Dark Mode

Populi in dark mode

Populi: now with Dark Mode. Dark Mode is a display setting that inverts our customary dark text on light background theme for light text on a dark background. Dark mode can be easier on the ol' eyeballs—those lazy bags of fluid in our skulls that don't like it when we strain them by staring at bright electronics late at night. It can also help focus our attention on documents and other content. And some people also believe that it also looks sleek and cool and... maybe a bit mysterious.

You can set how Populi displays in your personal settings under Interface Theme, you'll have these options:

Dark mode is managed in your personal settings
  • Everyone's new default setting is Auto. This means that Populi will imitate whatever display mode you're using on your computer. Modern operating systems generally give you some kind of dark mode option, which usually adjusts the display according to ambient light—during the day it's in light mode and when the sun sets it's in dark mode. Auto keys off of whatever display setting you have on your device.
  • The Light and Dark options let you pick one or the other—and Populi will display thusly no matter what.

To accommodate Dark Mode, we've also given Populi's appearance one of its periodic refreshes—in fact, it's the largest visual update to Populi ever. Controls like drop-downs, checkboxes, buttons, etc. have clean new styling, navigation tabs have been refined, colors have been tweaked, and all the icons and charts have gotten a makeover. Account Admins also have new options (in Account > General Settings > Appearance) to adjust your school's Populi colors when users are viewing it in Dark Mode.

People have been asking for Dark Mode for some time now, and we're really pleased to get it out to our users.