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To those who don't know what dark mode is, it's basically using a black background, and for a paper it would mean that the background is black while the words are white. I noticed that most papers tend to be written with a white background and black words. I know one disadvantage of using dark mode would be that it would make it more expensive to print as the most of the printed paper would be covered in ink, but one advantage of using dark mode would be that it could reduce eyestrain on the people reading the paper as well as making it easier for a reader to go to sleep after reading the paper late at night.

So could I submit a paper in dark mode?

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    Why are you worried about this? Dark mode is not a property of a document but an individual viewing preference. Also, formal publication venues have strict formatting requirements that will almost certainly not allow it. If you really want to give this option and if allowed, you could upload the contents of your paper on a web page that has light text on dark background or that allows toggling between dark and light modes.
    – GoodDeeds
    Oct 4, 2021 at 4:38
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    Well I’ll say it first: If this isn’t a ASE-generated trolling question it’s a damn silly-but-fun one, bless you for that. I suggest proceeding in ‘dark mode’ in the near future with the proviso that you report back here in a year on your success. This is data the rest of us would benefit from! Best of luck!
    – A rural reader
    Oct 4, 2021 at 6:50
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    @Aruralreader OP has an active worldbuilding.se account, and apparently the imagination to go along with it…
    – Dan Romik
    Oct 4, 2021 at 18:53
  • If the publication is delivered as a .pdf, then check your pdf reader to get into dark mode instead of the document. As an example, zathura offers the switch by Ctrl + R. This leaves the user the liberty to choose if/when this is useful instead of imposing it and remains reversible.
    – Buttonwood
    Oct 6, 2021 at 20:41

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Dark mode is not set by the author, it is set by the reader. That makes the question kind of moot - you can use whatever floats your boat to prepare your paper, and the reader can use whatever floats their boat to read your paper.

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    Well put. This raises the interesting question of whether an author’s intentional choice to set their paper in dark mode can be easily undone by a reader by setting their own reader software to dark mode. In other words, does dark mode simply invert the colors or does it do something more sophisticated?
    – Dan Romik
    Oct 4, 2021 at 18:50
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    "Dark mode is set by the reader" -- not if you're reading the print version of an article :-)
    – Wolfgang Bangerth
    Oct 4, 2021 at 19:09

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