Everybody loves a good Dark Mode. Adding a high-contrast “reverse type” version of websites and apps always seem to be a big hit among power users, presumably because their dark palettes are easier on the eyes when staring at a bright screen in low light.
If you are one of the dark-mode faithful — or just a fan of reskinning your apps — today is an exciting day: Google released a set of 14 alternate colour palettes for Chrome, including ‘Just Black’, a classic Dark Mode.
Of course, there are already plenty of third-party skins for Chrome out there, including many Dark Mode options, but these Google skins seem especially slick and polished. Plus, as Google has demonstrated time and time again, every Google product works best when it plays with its peers.
In addition to a simple black option, there are some interesting high-contrast alternatives, including a “Black and White,” where the search bar and the tab you’re using is light and your other tabs are dark, and a “high contrast colourful” skin that achieves a similar effect with black, sky blue, and yellow. It’s pretty wild and kind of distracting, but also might be my favourite. There are also some nice light alternatives, like “Banana Yellow” and “Rose” that I thought made it easier to read some of the text and smaller accent lines in Chrome’s navigation.
To set up a new official Chrome skin, go to the Chrome themes page in the Google Chrome Web Store, pick your skin from the list and press “Add to Chrome.” A drop-down with an “Undo” button appears on the page so you can quickly turn them on and off without a fuss. If you move away from the page and want to remove a skin, go to the preferences menu, scroll down to “Themes” and press “Reset to Default.”
While it’s pretty easy, I also understand if trying on a bunch of skins seems a bit tedious. If you want a sneak peek without the work, I made some sample swatches. (Click on the arrows to scroll through the 14 slides.)
[Note: Lifehacker has a dark mode too – to activate it, head to your profile and scroll down to ‘Theme Settings’.]
Google releases 14 new themes for Chrome to the Web Store | Techdows
Comments
3 responses to “How To Activate ‘Dark Mode’ In Google Chrome”
Morpheon dark is better than chrome’s dark as the selected tab is highlighted better:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/morpheon-dark/mafbdhjdkjnoafhfelkjpchpaepjknad
Also, install Dark Reader (you can thank me later): https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dark-reader/eimadpbcbfnmbkopoojfekhnkhdbieeh
Dear All
There is no complete dark mode anywhere. The URL box will always be white, with black text. That is Windows and it can not be changed (for now).
I do run dark mode at home (Outlook’s one is gorgeous) because I use a plasma TV as my monitor. Dark modes are a godsend in summer because a bright screen on Plasma yields a whopping 50degree C across the screen.