Firefox may soon paint all sites in dark or light mode, if you want

Martin Brinkmann
Nov 19, 2021
Firefox
|
38

Mozilla is working on a new feature in the organization's Firefox web browser that may be used to force a specific color scheme on sites you visit.

Most browsers support light and dark modes already, but the functionality is limited to painting the chrome of the browser using the color scheme. Website content remains unmodified when the feature is enabled or configured.

The latest Firefox Nightly version, version 96.0a1, comes with a new feature that extends the functionality. Once activated, sites will also be displayed in the selected color scheme.

Here is how the feature looks on Ghacks. Dark Mode was enabled on the Windows 10 system and Firefox picked it up to display the browser UI and the content of the webpage using the color scheme.

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firefox force colors dark light mode

All sites are displayed using the selected mode and color scheme. Firefox includes options to change some parameters, including text and background colors.

Here is how you configure the feature in Firefox Nightly:

  1. Select Menu > Settings.
  2. Scroll down to the Language and Appearance section.
  3. Activate the "Colors" button on the page.

mozilla-firefox enable dark mode

Here you get the following options:

  • To configure the force color feature on websites, set "Override the colors specified by the page with your selections above" to Always.
  • Change the text and Background colors to your liking.
  • Change the visited and unvisited links colors as well.
  • Select OK to save the new configuration.

Websites will be painted using the selected mode of the operating system, light or dark, and the colors selected in Firefox's preferences.

The feature was announced by Mozilla employee Morgan on Twitter. According to the information posted there, users should expect that some content may not look perfect when the forced colors mode is enabled. Users are encouraged to report bugs and issues on Bugzilla.

The functionality to override text, background and link colors on sites has been part of Firefox for a long time. The new feature takes this a step further by adding the color mode of the operating system to the site as well; this paints every item on the site using the selected color mode.

Firefox users had to use browser extensions such as Midnight Lizard before to achieve something similar. Mozilla's implementation is bare bones at the time: there is no override option or option to customize the color scheme of a specific site using native options. Since it is been released in Nightly only at the time, it is possible that missing functionality will be added to improve the feature's usability.

Now You: light or dark mode, what is your preference?

Summary
Firefox may soon paint all sites in dark or light mode, if you want
Article Name
Firefox may soon paint all sites in dark or light mode, if you want
Description
Mozilla is working on a new feature in the organization's Firefox web browser that may be used to force a specific color scheme on sites you visit.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Neutrino said on November 19, 2021 at 2:09 pm
    Reply

    Off topic: why don’t they make FF to close to tray as chromium based browsers do?

    1. matthiew said on November 22, 2021 at 2:24 am
      Reply

      Chromium browsers don’t close to tray. Why do you think they do?

  2. Plebb said on November 19, 2021 at 3:34 pm
    Reply

    Any chance ghacks can have native dark mode? I use dark reader but I would rather a better dark mode color scheme

    1. beemeup5 said on November 19, 2021 at 6:30 pm
      Reply

      Yeah it’s strange how only the Ghacks front page has a dark mode available. Why not extend it to the whole site?

    2. John B said on November 20, 2021 at 4:54 pm
      Reply

      Stylus
      https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/styl-us/

      * {background-color: #000; color: #ccc;}
      body, input:not([type=”submit”]):not([type=”checkbox”]), textarea, select {background-color: #222;}
      .ghacks-ad {display: none;}

  3. Leopeva64 said on November 19, 2021 at 3:59 pm
    Reply

    I use Firefox only on my phones, so I hope this option is also available in Firefox for Android, I don’t want to have to use an extension.

  4. Pedro said on November 19, 2021 at 4:37 pm
    Reply

    Dark Reader extension is a must on the desktop and the Android Firefox app for me. I won’t ever use Chrome based browsers because I need this in Android and Firefox sync always worked flawlessly for me, while with Chrome it was awful.

    1. Anonymous said on November 19, 2021 at 10:20 pm
      Reply

      “chrome based browsers” lol clueless firefox fanboy who force themselves to use a dying browser, a render engine that nobody cares about since most devs will focus on how Blink works, and supporting a company that openly talks about deplatforming and says there shold be more censorship but still goes around saying “internet for all”

      There is a difference between Chromium and Chrome, but I doubt you understand it, Pedro.

      1. Woody Peafowl 420 said on November 20, 2021 at 12:36 pm
        Reply

        @Anonymous

        Imagine life so miserable as to assert yourself by belittling a browser engine in its news section… I bet you think and write more about “deplatforming” than any Firefox user.

        The Firefox ecosystem works like a clock, does not trade in our data and does not engage in crypto scam. And you can take comfort in the fact that you are very smart because you can distinguish names that are interesting only to coder monkeys.

      2. Iron Heart said on November 22, 2021 at 3:16 pm
        Reply

        > The Firefox ecosystem works like a clock, does not trade in our data and does not engage in crypto scam.

