the terminal, and I haven't mucked with that yet.

Terretta · on Aug 15, 2011

Amber text on black has been reported by studies as the most readable and least fatiguing to your eyes. I loved amber CRTs though they were less common than green.