Talk:Reading/Web/Accessibility for reading
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Navbox in dark mode
[edit]There's a rule, coming from I don't know where, that overrides a border-top rule in en:Module:Navbox/styles.css, which leaves navboxes such as en:Template:States of Brazil in a weird state (in dark mode). Can this team help us with this issue? @UOzurumba (WMF), you left an invitation to this page on my talk page, can you help find the right person to fix the problem? The Navbox module is copied across many wikis. Thanks! ponor (talk) 20:14, 30 May 2025 (UTC)
- Hello I'd be happy to help but could you give me some more information? en:Template:States of Brazil looks fine to me in dark mode on English Wikipedia. Which wiki was it copied to that is not working?
- I noticed that https://hr.wikipedia.org/ is using a custom link color on dark mode (https://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Night.css?ctype=text/css&action=raw), and I would highly discourage that as this is likely going to cause you a lot more issues with color contrast now and on the long run as it will not be tested for compliance against other colors. Please do not do this globally, it is hurting future accessibility of the site. Do this in user CSS or via an opt in gadget if you want it. Jon (WMF) (talk) 16:53, 2 June 2025 (UTC)
- @Jon (WMF): thanks for your reply! I've started phab:T395828 and uploaded a screenshot. The inner table borders are unevenly colored (Firefox for desktop, Firefox for Android, Chrome for Android). I'm sure I've seen a complaint about that on enwiki, though I can't remember where atm.
- As for the custom Night.css, I'll see what I can do; that has never been discussed on our wiki. Personally, I do like a little brighter blue (x-twitter has a similar one, I believe), as the original one is too dim and hard to read on all my screens. Are those colors still under discussion, and if yes - where? ponor (talk) 17:31, 2 June 2025 (UTC)
- Oh, here's the discussion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template_talk:Navbox#c-Whatback11-20250429153300-Improved_readability ponor (talk) 17:34, 2 June 2025 (UTC)
- Jon, I've mentioned you in a new discussion on hrwiki here. ponor (talk) 17:51, 2 June 2025 (UTC)
English Wiktionary deployment?
[edit]The page says that night mode will be released "for all users" once "community-controlled code is adjusted". I think we can reasonably stake the claim over at the English Wiktionary that we have adjusted the vast majority of the community-controlled code, after a community-run effort (see page history) to adopt our existing palette in currently used templates and modules for automatic dark mode support. Is there a timeline or intended process for how to proceed? SURJECTION ·talk·contr·log· 14:29, 26 September 2025 (UTC)
- As a sidenote, because I can't think of anywhere else to put this: the background colors for
<th>and<td>are way too similar in night mode, which makes them practically impossible to tell apart. The background colors in light mode don't have that much contrast either, but at least they have some. SURJECTION ·talk·contr·log· 20:27, 27 September 2025 (UTC) - Assuming you mean releasing dark mode for anonymous users this is tracked in T395628 and planned for the end of October. Jdlrobson (talk) 12:00, 28 September 2025 (UTC)
- English Wikitionary was done in T381058 @Surjection. Are you referring to something other than dark mode? Jdlrobson (talk) 17:31, 3 October 2025 (UTC)
- I'm referring to making "Automatic" the default, which I assumed was the eventual goal. SURJECTION ·talk·contr·log· 17:33, 3 October 2025 (UTC)
- That is tracked in T387382 with no plans right now. The current focus is releasing dark mode to all wikis. Jdlrobson (talk) 14:07, 30 October 2025 (UTC)
- I'm referring to making "Automatic" the default, which I assumed was the eventual goal. SURJECTION ·talk·contr·log· 17:33, 3 October 2025 (UTC)
- English Wikitionary was done in T381058 @Surjection. Are you referring to something other than dark mode? Jdlrobson (talk) 17:31, 3 October 2025 (UTC)
CSS light-dark function
[edit]The Recommendations for night mode compatibility on Wikimedia wikis guide doesn't mention the light-dark CSS function at all. It seems to work with the Dark mode switch, but I'm wondering whether it's recommended or discouraged. I believe it's a good option for one-off changes, particularly when color variables are not available and using templatestyles would be overkill. Boro (talk) 17:42, 1 October 2025 (UTC)
- Hello!! This is a great point - I checked in with people more familiar than I and it seems like the reason we don't use or recommend
light-darkis because it's not supported on a number of the browsers we maintain compatibility for. Hopefully one day we will be able to use this in our own implementation and recommend it for page-specific matters, but for now it doesn't meet the standard of compatibility that we would want SToyofuku-WMF (talk) 19:44, 1 October 2025 (UTC)- Thanks for the quick reply! I've amended the guide accordingly: #Avoid using the light-dark() function Boro (talk) 20:55, 1 October 2025 (UTC)
- Thank you!! SToyofuku-WMF (talk) 14:09, 2 October 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks for the quick reply! I've amended the guide accordingly: #Avoid using the light-dark() function Boro (talk) 20:55, 1 October 2025 (UTC)
Design tokens for template colors in dark mode
[edit]Currently, Codex has no predefined light-dark color tokens for use in templates. While these colors are typically decorative, they appear in header elements where removing them in dark mode reduces skimmability. This affects the most widely used customized templates across wikis, including infoboxes, navboxes, and amboxes. See articles like The Beacon (Jersey City), Eli Parsons, Carbonne as examples.
For dark mode, some of these colors need to be toned down to reduce contrast against the dark background. Without design tokens, it's difficult to maintain consistent light-dark pairs across templates. It also seems like an oversight that Codex neither includes nor recommends colors for these widely used templates: for instance, the navbox purples aren't even in the current color preset. As of now, variable colors within Codex only cover states and actions. In my opinion, the set should be expanded to include variable template/decorative colors, which would maintain consistency and simplify definition through CSS variables. Codex seems like the natural place for this, as it's a centralized design library created for this purpose. I'm not sure how extensive the set needs to be, but defining the default template colors plus the main spectrum colors would be a great start. Boro (talk) 20:15, 1 October 2025 (UTC)
- English Wiktionary introduced their own palette as a solution for this problem. SURJECTION ·talk·contr·log· 08:05, 10 October 2025 (UTC)