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Is there a "White on Black" mode in Android?

T

tushar0

Lurker
Hi,

I just got my HTC Sensation 4G phone that runs Android. The white background in Android (meaning everything including settings, keyboard, email. web browser, phone app, etc) causes me a lot of eye strain. Is there a way to change the background color of *all* Android apps to a black or dark color while keeping the foreground (e.g. text) in the white or light color? Again I am looking to change the background color of *all* Android apps to a black or dark color, not just the wall paper. So far I have checked with HTC support, Tmobile support and the Android market apps. No solution in sight. Please note that there are several posts on internet forums that the "handcentSMS" application can fix the above issue. It is not true. I downloaded the handcentSMS application on the phone, also checked with handcent support. It simply changes the background color within the handcent application. It does not change the color of other apps. BTW the iphone has a solution for this, its called the "white on black" mode. I am surprised that Android, despite being a serious competitor of iphone, has no solution for this issue. I also tried to reduce the brightness of the screen. It darkens both the foreground (text) and the bacground and hence is of no help. Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks.
 
Stock Gingerbread is white on black (at least on the Nexus S). Perhaps installing a Gingerbread ROM with no Sense?
 
If you can root your phone you can change a lot of these through custom ROMS. And there are 2 guys on RootzWiki that have taken a lot of programs and made them white on black.
Without root, I know go sms has themes that can change the messaging app for you. I run the dark them with is black background and gray type.

As for the iphone having that option and android doesn't - apple runs basically one OS. Android has untold numbers of phones and there are at least 3 versions currently running on phones right now. (Froyo, Gingerbread & Honeycomb on tablets) so it's not fair to automatically compare everything to iphone. Yes, we have some awesome features they don't - but they also have the luxury of only having to worry about testing for a small amount of devices which makes it easier on the the developers.
 
I have exactly the same problem, tushar0, though I have an LGP500H.
Did you ever find a solution? I'm particularly after a .doc reader that's white on black (or customizable...)
 
Turn down your brightness. I don't like black on white either, but turning down the brightness helps a lot. I doubt you'll find something that can change the colour scheme of every app. I just don't see how that could work as each app developer can set the colour scheme for his/her app to anything they want.
 
UssjTrunks said:
Turn down your brightness. I don't like black on white either, but turning down the brightness helps a lot. I doubt you'll find something that can change the colour scheme of every app. I just don't see how that could work as each app developer can set the colour scheme for his/her app to anything they want.
Click to expand...
brightness already at 0. -shrug- have to keep looking/hoping
 
Without root access, I don't see how users would otherwise be able to override the design of every app they download onto their phones: I don't believe the OS allows that type of control. Short if rooting, the best you can do is cherry pick the launchers and apps that allow those options (though sticking with just those will cause you to miss out on a LOT of cool ones
 
RyanB said:
Without root access, I don't see how users would otherwise be able to override the design of every app they download onto their phones: I don't believe the OS allows that type of control. Short if rooting, the best you can do is cherry pick the launchers and apps that allow those options (though sticking with just those will cause you to miss out on a LOT of cool ones
Click to expand...

Could someone confirm that this works on the iPhone? I also don't see how it's possible.
 
yeah, found a post that reffered to some pdf-type readers having such and I've converted my .doc to .txt and use ireader: acceptable compromise.
just wish that, say, kingoffice or thinkfree (or any .doc reader) had such a mode so could avoid the conversion.
 
iPhone and iPad do have this ability. You do so by triple clicking the home button. One of the main reasons for this was the adaption of iPads into airplane cockpits. Im a pilot and use an iPad to view airport information and approach charts while flying on ForeFlight. During night flight it is extremely important to limit light exposure to the eyes so they incorporated the color reversal and it made its way to the entire operating system of the iPad and iPhone. It is also great for reading in bed at night with the lights off. Looks funky though if you leave it that way while on the home pages or playing games.
 
I wonder if there have been any new developments in the past year that will allow me to change the background color in the email, calendar and contacts.
 
I have a Galaxy Note5 running 7.0 and I can go to:

  
settings > accessibility > vision  > negative colors > on
Click to expand...

and everything that was white is black and vice versa.  It does weird stuff to colors though...
 
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