[Theme Editor] Dark Theme/Dark Mode for Canvas

Hello all! I am a student, and I am here to suggest an idea that I thought would make Canvas more personalized. I think a dark theme would be great for Canvas since some students like to stay up at night (not me), and the bright white light from Canvas can hurt their eyes. The main reason why I want it is because it would look better on my computer. Youtube and Google have these options, why not Canvas? Thank you for reading!

 

  Comments from Instructure

While we are not able to announce that this idea has been completed, it is important to celebrate that Dark Mode has been added to Canvas Student, Canvas Teacher, and Canvas Parent. (2022-07-05)

352 Comments
sydneye_trombly
Community Novice

Hey Matthew, 

I think this is a great idea. I often ask students to do a lot of reading online. While I would like to think that my students are all doing this right after school, the reality is that they typically spend a lot of their nights doing other things, and by the time they get to my homework, it is late and their eyes are tired. By making this feature available I feel that my students, who often complain that they are tired, would be able to feel more successful and supported in their learning platform. 

christian1_gree
Community Novice

This is a wonderful idea. Students will be more interested in the dark theme because it reminds them of what they are most interested in, video games.

david_dunn
Community Novice

Matthew, adding a dark theme to Canvas is a great idea. Especially for someone with eyesight issues and that works on the computer late at night. It would be great since it reminds them of games and just seeing something different is refreshing. Computers can cause many uncomfortable eye-related symptoms such as eyestrain, dry eyes, headache, fatigue, difficulty focusing, blurred vision, and shoulder and neck pain. Good idea Matthew!!

popeel
Community Novice

Reading a lot of the comments on here I see some good points but nothing quite pointing to a huge problem for me and likely many other people: small black text over a white background can irritate and worsen already present visual strain and other eye related health issues. 

Due to certain health and eye issues right now, reading black text over white background causes blinding migraines and headaches near constantly. An hour working on Canvas on a bad day could cause me extreme pain and nausea for the rest of the day. Honestly just typing this is giving me a bit of a headache! All the other apps and websites I use regularly either have dark modes or ways to edit the backgrounds to help with that sort of thing. I also need to zoom in normally to make the text bigger - I can see it perfectly fine right now, but it still causes eye strain.

I think Canvas would ABSOLUTELY benefit from having a dark mode and perhaps some way of making the text bigger for people with any number of visual problems ALONGSIDE how many people are on Canvas during dark hours when their eyes are more susceptible to straining. After all, I'm hardly the only person to have constant eye strain! It's a factor I think a lot of people don't consider when they suggest these sort of things. 

I used Canvas in the past and had no problems, but the eye issues have developed since then. I've been rather nervous starting up classes now because I couldn't find any way to modify the screen. I'm going to attempt finding other browser modifiers but it would be much easier for me and probably others as well if Canvas had a built in way to do these things. 

Thank you a lot for making this discussion! I think it's something people need to think of more when designing websites. 

jschofield
Community Participant

In Edge(Firefox and Chrome) you can install a dark mode extension, lets hope Instructor can get a working version for canvas. Dark Mode example 

isherman-youngb
Community Novice

As I'm sitting working through a stack of final essays right now, my eyes are telling me they really wish Canvas had a dark mode I could use to reduce the strain I'm feeling. 

rbrindle1
Community Novice

Please do this the white background is so harsh on the eyes especially on shared college computers where you don't change the settings to your preference. Bright white backgrounds + bright room lighting = headache after the first hour... welcome to the next 2 hours.

gljohns6
Community Novice

Hi, Instructor and graduate student here. Big-time upvote from me for dark mode. 

edgardrodrigues
Community Participant

What an amazing idea!

I believe the programmers would love it!

Jeff_F
Community Coach
Community Coach

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