Unexpected white-on-black text in QtWebEngine-based browsers

Unexpected white-on-black text in QtWebEngine-based browsers

[Johannes Altmanninger]

Hi,

Sometime during the last two weeks, https://public-inbox.org/ started to be
displayed as white text on black background.
This happens with Qutebrowser and Falkon, two QtWebEngine-based browsers.
On Firefox or Chrome, the site displays black-on-white as usual.

It seems that contrib/css/216dark.css is in effect. That file is identical
with the default CSS snippet in say https://public-inbox.org/git/_/text/color/,
which seems to come from lib/PublicInbox/UserContent.pm.

I dislike the stark contrast of white-on-black text so I'm using custom CSS
now, but it would be interesting to know which behavior is intended.

Thanks

Re: Unexpected white-on-black text in QtWebEngine-based browsers

[Eric Wong]

Johannes Altmanninger <aclopte@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Sometime during the last two weeks, https://public-inbox.org/ started to be
> displayed as white text on black background.

I haven't changed anything in public-inbox.org

> This happens with Qutebrowser and Falkon, two QtWebEngine-based browsers.
> On Firefox or Chrome, the site displays black-on-white as usual.

It depends on your browsers' prefers-color-scheme setting which was
standardized <2 years ago, I think...  I know Firefox supports it,
can't remember others.

I mainly use w3m, but whenever I use color browsers I find
light backgrounds painful to my eyes.  (I'm used to minimal
room lighting to save electricity)

> It seems that contrib/css/216dark.css is in effect. That file is identical
> with the default CSS snippet in say https://public-inbox.org/git/_/text/color/,
> which seems to come from lib/PublicInbox/UserContent.pm.

Right, at least a subset w/o syntax highlighting.

> I dislike the stark contrast of white-on-black text so I'm using custom CSS
> now, but it would be interesting to know which behavior is intended.

Everybody has different eyes and environments, and any setting
I'd choose will make someone else unhappy.  Best to use a browser
that respects your preferences, or a terminal browser.
Custom CSS works fine, especially if you can do it per-site.

Of course, some people are unhappy that the "homepage" is just a
directory listing :P  I'm against centralization to the point
that I don't believe there should be *A* homepage.

Re: Unexpected white-on-black text in QtWebEngine-based browsers

[Kyle Meyer]

Eric Wong writes:

> Johannes Altmanninger <aclopte@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> This happens with Qutebrowser and Falkon, two QtWebEngine-based browsers.
>> On Firefox or Chrome, the site displays black-on-white as usual.
>
> It depends on your browsers' prefers-color-scheme setting which was
> standardized <2 years ago, I think...  I know Firefox supports it,
> can't remember others.

Hmm I just installed Qutebrowser (1.14.1, which looks to be the latest
release) via Guix and visited public-inbox.org/meta, and it used the
light theme.  I've never used Qutebrowser, and I don't have any idea why
I see a different default.

At any rate, I can make it use a dark theme by adding the following line
to $HOME/.config/qutebrowser/config.py:

    config.set("colors.webpage.darkmode.enabled", True)

So, Johannes, perhaps you can get the light theme you're after with

    config.set("colors.webpage.darkmode.enabled", False)

Re: Unexpected white-on-black text in QtWebEngine-based browsers

[Johannes Altmanninger]

On Thu, Dec 31, 2020 at 11:16:54PM +0000, Kyle Meyer wrote:
> Hmm I just installed Qutebrowser (1.14.1, which looks to be the latest
> release) via Guix and visited public-inbox.org/meta, and it used the
> light theme.  I've never used Qutebrowser, and I don't have any idea why
> I see a different default.

Thanks for testing, this is really weird. Let's see what comes up in
https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-89753

> 
> At any rate, I can make it use a dark theme by adding the following line
> to $HOME/.config/qutebrowser/config.py:
> 
>     config.set("colors.webpage.darkmode.enabled", True)

I tried with both dark-mode settings, no difference. Same with
"qutebrowser --temp-basedir", which uses the default configuration.
Enabling dark mode does not seem to do anything either. Maybe it's because
I'm running on Wayland.

Re: Unexpected white-on-black text in QtWebEngine-based browsers

[Johannes Altmanninger]

On Thu, Dec 31, 2020 at 10:48:37PM +0000, Eric Wong wrote:
> I haven't changed anything in public-inbox.org
> 
> It depends on your browsers' prefers-color-scheme setting which was
> standardized <2 years ago, I think...  I know Firefox supports it,
> can't remember others.

Thanks, I believe this explains it - it looks like prefers-color-scheme is
implemented but buggy - I've filed https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-89753

> I'm used to minimal room lighting

Same here ;) w3m is a good idea.

> Of course, some people are unhappy that the "homepage" is just a
> directory listing :P  I'm against centralization to the point
> that I don't believe there should be *A* homepage.

The directory listing is perfect :) Thanks for the project, it's really useful.