        LOL, how about Firefox setting your DNS provider to Cloudflare? Or its location service provider being Google? Bwahahahaha…

      3. Woody Peafowl 420 said on November 22, 2021 at 9:02 pm
        Reply

        @Iron Heart

        LOL, I see you carefully monitoring topics about Firefox trying to smear with your conspiracy nonsense at every opportunity.

        Setting DNS provider and geolocation is now called user data trade? Or a crypto scam? No.
        Is there any abuse of privacy policies of these features? No.

        As usual, you may laugh only at your own ignorant fantasies with the voices ringing in your resonant head. Bwahahahaha, ding-dong…

      4. Woody Peafowl 420 said on November 23, 2021 at 6:58 pm
        Reply

        @Iron Heart

        Once again, my remark concerned:

        1. Trade of user data
        2. Privacy policies abuse

        If there are some evidence and facts, you can lay them out here.

        The abuse of your expectations from the beloved once browser is not called user data trading. Try to read and understand the sentence entirely before answering.

        I like that when someone mentions crypto scam, you start talking about Brave Retards^w Rewards. If the shoe fits, wear it.

        Also, why do you care about my nickname, does it somehow relate to you, huh, buddy?

      5. Iron Heart said on November 25, 2021 at 10:09 am
        Reply

        @Woody Whatever

        > smear with your conspiracy nonsense

        It’s only conspiracy nonsense if it didn’t happen. Do you deny that Mozilla switches the DNS provider?

        > Setting DNS provider and geolocation is now called user data trade?

        Yes and having click tracking in the browser, using trackers in the mobile version, handing location data to Google etc. etc.

        > Or a crypto scam?

        Dude, you always call Brave a crypto scam without any sources provided. I don’t see where the “scam” is with Brave. The code is open source, you should have zero issues pointing me to the “scam”.

        > As usual, you may laugh only at your own ignorant fantasies with the voices ringing in your resonant head. Bwahahahaha, ding-dong…

        All I can say is that you are lucky to be this insolent and have your post appear. If this were coming from me, it would already have been deleted by the moderator. Just saying.

      6. Woody Peafowl 420 said on November 25, 2021 at 9:16 pm
        Reply

        @Iron Heart

        Once again, my remark concerned:

        1. Trade of user data
        2. Privacy policies abuse

        If there are some evidence and facts, you can lay them out here.

        Your personal beliefs are of little interest, no matter how many times they are repeated, sorry, pal.

        Do you need help finding privacy policies?

  5. JuhaT said on November 19, 2021 at 5:17 pm
    Reply

    I hate all the dark sites. Great that you can deside for your self.

    1. Herman Cost said on November 20, 2021 at 2:20 am
      Reply

      Me also. I can’t at all understand the enthusiasm for dark mode. For me, it is simply harder to read. But freedom of choice is always good.

      1. Farmers said on November 21, 2021 at 1:45 am
        Reply

        Agreed. I much prefer light mode personally.

  6. beemeup5 said on November 19, 2021 at 6:48 pm
    Reply

    OperaGX already enables dark mode automatically for sites that expose the dark mode flag, like Google search, DuckDuckGo, Github, to name a few.

    Not sure why no other browser does this either out of the box or with an easy toggle setting.

    1. Patrick said on November 19, 2021 at 10:35 pm
      Reply

      Brave also does it on mobile if you have the browser in dark theme, like on Desktop. You can also turn in appearance the setting to Enable Night Mode (Experimental) which is just a toggle to enable the “Auto Dark Mode for Web Contents” flag for websites that don’t have a dark theme, and the flag doesn’t do anything on sites where dark theme exists. On Brave desktop the setting doesn’t exist, so people have to go to flags to enable it, but I guess dark reader extension is a better way of doing it since you can easily customize it and choose what pages to use it or not since the flag is a global thing. It would be better if Developers just decided to do their job and make dark theme available.

      Also, Brave strict fingerprinting protection, just like Firefox fingerprinting, doesn’t allow auto dark theme mode, but there is a flag that overrides that, and there is a override setting on LibreWolf that even enables dark theme with the highest fingerprinting protection, so some browsers have even tried to let people have dark theme detection and still get fingerprinting protection.

  7. common sense computing said on November 19, 2021 at 10:11 pm
    Reply

    Would be more useful with per-URL color and zoom settings. One of the many things crippled when Mozilla killed XUL.

    1. John B said on November 20, 2021 at 5:04 pm
      Reply

      Stylus
      https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/styl-us/

      * {background-color: #000; color: #ccc;}
      body, input:not([type=”submit”]):not([type=”checkbox”]), textarea, select {background-color: #222;}
      .ghacks-ad {display: none;}

      Or if you want customization back:
      https://www.fixedfirefox.com/

  8. owl said on November 19, 2021 at 11:03 pm
    Reply

    Since I am a so-called “elderly person,” even outside light is dazzling and painful.
    Therefore, not only the adjustment of the light intensity of the monitor but also applications such as browsers need countermeasures.
    I am not satisfied with the light intensity adjustment function and Dark theme that are native to the OS and apps, and the monitor is always suppressed to 1900K by the desktop app “Flux”, but “Dark” mode is used regularly in apps such as browsers.

