Microsoft Teases New Outlook.com Dark Mode (theverge.com)

Microsoft is planning to introduce a dark mode to its Outlook.com web mail service. "While the software giant introduced a temporary dark mode for Halloween last year, Microsoft has been working on a new dark mode for Outlook.com for the past few months," reports The Verge. "Microsoft has started teasing that the new dark mode will be available soon." From the report: "One reason for the delay is our insistence that we deliver the best Dark Mode of any leading email client (you'll understand when you see it, I guarantee)," explains an Outlook.com team member in a feedback post. "The sneak preview you saw last year at Halloween was a prototype that required a lot more work to be ready for prime time." Microsoft says it has redesigned the colors and code "multiple times," and it's in the final stretch of introducing the new theme in Outlook.com.

Comments

And?

[Gravis Zero]

Honestly, this is the least important thing Slashdot could have posted about. Besides, use an native client and you can theme it however you like.

Re:And?

[GrumpySteen]

this is the least important thing Slashdot could have posted about

Apparently you haven't scrolled down far enough to see the post about some analyst saying the new iPhones will be available in a "plethora" of five colors.

Re:And?

[whargoul]

Apparently you missed the drivel about "plugspreading" the other day.

Is a theme news now?

[xpiotr]

Is adding a theme to your website news now?
Honestly...

This is important news!

[Zero__Kelvin]

There is an important take away here. It has taken Microsoft 9 months to get to the point where something trivial that was mostly complete in October of last year is now ready to be announced as still not ready. The amazing thing is that anyone uses their shit products anymore.

Re:This is important news!

[phantomfive]

The amazing thing is that anyone uses their shit products anymore.

The general quality of programmer in the industry has gone down such that Microsoft stuff is just average.

Re:This is important news!

[jellomizer]

A good dark mode is easier said then done.
For a Holiday team it was a rather easy trick to switch the colors around, however there will be that one odd feature that will have the wrong colors that will not show up right in a dark mode. For Halloween as a seasonable option any bugs or annoyances are set aside as just some quirky fun that you can roll back when you want to be serious.

The Graphical User Interface Macintosh, XWindows, MS Windows. for the past 35 years have favored a light theme for the UI. Black Text on a white background, as part of the WYSIWYG design, figuring most of the content you see on the computer will be printed on white paper. The reason why OS/X, Windows, and GNOME/KDE all use similar colors and themes until recently is because there is decades of research and trial and error to show what goes best on this light theme.
Now in the past couple of years, we have moved away from printing stuff all the time, and most of the content is on a screen of some sort. This means the Dark theme makes more sense, allowing the glow of the bright letters making them bolder and easier to read, vs, the glow of the background, making the fonts thinner in appearance. Old screens with the 72dpi this isn't so bad, as a single pixel is big enough to be seen, and the glow of the background, will not overpower the pixels black. But on the new high dpi screens, the glow of the white can cover your pixels viability. So a dark theme is needed.

Now we are in Dark theme, we need to find what work viably, looks attractive, and doesn't scream goth playground.

While I have you, MS

[iTrawl]

How about not logging me off twice a day (if not more often) on Office365?

Re:While I have you, MS

[cascadingstylesheet]

How about not logging me off twice a day (if not more often) on Office365?

I'm sorry; a new dark website theme is far too important compared to such trivialities as you report.

This may not be news...

[s0nspark]

But it is welcome, nonetheless. It will be nice not feeling like my tired eyes are staring at a fluorescent bulb when I check my work email.

Biggest. Thing. Ever!

[sabbede]

For too long we have been victimized by overly-bright color schemes when we use email. NO MORE!

Our lives can once again be filled with joy instead of bright grays!

Finally we can achieve the dreams of our grandfathers and never again be condemned to suffer dark fonts on light backgrounds.

You actually use MS Office?

[sjbe]

How about not logging me off twice a day (if not more often) on Office365?

Not a problem with LibreOffice. Come on in the water's nice. No log ins required nor any subscription fees.

Re:Stop the press

[PPH]

The press? Microsoft still has monks hand-copying manuscripts.

Important tech news! Are YOU keeping up?

[Cajun Hell]

A large team of Microsoft's cleverest wizards have spent the last two years working on an invention that is going to change the world, and if you don't learn about this innovation and offer it to your clients or bosses, you can expect the "oh, you're over 40?" treatment for the rest of your career.

Though our patent expert has not yet reported on his particular finding, insiders are saying Microsoft's finest hackers have learned how to change color. That is, your screen is able to show many more colors than you're probably used to see, and by using a technique where the numbers behind the pixels are lower than they usually are (how low? stay tuned!) they're able to change how things appear, without the numbers being so low as to cause an imbalance.

We contacted lead Microsoft researcher, Fucky McFuckface, and asked, "Fuckface, how dark is it going to be?"

"That's McFuckface."

"Pardon me."

"Anyway, I'm not yet authorized to say exactly how dark it is, but our engineers were able to come up with some pretty low numbers for the pixel's color values."

"So then at least this much is confirmed, that you changed the numbers on the colors rather than the alpha channel?"

"Well, I don't want to give away too many secrets, but I think that cat is out of the bag. Yes, the colors are darker because we used some lower numbers for the pixel values. In the colors. It's kind of technical to explain but I think if you see it, you'll at least somewhat intuitively grasp what must be happening under the hood, even if it's not quite apparent exactly how we did it."

"What impact do you think this will have on future technology?"

"Oh, this is absolutely transformative. I think that over the next ten years, most software engineers are going to have to learn how to type in low numbers when specifying colors."

"You mean, everyone will be expected to? Anyone and everyone?"

"Well, I think the market will expect it, yes, so successful startups will certainly be attempting to get a piece of the action. We will, of course, protect our IP."

"Thank you, Fucky."

Everyone, keep your eye on this story. Whatever screenshots that you're seeing today, I would be hesitant to begin reverse engineering what colors they used, as that might not end up exactly what consumers end up experiencing. You don't want to put man-months of expensive tech labor #2f2f2fing everything and then find out your shitty 1.0 product doesn't even do the #1f1f1f or #3f3f3f that hyperconnected always-on-the-go modern consumers expect.