Dark Themes for all Modules

MultiCharts is an awesome trading platform, and a dark theme will make it better.

I use dark mode with any application that offers it. Especially in the early morning (or late evening), it saves painful eyes.

Every now and then people ask about dark mode on MultiCharts. Most platforms already offer dark mode: TradingView, TradeStation, NinjaTrader, Quantower, TickBlaze, Quantconnect, and HaasOnline. Several even have dark mode as the default.

I recently chatted with a friend and the MultiCharts software came up. He said:

I love MultiCharts platform. But the biggest challenge I have: my eyes cannot handle all the white spaces. TS 9.5 used to be the same: lots of white spaces. The Dark Theme in TS 10 much friendly to the eyes. I start to use TS10 more because of the Dark Theme.

The whitespace is also not pleasant for my eyes. But this also got me thinking. Is dark mode a nice-to-have feature? Or something that can drive new customers and help retain existing users?

Often dark mode is considered an aesthetic feature. I did some research to see if there's more to it.

I found that bright digital screens cause eye strain, which has symptoms such as dry eyes, blurry vision, watery eyes, and even headaches, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (an association of eye doctors).

To reduce eye strain, the Academy sees reducing brightness of screens as an important recommendation (besides taking breaks from screen time). But what about dark mode specifically?

The same eye experts say that "dark mode reduces [screen] glare and helps our eyes adjust more easily to surrounding light, leading to less eye strain and easier, comfortable reading" (source).

Besides reducing eye strain, dark mode also helps to fall asleep at night (same source). This is because light screens emit blue light, which affects the body's natural wake and sleep cycle.

In addition, research suggests that long-term reading in light mode is associated with myopia, also known as short-sightedness (source). So negative long-term effects are also possible.

That gives dark mode three health-related benefits:

1. Less eye strain (dry eyes, watery eyes, headaches).
2. Less impact on the body's circadian rhythm (if we fall asleep earlier that's more time sleeping and better rested the next day).
3. Less risk of reducing the sharpness and quality of our vision in the future.

We as traders and developers probably already spend too much time in front of the computer. The same goes for MultiCharts development and support members.

Let's reduce unpleasant, and at times hurtful, eyes for all of us with a dark mode!

If you'd like to see a dark mode in MultiCharts, please add your vote to this feature request.

Thank you for your consideration.

(Related discussion thread.)