    For the Dark theme in the browser, I randomly tried native features and extensions, but eventually I settled on the extension “Midnight Lizard”.
    Midnight Lizard has no complaints and is quite happy with it.
    Midnight-Lizard: Custom color schemes for all websites | GitHub
    https://github.com/Midnight-Lizard/Midnight-Lizard
    Midnight Lizard – color schemes for all websites
    https://midnight-lizard.org/home
    Issues: Midnight-Lizard | GitHub
    https://github.com/Midnight-Lizard/Midnight-Lizard/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aall+

    1. owl said on November 20, 2021 at 12:17 am
      Reply

      With years of experience,
      I don’t expect (There is no satisfactory example) native features such as OS and browsers.
      Third-party apps and extensions are developed to complement native functionality, and their development support is usually attractive because they are “agility (excellent development support ability), resourceful, and rational.”

    2. Anonymous said on November 20, 2021 at 8:30 am
      Reply

      @owl

      1900K? It’s a living hell. Better consult a doctor about your photophobia. Such harsh conditions as the perverted unnatural contrast of glowing text in the dark and deep sunset colors, which give the brain a signal to go to sleep, only increase the tension of the eyes and the nervous system.

      1. owl said on November 22, 2021 at 3:27 am
        Reply

        @Anonymous,

        Hey, don’t worry.
        I’m in perfect health.

        I ride my road bike for several hours every day and enjoy trekking and other outdoor activities on weekends. However, I always wear “sunglasses” to protect my eyes from UV rays and strong sunlight.

        As you point out, the Kelvin value of “1900K” is the candlelight equivalent.
        That’s why the monitor screen never feels dazzling and is “comfortable and easy on the eyes.”

        As for the color temperature, it all comes down to whether “text and the like are discernible” or “the original color tone of the object”.

        I have been a regular user of “Flux” since its release, and I am familiar with how to use it.
        f.lux: F.A.Q.
        https://justgetflux.com/faq.html
        In other words, when using the image app, video app, etc., I can turn off custom settings or easily and immediately change to other options, so I don’t feel any inconvenience.
        https://i.imgur.com/S0Iw0t0.png
        https://i.imgur.com/fpfHvGs.png
        https://i.imgur.com/0SRZcVK.png
        The option with Kelvin values ??is common not only for old people like me, but also for astronomical observation fields, research institutes, and occupations that monitors.
        In short, what Kelvin value is appropriate depends on the user. And “Dark” mode is also a good option for such uses.

  9. Ray said on November 19, 2021 at 11:17 pm
    Reply

    Sweet. Maybe this will replace the Dark Background and Light Text extension in due time.

    However, I think that this will take multiple releases in order to smooth out the functionality.

  10. Carlos said on November 20, 2021 at 3:20 am
    Reply

    I would like this come into Firefox for Android, since I use dark mode for the system UI and most apps supporting dark mode. So native support dark page is a must for me, because dark reader performe not so good in daily use. By now, I use Vivaldi browser as my primary, it provide native dark page feature, and performs quite well.

  11. Tim said on November 20, 2021 at 9:34 am
    Reply

    I’ll be very happy to see this functionality implemented in Firefox. I use an add-on to achieve the same result but I don’t really like add-ons and prefer native tools out of the box.

  12. Anonymous said on November 20, 2021 at 9:07 pm
    Reply

    I don’t like dark mode most of the time. However, I don’t like overly bright pages either.
    I prefer sepia mode, if I can get it. Otherwise, I turn down the brightness control on the computer.

  13. Rex said on November 22, 2021 at 2:55 am
    Reply

    Pale Moon has had this ability for ages, and with the exclusive AutoPageColor extension you can have it automatically advertise light or dark preferred colors to websites that support it, at sunrise/sunset.

  14. ruby said on November 24, 2021 at 11:44 am
    Reply

    Martin where is ghacks user.js

    1. Iron Heart said on November 24, 2021 at 5:26 pm
      Reply

      In the bin, where it belongs. Use Tor if you need this, it’s a carbon copy of Tor anyway, brought to you by self-important nevercoders.

    2. self-important nevercoder said on November 26, 2021 at 10:38 pm
      Reply

      @ruby
      ghacks user.js changed name and can be found here:
      https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js/

  15. Anonymous said on November 26, 2021 at 8:49 pm
    Reply

    This is privacy issue.

  16. bufferer said on December 3, 2021 at 9:07 pm
    Reply

    Thanks!

  17. bufferer said on December 4, 2021 at 7:02 am
    Reply

    Only setting “ui.systemUsesDarkTheme” to integer “0” worked for me in Firefox to get back regular non-themed google and ddg.

    1. bufferer said on December 4, 2021 at 7:04 am
      Reply

      Scratch that. Still can’t get automatic dark theme to cease.

    2. Kid said on December 10, 2021 at 2:05 am
      Reply

      Why would using Firefox 95’s Dark Theme change websites to night mode? I don’t want this behavior, Firefox 94 didn’t do this. Is there a solution to stop this?

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